At the recent global Ignite event in Orlando, Florida, Microsoft made a slew of announcements. One Ignite news item that is important for many of our clients concerns Skype for Business and the Teams application, a component of Office 365. In brief, Teams will by and by replace Skype for Business. Skype for Business will be supported for some more years, including a new release of the on-premises Skype for Business server in 2018.
The two solutions already share many capabilities, but Teams will eventually incorporate all of the features of Skype for Business and surpass it. It already offers a portfolio of functionalities that enable a fully equipped software environment for productivity. If employee communications and collaborations are important to you, it’s worth your while to find out what Teams can help your organization accomplish and what Microsoft has in store for it.
Diverging roadmaps for Teams and Skype for Business
Like Skype for Business, Teams supports calls, meetings, and chat, and lets you share your screen and exchange files. It also serves as a hub for collaborations where you can share and edit files and manage conversations in one team workspace. Teams integrates with SharePoint, Planner, OneNote, Power BI, and email, and can easily connect with social media resources such as Hootsuite, Yammer, and Twitter. A growing arsenal of standardized, third-party integrations bridges Teams with project management and other software tools.
Skype for Business will remain viable for the near future, but you can expect R&D investments and continuing innovation to be aimed at Teams. Teams is built on the same technology core as the Skype consumer software, which will remain unaffected by the changes coming to Skype for Business. That more advanced technology can support such Teams capabilities as audio and video recording and playback or meeting transcription. Existing Skype for Business Online Phone System functionalities like call queues and auto-attendant are already planned for Teams. Audi0-conferencing is available in a preview version now.
A connected cloud productivity solution
Smaller and midsize companies are likely best served by Teams and other Office 365 applications on the Azure cloud, and an on-premises version will be available for large enterprises. Provisioning in the cloud is quick. Users can install a desktop or mobile Teams client within minutes. When businesses deploy Teams, it functions as the primary internal communications tool. Email becomes a vehicle for communicating with parties outside of the company network.
The Teams experience of companies we know is largely positive. They like the productivity of immediate communications and persistent chat, and the ease of searching through past interactions or locating files. The many integrations with other applications are a welcome asset. If you inspect the software more closely, you find security and compliance-enabling capabilities that already go beyond Skype for Business.
Start with a pilot project
If you use Skype for Business today, you don’t need to switch to Teams in a hurry. But this is the best time to give it a try. Teams and Skype for Business can coexist without conflicts on the same network, so you can compare them without complicating users’ lives.
If you find these changes intriguing, it may be time for a next step:
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When you’re ready to explore the Teams opportunity, we can help you plan a pilot, perform it with you, and assess the outcomes.
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We also combine our own methodology and services with Office 365 to assist you in elevating communications and collaborations to the next stage in your company’s digital transformation.
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Please send me a note at Dustin.Miller@sikich.com with any questions and requests.
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