There are a number of resources available for finding Office 365 help including:
- The support section of the Office 365 admin center
- Microsoft’s Online Help website
- Microsoft’s Office 365 community website
- Office 365 Guided Walkthroughs
- Technet
- Online Videos such as Jump Start, Ignite, and Garage Series
- Microsoft Partners
Office 365 Admin Center
One of the first places to start is within the Office 365 admin center. You can access the admin center by logging into your Office 365 account at https://portal.microsoftonline.com. The initial page that loads will show you a dashboard of the overall health of Office 365 and your account:
Items with issues can be clicked on in order to retrieve more detailed information. Planned maintenance and any service requests you have open will also show on this dashboard.
Clicking on the support link on the left hand column will bring you to a page where you can search for help topics or put in a new service request. The new service request link will bring you to a page where you can fill out information about the issue you are experiencing. Submitting the request will result in a Microsoft representative reviewing your issue and calling/emailing you based on the contact info you provided. If you would rather call Microsoft, their phone number is 1-800-865-9408. They have billing support during business hours and technical support 24×7:
Microsoft’s Online Help Website
The online help website is a launching point for Office 365 help whether you are an end user or an Office 365 administrator. It also has a link to the Office 365 Community Website:
Microsoft’s Office 365 Community Website
The Office 365 community website is another great source of helpful information for Office 365. It consists of blogs, forums, wikis, troubleshooting, Facebook and twitter feeds:
Office 365 Guided Walkthroughs
In a previous blog, I talked about the benefits of troubleshooting with Office 365 Guided Walkthroughs. These are great because they ask you a series of questions about the problem you are having and provide relevant troubleshooting steps tailored to your responses:
Technet
Technet is well know to IT professionals. The Office 365 TechCenter on Technet is a great source of technical information. Everything from deployment, training, support, and of course technical documents are located here:
Online Videos:
The Office 365 Jump Start series on Technet is a good overview of Office 365 deployment and administration for IT pros:
The Office 365 guides on Ignite are another good series covering exploring Office 365, piloting, identity management, hybrid deployments, and migrations:
The Garage Series on the Office blogs site covers updates and news surrounding Office 365:
Microsoft Partners:
Perhaps the best resource is to consult with an experienced Microsoft Partner company such as TecFac. The Office 365 Marketplace is a great place to find Microsoft partners and to narrow down your search for specific specialties such as SharePoint development or Lync experts: