Software development start-up: Signing into Microsoft services

We are a start-up software company with around 15 developers. We are almost entirely using Microsoft's technology stack.

A problem that we have at this point is the confusion between signing into Microsoft's online services.

Each developer has two accounts: an Office 365 account and a Windows Live account. The Live account is created from the Office 365 account's email address. So, essentially, we have one email address but two accounts (and thus two passwords).

When logging into an online service, we are often greeted with the following:

For many, this becomes a hit and miss with their various passwords until access is granted. From what I understand:

• Work or school account: An Office 365 account OR an account set up in Active Directory?
• Microsoft account: A Windows Live account?

Next, can Azure Active Directory help us in any way here?

Are we able to somehow unify our accounts so to have a "single sign-in" for Microsoft's online services?

EDIT:

Further comments on Dushyant Gill answer below.

If we don't need to register our Office365 accounts as Live accounts, then how would I typically add a user to the Azure Active Directory?

When creating a new user, I only have three options:

I guess the last option would be the correct approach if we wanted to move away from Live accounts. I want to add a user to my Azure AD from my Office365 AD?

When I try to do this, I get the following error:

Do I have to link the directories somehow?

davenewza, yes you can take action to improve the experience here (it won't be simple - but given the number of users in you company - it shouldn't be that difficult)

First, your company already has an Azure Active Directory - it is the directory behind your Office 365 subscription. Azure AD authenticates your company's users when they sign in to Office 365 services.

Second, you should use your Azure AD accounts (work or school account) to signup and access other Microsoft services that are meant for businesses: Microsoft Azure, Visual Studio Online, Microsoft Dynamics etc. The disambiguation screen that you see (pasted in your question) only shows up when you're signing in to a service that supports both Azure AD as well as Live accounts. So, move your Azure and other business services subscriptions to use Azure AD accounts and as a thumb rule - your companies users will always select the 'work or school account' option (if ever they see that screen).

Finally, let's get rid of that screen altogether: do you really need the live accounts to run your business? (what Microsoft services are you using that need live accounts?) If none, great - once you've moved your subscriptions to Azure AD accounts - get rid of the live accounts. If you indeed need them - change their emails (add an _live suffix to them) - you as it is have two password - different user names will reduce confusion.

Note that the second step will require you to call Microsoft support (or file online tickets) to move subscriptions for some services - however the risk of downtime is low because you already have Azure AD accounts - you might need to reconfigure permissions once the subscriptions are migrated.

I am with the Azure AD team - get in touch with me if you're stuck - contact me on http://www.dushyantgill.com

Best of luck.

ps: we are working to improve this experience - such that folks like you don't end up in this position in the first place. Stay tuned.