Move your Outlook shared mailbox to owned tickets.
If your team answers support from a Microsoft 365 or Outlook shared mailbox, you do not need a risky migration to get real tickets. Forward your support address into Solves and start clean: every new message becomes an owned, assigned, timed ticket, with no bulk import and no change to your domain or mail routing.
Forwarding-first setup. No root MX change.
The short answer
Forward the mailbox, start clean, keep your archive
Moving an Outlook shared mailbox to a helpdesk does not have to mean a big-bang migration. With Solves you forward your support address, new mail arrives as owned tickets, and your existing Outlook history stays searchable in Microsoft 365 as an archive. That is the whole move: forwarding-first, start-clean, reversible.
A shared mailbox in Outlook works until it does not. Two people reply to the same message, an enquiry sits unread for a day because nobody owned it, and there is no record of who said what or how long it took. Solves turns the same incoming email into a ticket with an owner, a status, a priority and an SLA timer, without asking you to rebuild your mail setup.
The key word is forwarding-first. Your domain stays with Microsoft 365, your inbound routing is untouched, and you add a single forwarding rule on the shared mailbox. Because nothing is redirected at the domain level, you can run Solves and Outlook side by side, watch the queue fill cleanly, and only drop the old habit once you trust it.
What you get
What changes when you move off the shared mailbox
Every email becomes a ticket
Forwarded mail lands in Solves as an owned ticket with a status and priority, so nothing sits unread in a mailbox that belongs to everyone and no one.
Clear ownership
Assign each ticket to a person. No more two replies to the same customer, no more guessing who is handling what across an Outlook folder.
Saved replies
Turn your most common Outlook answers into saved replies, scoped to a brand or shared across the organisation, so consistent answers go out in seconds.
Private notes, kept private
Discuss a ticket internally with private notes that customers never see, instead of forwarding emails around and hoping nobody hits reply-all.
SLA timers
First-response and resolution timers with per-brand or organisation targets, so you can see what is due and what is breaching at a glance.
Replies as your brand
Sending is locked to your verified mailbox, so replies go out as your support address with the right signature, not from an agent's personal account.
How it works
From Outlook shared mailbox to owned tickets
Add your brand and support address
Create your brand in Solves and enter the support address your customers already use, the one currently landing in the Outlook shared mailbox.
Verify the mailbox
Run the plain-English mailbox checks so Solves can send as your brand. Live sending stays blocked until verification passes, which protects your deliverability and sender identity.
Forward from Outlook
Set a forwarding rule on the Microsoft 365 shared mailbox so new mail flows into Solves. No MX change, no domain move; your inbound routing stays exactly as it is.
Work the queue, retire the folder
New mail arrives as owned tickets. Run Solves alongside Outlook for a few days, then stop working the shared folder once the queue feels right.
Why start clean
Why forwarding-first beats a big historic import
It is tempting to want every old Outlook email lifted into a new helpdesk on day one. In practice, a bulk historic import is where migrations go wrong: threads break, dates drift, contacts duplicate, and you spend a week tidying a queue you have not even started using yet. Solves takes the calmer route. You start clean, and your Microsoft 365 mailbox remains your searchable archive for anything older.
Your Outlook history is not lost
Starting clean does not mean throwing anything away. Your existing conversations stay exactly where they are, in Microsoft 365, fully searchable in Outlook. When a customer references something from before the move, you look it up in your archive, the same place it has always lived. Solves owns the work from the forwarding rule onwards; Outlook keeps the back catalogue.
An honest word on importing
Guided import and migration tooling are on the Solves roadmap and being shaped in the pilot, but they are not a finished, click-once transfer of historic Outlook tickets today. We would rather say that plainly than dress up a half-built feature. The part that is shipped, tested and used by every team that moves onto Solves is forwarding-first mailbox setup, and that is what gets you to owned tickets this week.
Reversible while you decide
Because there is no MX change and nothing is deleted in Outlook, the move is low-stakes. Mail keeps arriving in Microsoft 365, the forwarding rule simply copies new messages into Solves, and you can pause it at any time. That means you can trial the queue, get the team comfortable, and commit only when owned tickets clearly beat a shared folder.
Honest comparison
Outlook shared mailbox vs Solves tickets
What a forwarding-first move actually changes, and what it deliberately leaves alone.
| Solves | Outlook shared mailbox | |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership of an enquiry | Assigned to a person, with a status | Shared folder, easy to double-handle or miss |
| Response and resolution timing | First-response and resolution SLA timers with a breaching view | No timers; you eyeball the folder |
| Internal discussion | Private notes customers never see | Forwarded emails and reply-all risk |
| Moving onto it | Forwarding-first, no MX change, start clean | Already there, but no tickets or ownership |
| Bulk historic import | Not a live one-click transfer; start clean | History stays searchable in Microsoft 365 |
Competitor facts last verified 13 June 2026. Re-check the vendor's current plans before deciding.
Solves is email-first: it turns your support email into owned tickets. It does not replace Microsoft 365 for general staff email, calendars or files, and it does not run live chat, phone or social channels.
No root MX change, ever, to move support email
Forwarding-first means your domain and inbound mail flow stay with Microsoft 365. You add a forwarding rule and verify your sending, so you can trial Solves with zero risk to the rest of your email. Turn the rule off and you are back to a plain shared mailbox.
FAQ
Moving from Outlook: common questions
How do I move an Outlook shared mailbox to a helpdesk?
Forward it. Keep your Microsoft 365 or Outlook shared mailbox where it is, add Solves as a brand with that support address, verify the mailbox, then set a forwarding rule so new mail lands in Solves as owned tickets. There is no root MX change and no risky cut-over: mail keeps arriving in Outlook until you are happy, and you switch over when the queue looks right.
Will my old Outlook emails come across?
No, and that is deliberate. Solves is forwarding-first and starts clean: new mail becomes tickets from the moment you forward, while your existing Outlook history stays searchable in Microsoft 365 as your archive. A bulk import of historic Outlook conversations is not part of the live product, so we do not pretend to lift years of mail across. Most teams find a clean start is faster and less error-prone than a messy migration.
Do I need to change my MX records or move my domain?
No. Forwarding-first setup means your domain and mail routing stay with Microsoft 365. You add a forwarding rule on the shared mailbox and verify your sending in Solves with plain-English DNS steps, so replies go out as your brand. Your inbound mail flow is untouched, which is why you can try Solves alongside Outlook before committing.
Can the rest of the team still see the mailbox in Outlook during the move?
Yes. Because nothing is deleted or redirected at the domain level, the shared mailbox keeps working in Outlook while you trial Solves. You can run both for a few days, compare how the queue feels, and only turn off the old Outlook habit once tickets, ownership and replies are flowing cleanly in Solves.
Is there a working importer for Outlook tickets yet?
Not yet. Guided import is on the roadmap and in pilot, but it is not a finished, one-click transfer today, so we will not claim it is. What is shipped and reliable is forwarding-first mailbox setup, which is how every team moves onto Solves right now. If you want a hand, we will walk you through forwarding and verification on a setup call.
Turn your Outlook support address into owned tickets
Start at £29 with forwarding-first setup, or let us walk you through it on a call.