Mailbox and forward on office 365

[AleisterCrowley]

I run* a stand-alone Office 365 (Business Premium) site for a special project with c 15 users. ...say it's secretproject.onmicrosoft.com
I need to set up mailboxes within to act as a central point for incoming mails, which would then be forwarded internal to 365, and also to addresses within the parent organisation
so we would have INVOICES@secretproject.onmicrosoft.com auto forwarding to joeblogs@secretproject.onmicrosoft.com and topbloke@bigcompany.com etc

The obvious way to do this is to set up a user account with above address and add rules to the email account to forward.
This would mean an additional fee of >£100 per mailbox
Is there a simpler /cheaper way to implement? Can I create an email address with forwarding without buying a whole user licence with redundant SharePoint/OneDrive access etc?
cheers
AC
*I say 'run', I've been lumbered with it and I'm fairly clueless re Office 365

[stewamax]

1. Go to Admin Center / Groups and define a distribution list. You can use any dummy name and email address prefix (your domain, though) for the list.
The still in Admin Center / Groups, select the list and add the individuals you want to forward the email to (joeblogs@secretproject.onmicrosoft.com, topbloke@bigcompany.com etc)

then:

2. Go to Admin Center / Groups / Shared mailboxes and define the shared mailbox (invoices@ secretproject.onmicrosoft.com). Then, still on the Shared Mailboxes screen, select the new mailbox.
On the screen that opens, select Email forwarding and input the distribution list email address.

I have used both of these (distribution lists and shared mail-box forwarding) individually and they should work together but - my caveat - I haven’t yet needed to do so.

You could also have a look at how O365 Groups work You can to some extent mix the two, with an incoming forwarded email shared by the Group. Groups are more for collaborative working, but can be useful if you have several people in the forwarded group and they need to interact rather than just receive copies of the incoming email,

[AleisterCrowley]

Thanks Stewamax, just about to try this now I'm back at work

[AleisterCrowley]

Hmm, doesn't seem to allow external emails in DL

[stewamax]

If (e.g.) your parent organisation is outside your O365 tenant account, you can add such 'external' contacts by:

- in the main black LH menu select Admin Centres, then Exchange
- in the LH menu select Recipients
- on the top menu select Contacts, then click the + symbol to add a new contact
- select New mail contact (not mail user). Note that you do need to specify an alias, but this is just any unique 'internal' name, a bit like a display name
You can manage the distribution list from here or from the main (black) menu

[AleisterCrowley]

Thanks - wrestling with the 365 beast now

[dspp]

I have done this using a MS Exchange online licence at £3/mth which was the most cost-effective way to get the shared mailbox functionality I needed (think "accounts@SMElandia.com") .

There were disadvantages just going through the mail-fwding route as that meant that it was not a properly 'shared' account. If you can live with fwds then that would be zero cost I think.

regards, dspp

[stewamax]

Yes - there are many ways to skin this particular cat.

One extreme - the one I described - uses the shared mailbox mechanism (which is no-cost if you already have at least one tenant licence for the domain you want to use) set up to forward to a distribution list that, in turn. comprises email accounts from the tenant and also external ones.

Another for users to share one real mailbox (a bit like using IMAP!)

Yet another is for licensed users to share a (free) shared mailbox but no forwarding.

Finally (well perhaps not finally - there will be more options) licensed users can be defined a part of a O365 group; this give much greater possibilities for proper collaboration. A group shares a mailbox, but if a Team is 'grafted' on to the group, additional collaboration facilities appear.

[AleisterCrowley]

Hmm sort of working ...a bit
I set up the distribution list first with the external email recipients and my address on 365 and in my parent organisation crowley @bigco.com
The distribution list itself has an email address along the lines of financecontacts @secretproj.onmicrosoft.com
I tried emailing this and got the message on 365 but not on my BigCo email
Soooo...that shortcut isnt....
Have now set up a shared mailbox "Invoices" with forward to financecontacts @secretproj.onmicrosoft.com and still no email outside of 365 (yes, I've checked my junk mailbox)

Now my head hurts

[dspp]

I can guarantuee my way works, but it does cost a bit of money.

