Simplify deployment of Microsoft 365 with new and updated deployment guides

As a Microsoft 365 admin, you need to deploy services for your users and your organization efficiently, comprehensively, and securely. Getting the most out of your investment has everything to do with how quickly you can configure, deploy, and get the right products to the right users. To help minimize time to deployment and free you up to do more, the Advanced deployment guides & assistance page in the Microsoft 365 admin center along with setup.microsoft.com deliver just that – a streamlined approach to Microsoft 365 deployment built on FastTrack best practices. Resources available on support.microsoft.com or learn.microsoft.com offer a wealth of information, training, certification and more. On the other hand, the Microsoft 365 admin center curates relevant guides specific to your tenant, offering you the most actionable information to help you get your Microsoft 365 apps and services deployed to your organization. Today we are announcing a series of improvements to the deployment guides to help you simplify deployment of Microsoft 365.

What’s new in the Microsoft 365 admin center Advanced deployment guides & assistance page?

To help you easily find guides for the services you’re deploying, we’ve updated the search tools, recommendations, and layouts for the Advanced deployment guides & assistance page in the Microsoft 365 admin center and at setup.microsoft.com. Additionally, to help you track key metrics over time, these new layouts include views that highlight guides for Secure Score (pictured below), as well as the Compliance Score and Adoption score (coming soon).

The Secure Score view on the advanced deployment guides & assistance page.As a Microsoft 365 admin, you'll likely need to communicate and share your deployment progress with relevant stakeholders. Rather than documenting and summarizing progress for each deployment process along the way, you can now save valuable time by exporting your progress in Excel and share your progress as needed.

Secondly, prioritization is key. With the breadth of services available in your Microsoft 365 subscription, it's important to prioritize and focus on the highest impact services first. In this update, you can now view the most important actions front and center in the Suggested guides section. In future updates, these suggestions will be tailored to your configuration and licenses.

Lastly, to help you stay informed on the latest information about advanced deployment guides, you can now use tags to notify you when a new or updated guide has been released since your last visit to the page.

The suggested guides view on the advanced deployment guides & assistance page.

New deployment guides on setup.microsoft.com

Setup.microsoft.com is the home for advanced deployment guides outside the Microsoft 365 admin center. Now, all the same guides in Microsoft 365 admin center are available on setup.microsoft.com, so admins who don’t have permissions for Microsoft 365 admin center can access the information they need. For admins of adjacent products, partners, or other stakeholders, setup.microsoft.com offers step-by-step deployment information. It serves as a useful learning and guidance resource accessible those who can’t directly sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center, or who only have permissions to access other admin centers. The site also helps anyone get informed about deployment as they discover and try Microsoft 365 services before making a purchase.

Key updates to this site include:  

• Expanded searchability to quickly find guides 
• Better page organization to help you navigate to the right view 
• Addition of all guides previously only available in the Microsoft 365 admin center (early 2023)

A side-by-side image demonstrating the updated design of the setup.microsoft.com website with new areas to find guides by product or scenario.

New advanced deployment guides available in both Microsoft 365 admin center and setup.microsoft.com

Recently we’ve released a new advanced deployment guide for setting up your Microsoft Zero Trust security model. Coming in the first quarter 2023, we’re planning the release of a new guide for Windows 365 Cloud PC configuration. Check out both locations for the new guides.

Microsoft 365 deployment guides give you tailored guidance and resources for planning and deploying your tenant, apps, and services. They explain how to set up products, enable security features, deploy collaboration tools, and provide scripts to speed up advanced deployments. We hope you will find these recent enhancements to make for a more user-friendly and navigable environment as you explore and use the Microsoft 365 advanced deployment guides.

Continue the conversation by joining us in the Microsoft 365 community! Want to share best practices or join community events? Become a member by "Joining" the Microsoft 365 community. For tips & tricks or to stay up to date on the latest news and announcements directly from the product teams, make sure to Follow or Subscribe to the Microsoft 365 Blog space!