Skype to TeamsSkype for Business Online will be retired on July 31.  Many of our clients have used Skype for Business Online as a critical communications tool and we’ve helped them with a successful transition to Microsoft Teams.  If you still have Skype for Business Online users, keep working your upgrade plan.  We’re in the home stretch of moving clients to Teams, however there are companies that may still be in island mode, which allows both Teams and Skype to operate simultaneously.  In this post, we’ve outlined what to expect with the retirement of Skype and service options available to support your Teams journey.

What to expect as Skype for Business Online retires?

Skype for Business Online will be fully functional through July 31 to allow customers time to transition users to Teams, or to an instance of Skype for Business Server. Here are some other details you should know about the Skype for Business Online service retirement:

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Microsoft-assisted upgrades to Teams

For the last two years, MessageOps has been helping clients with Skype to Teams upgrades with cloud-only or hybrid deployments. We’ve assisted with upgrades to help with last-mile technical steps of the transition to Teams, along with end user training to simplify transition of end user adoption. Clients tracking to complete their transitions to Teams Only prior to their scheduled automated upgrade date are encouraged to do so for better control over the timing of their upgrade experience.

The duration of each client’s upgrade vary by volume of users and characteristics of their deployment. During this time, users will still be able to access Skype for Business Online until July 31, 2021 when the service will be turned off. Once the upgrade has completed and users log out of Skype for Business Online, they will only be able to use Teams to initiate and receive messages and calls, as well as to schedule and host meetings.

When the assisted upgrade completes, the coexistence mode for upgraded users is set to Teams Only. Admins should review Teams Only mode considerations prior to upgrade. Learn more about Microsoft-assisted upgrades to Teams.

Teams Services by MessageOps

At MessageOps, we’ve migrated over seven million users to the Microsoft cloud and enabled more than 500,000 people onto Teams. Here are some helpful services to support you on your Teams journey:

  • Teams CIE (Customer Immersion Experience):If you are looking to learn more about “what’s possible” in Teams, a Teams CIE is valuable to both technical and business users looking to embrace the full potential of Teams. A half or full-day virtual CIE includes an interactive, hands on delivery/demo where clients engage with a variety of devices (tablet, PC, smartphone) to consume common work-related scenarios.
  • Teams Jumpstart: This service provides the essential training for administrators, with a walkthrough of the Teams admin portal and Teams training for power users.
  • Deployment, Training, Adoption and Change Management for Teams Corporate Rollout: This is designed around a proven success framework, inclusive of an end-to-end process that enables you to plan, coexist, prepare users and upgrade when your organization is ready. We provide a detailed checklist to ensure you’ve completed all of the key activities in preparation for your journey to Teams. Success doesn’t end when your deployment is complete. To realize the goals and business outcomes you established at the start of this project, your strategy should also include a plan to support the change moving forward and ensure it sticks.
  • Teams Phone System Readiness Assessment: Microsoft Teams Phone System is a full-featured Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) platform. It leverages the Teams application as a softphone client and adds all the capabilities you expect in an enterprise phone system, including direct-inward-dial (DID) numbers and outbound calling. Additionally, Microsoft Teams Phone System gives enterprise users the option of leveraging physical IP endpoints from manufacturers such as Poly, AudioCodes, Crestron, and Yealink.

Our Microsoft Teams Phone System Readiness Assessment can help you successfully integrate this powerful telephony solution into your existing environment. And if your organization is already invested in another voice platform, but you are still interested in taking advantage of the calling flexibility offered by Teams, Sirius can plan, design and implement a solution that integrates the best of Microsoft Teams with nearly all of the mainline enterprise telephony platforms.

Teams Tech Tips

View our library of Microsoft Teams news and tech tips to help you on your Teams journey.

Get Started with MessageOps for Teams

When you partner with MessageOps, you’ll have access to the award-winning Inscape platform to better manage your Microsoft 365 environment, along with technical experts to help support your business requirements including Teams. To get started, contact us here: https://messageops.com/get-started/

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