Goodbye Skype For Business - Time To Migrate To Microsoft Teams!

SKYPE FOR BUSINESS - IS GOING AWAY
While Skype for Business is an active and available tool, Microsoft has already transitioned it to the End of Life program: set to conclude on April 1st, 2020.  Microsoft has put a strong emphasis on Microsoft Teams as the default communications app for Office 365.  In fact, to kick off 2019: they successfully migrated 180,000 internal employees and vendors from Skype for Business to Teams.

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WHAT IS MICROSOFT TEAMS?
Have you heard about Microsoft Teams?  If your answer is YES and/or you want to learn more, then you’ve come to the right place. Teams is Microsoft’s flagship collaboration product and one of the best options available on the market when it comes to working with peers.  

WHAT CAN MICROSOFT TEAMS DO FOR YOUR ORGANIZATION?

Microsoft Teams acts as a hub for teamwork that enables people to work together by combining text-based chat, voice/video meetings, calendars, file storage capabilities and 3rd party apps all in one. In order to get ahead of the crowd and prepare for the inevitable industry shift to Teams, you’ll want to mark it on your to-do list this year.  Here at Pivotal, we’re recommending that people jump straight in. In many ways, Microsoft Teams is the big brother to Skype for Business: both have instant messaging, virtual meetings and video conferencing, so what is all the hype about? 
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​Let's review Microsoft Team's top features:

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Instant messaging with persistent chat history

• Users can comb through records of previous conversations within individual, group and meeting chats in a single location. Stop searching through hundreds of emails to cherry pick the correct instant messages to create history by hand.

Enhanced meeting capabilities

• Set up virtual meetings with ease and functionality such as intelligent blur, cloud recording, file sharing, note-taking and meeting transcripts.  No need to open another application.

Channel Organization for Content

• Create channels for topics or work streams enabling collaboration toward a common goal.  Channels can be topic or theme based that require multi-member interaction and teamwork.

Third party apps and services

• Tap into the power and efficiency of third-party app and service integrations from within Microsoft Teams. Visit the Teams Apps page for a detailed list of existing apps.

IS THAT ALL THAT TEAMS CAN OFFER?
​​Not at all!  Microsoft is open to feedback and is very interested in what you have to say about its collaboration tool. Drop by the Microsoft Teams User Feedback forum to contribute to the cause.  Improvements to Teams are coming, in fact here are some updates to look forward to later this year:
 
Secure Private Channels Coming Soon!

• Channels are typically open to all members of a team.  The ability to limit channel access for team members will soon come to Teams, allowing admins to limit channel exposure without having to create another team to control visibility. 

Updates to Video Intelligent Blur

• Microsoft takes this functionality one step further by allowing users to choose a custom background to display on video conference calls. This will help limit potential distractions for colleagues when on a video call or meeting.

Microsoft Whiteboard comes to Teams

• Originally a separate app, Microsoft brings Whiteboard and Teams together to allow attendees to participate real-time on a board for a richer collaboration experience.

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​THAT'S GREAT, WHERE CAN I GET TEAMS?
​Sign up for free TODAY! Keep in mind, while Microsoft offers a free version of Teams that provides plenty of functionality for chat-based collaboration, you may want to consider purchasing a license for Teams. The licensed version of Teams offers additional capabilities in the categories of security, compliance, administration and support: which all play important roles in managing groups of users. Microsoft Teams should be your first choice for a chat-based collaboration product. 

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HOW CAN PIVOTAL HELP YOU?Pivotal Consulting offers detailed migration, adoption and governance strategies that work for organizations of any size. Our team of experts can help you migrate from Skype for Business and help you better understand the value proposition of Microsoft Teams and how it can work for you.  Contact Us to start your journey with Microsoft Teams today!

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