Item: Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams
Rating: 6
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have installed Skype for Business as a follow on from our move to Office 365. Currently it is only in use in areas where sufficient bandwidth exists to handle voice calls and other collaboration features. Previously we used normal Skype, and have tried a few other IM/collaboration tools before.

Pros and Cons

Once we got over the initial federation setup with our regular business and support partners, linking to others outside of our organisation was relatively simple.
Handles conference calls pretty well - simple straight forward interface.
Integration into the rest of the Microsoft stack is pretty good.

This might have been due to our way of implementation but the lack of making external phone calls is a let down. Using normal Skype it was always possible to call any other Skype user - now we are limited to those in our organisation or those we are federated to.
Some of the other normal Skype features are missing - reminding you of birthdays for instance - good Skype feature but missing in Skype for Business as it was not part of the design bottom up.
The interface is good, but it has niggly features. It decided to assume I was presenting when I used two monitors. I had to go in and find a way to switch it off. I would have preferred if it asked me first.

Return on Investment

We have not yet dropped the cost of telephone calls, whether those are internally routed over our LAN, externally through a telco or over mobile lines. This has to be the potential ROI and so far this has not materialised.
We are certainly not seeing more collaboration. Phone calls, meetings or travel is still preferred.
A lot of the success of such a roll-out depends on your network infrastructure, across your organisation. If that is lacking, you will not have a successful project that meets the expected benefits.

Alternatives Considered

Jive Team Collaboration, Microsoft Yammer, Skype and IBM Sametime

Compared to other technologies we have seen in the past, Skype for Business is not too bad. The tight integration (with more likely to come) into the Microsoft stack is a bonus, but generally, this is right up there in terms of functionality. I hope that some of the great features from normal Skype can be migrated into the previous Lync product set which has only been rebadged at the moment.

Other Software Used

Revolution R Enterprise, Windows Azure, Jive Team Collaboration

Likelihood to Recommend

[It is well suited] in a closed organisation with a stable environment, where you are working with loads of others on Skype for Business and where you can easily federate to them. If you have a small company and you talk to different people all the time, you need open dialing access which might take some costly integration.

Are you ready for Skype for Business?

Overall Satisfaction with Skype for Business