More generally if you are paying for O365 / sharepoint / etc go into your admin control panel and log a service request. Msft are very good at hand holding these days. Basically, about 30-years late, they are now giving world+dog the service they used to only give in USA. A most welcome development.

regards, dspp

[AleisterCrowley]

I'm probably going to set it up the 'expensive' way with two new users being the two mailboxes required. We've got the licences anyway so real cost impact only occurs when we run out. Annoys me though

[stewamax]

Hmmm...
I have just set up a test shared mailbox forwarding to a test distribution list that has two members:
- an email address that is an O365 mailbox in the same tenant and domain
- an email address that is external
An email to the shared mailbox was forwarded successfully to both.

Note that when you define the distribution list, the Delivery Management option should be set to ‘Senders inside and outside my organization’ and not ‘only senders inside my organization’, but the latter only rejects mail from senders and not does not discriminate based on whether distribution list recipients are internal or external.

[AleisterCrowley]

I will have another go later, its bugging me

[stewamax]

Yip - the right approach: you pay good money to MSFT already! Squeeze Exchange Server for all its worth.

[AleisterCrowley]

Pah!!!

Two shared mailboxes set up: POs and INVOICES set up to forward to one distribution list called financecontacts with just my 365 and external email addresses

Sent test emails from external account to POs and invoices mailboxes with forward on.
Only got a forwarded message on my 365 account

BUT if I switch on automatic replies for both mailboxes I get a response to my 365 and external mail

More of my hair has fallen out.


Why is the DL working to send an automatic reply to, but not to forward to?

[AleisterCrowley]

Why is the DL working to send an automatic reply to, but not to forward to?
Ignore that (it was getting late) - obviously it's using the sender address not the DL for auto reply

[AleisterCrowley]

OK sitrep this am

Mail to POs and INVOICE mailboxes from external email address (parent company)
Forwards to 365 address ONLY

Mail to POs and INVOICE mailboxes from external email address (gmail)
Forwards to 365 address and external parent co email

Mail to POs and INVOICE mailboxes from internal O365 email address
Forwards to 365 address and external parent co email

Sooo, seem to be a problem with emails sent from my parent co address to 365 mailboxes, which is a pain as that's what I need

[stewamax]

I’m getting a bit confused now also!

Your OP said “I need to set up mailboxes within to act as a central point for incoming mails, which would then be forwarded internal to 365, and also to addresses within the parent organisation”

You then said that you have two shared mailboxes set up: POs and INVOICES set up to forward to one distribution list called financecontacts with just my 365 and external email addresses.

Your later comment said (inter alia): “Mail to POs and INVOICE mailboxes from internal O365 email address - forwards to 365 address and external parent co email”

If I read correctly, you are finding that:
- when you send from your own gmail account, the email is forwarded back to it to it and your O365 account
- if you send from the parent company (external) email account, the email is only forwarded to your own O365 account but not back to the parent company email account

If we confine the problem to one shared mailbox and one distribution list:
Sender A sends to the email address of a shared mailbox
This shared mailbox forwards all received mail to a distribution list
This distribution list has two members (recipient email addresses) B and C
Address B is an O365 address in the same tenant (probably with the same domain name as the shared mailbox)
Address C is an external (non-O365,or if O365 not the same tenant) address

Could you please summarise what combinations of A B and C do not work?

Tnx

[AleisterCrowley]

Sorry, it is all getting rather muddled.

Limiting to the INVOICES mailbox on 365, address is invoices@...
This has a DL containing me@parentco, and me@365 (ie same 365 as mailboxes)

If I send an email to invoices@... FROM 365 it works fine
If I send an email to invoices@... FROM me@gmail.com it works fine
If I send an email to invoices@... FROM me@parentco, then the forward is only to me@365, and NOT to me@parentco

[AleisterCrowley]

I...

If I read correctly, you are finding that:
- when you send from your own gmail account, the email is forwarded back to it to it and your O365 account no, the email is correctly forwarded to the O365 and parent accounts
- if you send from the parent company (external) email account, the email is only forwarded to your own O365 account but not back to the parent company email account correct

Tnx