Skype for Business & Teams — what do we do now?

At Microsoft Ignite (back in July 2017) I attended a session titled “Is Cloud Voice Right for You?” (on-demand session here). The session explored the different deployment options for Microsoft enterprise voice and provided insights on what deployment type fits each client best. The below feature matrix was shared during the session to summarize the varying levels of cloud voice functionality that will be available across the four deployment options: Skype for Business Server, Skype for Business Online, Teams (in Q4) and Teams Next (which was described in the session as the intended future state of Teams…similar to the road map first shared for Cloud PBX as part of Skype for Business Online a few years back).

Here’s my take:

• Skype for Business Server (delivered on premise, via partner dedicated/private cloud or hybrid with Skype for Business Online) is the most full featured solution for enterprise voice today and will be continue to be for many years to come.
• Skype for Business Online (delivered in the Microsoft cloud) is a solid solution for standard conferencing and voice services which will be slowly sunset in favor of Teams cloud voice services in the next 12–18 months.
• Teams (Q4 2017) will have similar features to Skype for Business Online. The primary focus is achieving online meeting parity with Skype for Business Online. Voice services will follow.
• Teams Next was introduced as “the future vision” for an all-encompassing cloud communication and collaboration solution with advanced calling features and (supposed) feature parity with Skype for Business Server. There were no timelines shared and this is definitely a future state concept at this point. Whether it’s 3, 5, 7, or 10 years before Microsoft gets there, it will probably happen at some point. Which is awesome!

What to do next?

If you are looking to embrace the cloud and drive greater realization of your O365 investment, I recommend focusing on your environment, people, willingness to change and requirements. Once you define these components, you can then evaluate whether Skype for Business Server, Skype for Business Online and/or Teams is the right platform to align with your cloud voice transformation.

Not sure where to get started?

It’s important to navigate complexity and mitigate risk along the cloud voice transformation journey. Arkadin has worked closely with Microsoft to develop an strategy and vision workshop that helps clients evaluate their environment/technology/people/change disposition and requirements to ensure the right technology and the right deployment approach is selected. Feedback from clients that have completed this technology/partner agnostic workshop have been blown away by the insights and actionable data delivered as an output of this workshop so far. It’s time to embrace the cloud and Arkadin is standing by to help.