Zoom – Initial Enterprise Account Setup

This article is the second in a series about how to get started with Zoom in an enterprise environment. This includes getting the initial account setup and verified for enterprise use.

Zoom as a service is structured so that users can get started with Zoom easily. This is to the chagrin of the enterprise IT overlords that want to control everything. As anyone by default can go ‘rogue’ and can start individual subscription or sign up a subgroup of users without any barriers to entry. The good news is that with Zoom, you can setup an enterprise account where you centrally manage all users and prevent this from happening moving forward. What is the technical barrier line in the sand for being an enterprise account? An account is considered an enterprise account with full features when you have 10 or more active user licenses on the account.

Please be aware that a User License is is the same between the Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Education accounts. This includes any trial licensing you get from your amazing account manager, which is always a minimum of 10. The only difference between the tiers advertised on zoom.us/pricing is the bundled Add-Ons that you get included when you scale up your user count. Again just like Office 365, you are technically buying a license bundle that includes add-ons when you buy in bulk. More on this in the next article in the series.

The way Zoom verifies that you are in fact the administrator of the enterprise account is just like with Office 365 or GSuite. Where you need to ‘claim’ your domains names in order to verify you are in fact the enterprise manager for your company. This claiming is of domains via done via DNS TXT records. Once you do this, you then have the ability to merge in all of your rogue users into the master enterprise account. Don’t forget to make sure you have the required user licenses before starting this process. By default any basic/non-paid account will be merged in automatically once you claim your domains. Merging any paid rogue users can happen in three ways:

1. Have your Zoom CSM merge the accounts into your master account for you.
2. Setup Single Sign On – The users will automatically be moved over to your master account once you turn on force users to sign in with SSO.
3. Email Invite – You can invite other paid users into your account. However they can choose to ignore your request.

After claiming your domains you need to apply for a Vanity URL subdomain from Zoom to be able to setup SSO, branding pages, and other enterprise features. Lastly there are a number of features which are not enabled by default in the account, but can only enabled by your account manager/CSM submitting a ticket to enable the ‘OP Flags’ you need on your account.

Step 1 – Sign Up for a Zoom Account and Get Initial Licensing

1. It’s simple. Sign Up for Zoom account via the Zoom website. Ideally this should be a service account email address, however you can sign up with any email address initially. The master account can easily be changed later in the account profile page.
2. Confirm your email address.
3. Upgrade your account to the enterprise account level. In technical terms, you need to have an account with a minimum of 10 licensed users. Note this used to be called ‘Pro’ users up until a few weeks ago. Until you are on that account level, you will not have the ability to complete the Enterprise SSO/Vanity URL Setup. The options are to work with the Zoom Sales team to start a relationship to get some trial licenses or throw down a credit card immediately if you need to get started asap.
4. Once your account has licensing, the Account Profile page will expand from very limited information to a page where you can configure the details.

Zoom Documentation:

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360037814012-Renamed-user-types-January-2020

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201363173-Account-Types

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/sections/201728993-Subscriptions

Step 2 – Setup and Verify Domain Names

Similar to most cloud services, you need to be able to prove that in fact you are an administrator of the domains you own. You do this by adding some public DNS Records to validate ownership.

1. Login as an administrator to the Zoom Portal
2. Navigate to Account Profile
3. Under Managed Domains Click Add
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4. The Add Managed Domains will pop up. Enter the domain names you want to control.
5. Click Add.
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6. You will now be able to verify each domain you added by clicking on Verify Domain.
7. You will be prompted to verify your domain. There are four options, however DNS verification is by far the quickest and easiest. Select Add TXT Record, and Click Next.
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8. You will be prompted to add at TXT DNS Record to your domain.
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9. Open a new tab in your browser and login to your dns provider (this example uses Hover) and add the record by copy pasting the text in as new txt record on your domain.
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10. Once added, click verify domain and it should validate within an hour (the time it takes for dns to typically replicate).
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11. Repeat for the rest of the domains you want to manage.

