The Azure B2B Guest Access Service supports the invitation of external guests to access NHSmail M365 applications including SharePoint.

The external guest must be a member of an organisation whose domain has been added to the ‘allow list’ on the NHSmail platform. Guests may only be invited by NHSmail users who are configured as Eligible Guest Inviters by their LAs. Organisations and their external guests will be required to complete a Partnering Agreement along with NHS England. The Partnering agreement will be sent once an application has been made. As part of the application process, the external guest organisation must also conform to DSPT. Following the invitation and application process, the external guest will be able to access the SharePoint content using their own credentials. All guest accounts will have access to Azure AD / M365 for an initial period of 30 days. Following this, the guest user will be required to obtain approval from an NHSmail user to retain their access for another 180 days (this process is repeated every 180 days).

Further information is available in the B2B Guest Invite User guide.

The Azure B2B Guest Access Service supports Business-to-Business collaboration capabilities to external users that are members of allow listed domains.

B2B Guest Access external sharing is available via Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft OneDrive for Business, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Project Online, Microsoft Planner, Microsoft Visio, Microsoft Sway and Microsoft Forms. At present it is not available via any other M365 applications, although this may change in the future (LAs will be made aware of new functionality enhancements).

No, there are no current plans to create sub-tenants or allow organisations to use their own domains for the NHSmail M365 service.

The NHSmail Azure Active Directory co-exists seamlessly alongside local Active Directory services. There are no plans to federate on premise Active Directory services. For further information, visit the NHSmail synchronisation and Tansync guidance on the NHSmail support pages.

The NHSmail M365 service supports the use of mobile applications where available. Local organisations are responsible for mobile device management of users’ devices. The NHSmail M365 service is not responsible for deploying applications to devices.  If you use the Outlook mobile app, take these steps to set up your account.

Local organisations deploying Microsoft Office will need to work with the appropriate clinical application providers to ensure they are compatible with current versions of Microsoft Word, including Online versions.

NHSmail service health information including M365 is shown on the NHSmail service status page.

Yes, the Site Collection Administrator can quickly customise SharePoint sites so that it suits their needs and reflects style and brand. Requests to add additional templates can be made by emailing helpdesk@nhs.net.

Yes, LAs can enable these applications through user policy management on the NHSmail Portal.

Yes, access to the PowerBI Premium Admin Centre will be made available to the local organisation owning the licences.

A one-off setup task to configure the capacity on the NHSmail tenant will be undertaken by the NHSmail service team. After this is completed, administrative access will be provided to the local organisation.  This will require a service desk request.

Yes, this feature is available via the NHSmail portal. PowerBI free is a configurable toggle that can be enabled by Local Administrators through User Policies on the NHSmail Portal.

All first-party connectors (Microsoft created) can be integrated into your Team.

A selection of third-party connectors (created by external vendors) can be used – including Asana, Trello, Salesforce and Jira. A full list can be found in the Service Configuration Guide. Any third-party connectors that are not enabled by default, but required by a local organisation, can be requested via the NHS England National Service Customer Portal. 

Local organisations are responsible for the subscriptions associated to third-party tools and connectors.

Custom built Teams connectors cannot be used as the Teams feature, known as sideloading, is not currently enabled on the NHSmail M365 service for security reasons.

Yes, Teams Call Recording is enabled by default for all NHSmail users. LAs have the ability to turn this feature off for specific users. This is managed through user policies on the NHSmail Portal.

Yes,  please visit the Teams Dial-In guidance via the NHSmail Support Site for up-to-date details.

Yes, the NHSmail M365 service supports Single Sign-On (SSO) with third-party applications. The Single Sign-On guide is available on the NHSmail support site.  which provides a full outline of the types of applications that are supported and how to enable SSO.

Yes, Project Essential, Professional and Premium licence types can be onboarded onto the NHSmail M365 service.

Yes, Visio Plan 1 and Plan 2 licence types can be onboarded onto the NHSmail M365 service.

Local organisations are responsible for their network routing and express route provisions.

Yes, Local Administrators can manage licences/feature availability via user policies in the NHSmail portal. Visit the getting started guide for more information. For the guidance steps to onboard licences – please visit the onboarding guide for Local Administrators.

Yes, if the LA has the appropriate access rights.

Yes, the NHSmail Portal allows LAs to enable / disable access to different applications within their licence subscription for individuals and groups of users, through the use of user policies. Visit the guidance hybrid Local Administrator guide for further information.

Yes, the NHSmail Portal provides LAs with the ability to create team site collections and sub-sites. Sub-sites can be created using any of the pre-defined templates in SharePoint Online.

Organisations purchase their own licences from their Microsoft licence reseller. LAs must raise a service request with the NHSmail helpdesk who will transfer the licences to the NHSmail M365 service.

Once completed, the licences will become available within the NHSmail Portal and LAs can then allocate them to their users. Further information is available in the Onboarding Guide for LAs.

Local organisations are expected to complete initial triaging and troubleshooting of issues relating to NHSmail. As with the existing NHSmail service, local organisations can log support tickets relating to the NHSmail M365 service with the NHSmail helpdesk.

Local organisations with their own premier support contracts with Microsoft are advised to log support tickets directly and should tenant specific support be required to log this with the NHSmail helpdesk to progress a premier case.

Local organisations will be responsible for deployment of desktop applications in line with their standard deployment methods.

Exchange Data currently within NHSmail services is being migrated to Exchange Online which is UK based. More information on M365 data residency can be found on the Microsoft support pages.

Please visit the data retention and information management policies guide for M365 applications for further guidance.