Skype for Business Online to Microsoft Teams transition plan

[lnjackson1]

Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams upgrade:

We recently announced that the roadmap for bringing Skype for Business Online features and functionality into Microsoft Teams is now complete. Teams is now ready to meet your customers’ messaging, meeting, and calling needs. This is a significant milestone for Microsoft together with our partners to upgrade Skype for Business Online with Microsoft Teams as the primary communications client in Office 365. This transition represents an opportunity for you to help your customers realize the benefits of intelligent communications.  

Upcoming Key Dates: 

• Starting Oct. 1^st, new Office 365 customers with 500 seats or less will be onboarded to Microsoft Teams and will not have access to Skype for Business Online. Tenants that are already using Skype for Business online will be able to continue doing so (including provisioning new users) until they complete their transition to Microsoft Teams.
• Microsoft has begun offering automatic upgrades from Skype for Business Online to Teams for Microsoft direct customers. Starting November 1^st, we will begin offering partner associated customers automatic upgrades from Skype for Business Online to Teams.  Tenant Administrators will be given advance notification via email and through the Office 365 Message Center.

Next steps:

1. Remove references to Skype for Business Online in marketing materials for your Office 365 and Microsoft 365 offers by Oct 1^st.
2. Review below partner and customer materials to help defining our strategy to support and upgrade customers from Skype for Business to Teams. Select pilot customers to begin testing your upgrade process.
3. Upgrade your own organization from Skype for Business to Teams and experience this exciting communication client yourselves.

 Additional Resources:  

Intelligent Communications partner portal

Partner announcement article

Skype for Business to Teams Partner FAQ

Skype for Business to Teams Helpdesk guide

Skype for Business to Teams Quick Start Guide

Teams Quick Start Guide

Skype to Teams Partner Training Webinar, and Partner Training deck

Office 365 Partners Yammer channel: Skype to Teams Partner Office Hours Q&A

Skype to Teams Partner Marketing Kit – Coming Oct 1

[Kristof]

Hi,

You say that "bringing Skype for Business Online features and functionality into Microsoft Teams is now complete. Teams is now ready to meet your customers’ messaging, meeting, and calling needs."

So, how excactly can a user make a point-to-point video call in Teams to someone outside of their organization? Something that is possible in SfB.

Thanks

[lnjackson1]

Hi - apologies for the delay. I am inquiring with the specifc expert on this matter. That person is currently at Microsoft Ignite. We will reply ASAP!

[BNyce · Accepted solution]

Hi Kristof,

You can start a conversation with an external user by beginning with a new chat (icon in the upper left of this first screenshot), and entering the user's full SIP address (such as bob@contoso.com). When you enter the information, click the "search <> externally option" as shown here:

From there, you can then initiate a video call by clicking the video button in the upper right (notice that this call is going to the external user's Skype for Business client, as that is the default experience):

Once you have completed your call, you can return to the Chat app in Teams, and pin the conversation, or add the contact to your favorite contacts:

This will allow for quick access back to that contact in the future, either from your Chat list, or from the Contacts tab:

In the future we will also light up the ability to add new external contacts directly into the Teams app (without having to start a new chat first as I showed above).

[arnesteinbach]

Hi

How can we tag a user for a status change in Teams?

kr

Arne

[BNyce]

This feature is not currently available in Teams.

[arnesteinbach]

And is this on the roadmap? When will this feature be available?

[davidanstee]

If a tenancy gets automatically upgraded to Teams, is there a way to revert back to Skype?

[lnjackson1]

@BNyce - do you know an answer to @davidanstee inquiry? 

[jmartinez]

Hi Bryan,

When you search for an external user: if the external organization has not been migrated to Teams, then you will found the Skype for Business' external users and not the Teams-related user.

What type of configuration is required to first search and contact the Teams-related user, before trying to contact the Skype-related user?

Regards,

Jorge

[lnjackson1]

@BNyce - not sure if you have the email notifications enabled and saw this inquiry from @jmartinez. 

[jpickerell]

@davidanstee Yes, you can revert a tenant back by putting in a support ticket in the Office 365 Admin Center. I've had two of my tenants recently converted to Teams only mode with no option of changing them back in the Teams Admin Center Co-Existence settings. A Skype for Business support representative got me switch back on the back-end, again alowing me to controll the Co-Existance settings through the admin center again.

[ReneDesrochers]

Hello,

As Microsoft is progressively retiring Skype for Business, what will become of the Communications Partner Competency:

https://partner.microsoft.com/en-ca/membership/communications-competency

Being a VoIP firm and with the high demand we're facing for adding voice features to Microsoft Teams, we're hoping that an announcement will soon be made as to the replacement of this competency.

Does Microsoft have a timeline to replace this competency?

Thanks !