Once you have successfully verified the domains, all free accounts are automatically converted over to the master account. Any existing paid accounts will be moved over when you enable SSO or work with your Zoom Account Team. You can click on the “View Domain Users Summary” to see both account users, and the existing ‘rogue; users.

Zoom Documentation:

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/203395207-What-is-Managed-Domain-

Step 3 – Apply for the Vanity subdomain.zoom.us

The vanity URL Subdomain.zoom.us is used for two major features in Zoom: SSO and Branding. You need to pick a name that will be used for the long term as it will be almost impossible to change later. Please be aware that this domain will become the URL basis for all the meeting invites moving forward. If you see the company changing names in the future. I would recommend picking a vanity url that is generic if you can find something that works. Just be sure to talk to your account manager as it will require approvals. It typically takes a business day to process your Vanity URL request.

1. Login as an administrator to the Zoom Portal
2. Navigate to Account Profile
3. Under Vanity URL type in a subdomain you want to use and Click Submit.
   In my example I used ‘soaklabs’.
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Zoom Documentation:

https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/215062646-Guidelines-for-Vanity-URL-Requests

Step 4 – Request ‘OP Flag’ Backend Feature Enablement – OPTIONAL

Zoom has a number of ‘hidden’ features they can set on account level in the back end ‘OP System’. Some of these are restrictions to the service that can only be lifted with a large contract. So your milage will vary with getting approvals for these features. As of the beginning of 2020, if you want to the following features, please work with your account manger/file a support ticket to get enabled on on the back end (my unofficial list):

OP Flag	Description	SoakLabs Notes
Simultaneous Concurrent Desktop Logins	The ability to stay logged in on multiple computers at the same time with the same user account in the Zoom client.	This is now on by default for enterprise accounts, but needs to be processed manually.
Join Multiple Meetings Simultaneously on Desktop	The ability to join multiple meetings from the same zoom account at the same time or from different logged in with the same account computers.	Zoom will typically only enable this when you are enabling all users in your org for Zoom.
Disable Airplay in Zoom Rooms/Clients	For networks that don’t support Airplay, you can ask to have it disabled so it’s not an option.
Enable 1080p Video	1080P Glorious Video! Please be aware that 1080P requires up to 10-15 megabits of upload for the user who is sending video and content at the same time. Which is in line with sending two streams at Netflix Quality Standards.	Currently not supported by CRC but coming soon. And yes the video quality is that good.
Enable Phone Dial-In Contacts	Account owners and admins can create a list of phone dial-in contacts that can dial in to a Zoom meeting and have their name displayed in the participants list.
Enable Custom Live Streaming Watermark	A logo or custom image can be uploaded to your Zoom account to display when live streaming to Facebook, YouTube, Workplace by Facebook, or a custom streaming service.
Enable Language Interpretation in Meetings and Webinars	Users that would like to include interpreters in their meetings or webinars now have the ability to enable language interpretation.	A marquee feature of Zoomtopia 2019.
Enable Paypal Integration	The Zoom with PayPal integration allows you to charge a registration fee for your webinar through PayPal.
Zoom Rooms – Enable Reserve Other Rooms and View Floor Map	You can allow your users to reserve any available Zoom Room from a scheduling display using mapping features.
Enable Calendar of Public Meetings and Webinars	Zoom can enable an option that lets you schedule Zoom meetings on a public calendar associated with your vanity URL.
Export Account Settings	Account owners and admins can export account settings and group settings for review as a CSV file.
Zoom Phone – Enable Shared Global Directory	Account owners and admins can create a shared global directory by importing contacts using a CSV file. The shared global directory is accessible by phone users using the Zoom desktop client or mobile app.
Zoom Phone – Enable Contact Center Integration	Account owners and admins can integrate Zoom Phone with contact center solutions, allowing you to utilize the phone features of Zoom Phone while using a contact center solution to handle calls.

In the next article, we will be looking at understanding Zoom Licensing. It’s really not that hard once you get used to it.

-Kevin