Item: Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams
Rating: 4
Author: Chris Lesner

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it to have meetings with people outside of our company via phone, screen-share and video. The goal is to make it feel like everyone is in the same room and be able to work remotely from one another with much more ease than if we did not have it.

Pros and Cons

Easy to use screenshare capabilities.
The clarity in sound when on the phone.
Allows for a nice chat function.

Complicated for external users.
Need to download software to use the screen-share technology.
Seem to need to redownload fairly often.

Return on Investment

From a negative standpoint, we have people all the time complain about having to download the software.
From a positive standpoint, we can see all the meetings among our team with ease in one calendar.
It makes booking with our internal team members much easier.

Alternatives Considered

UberConference, Zoom and Join.me

Skype is a solid product, but in comparison to the other tools on the market (mainly the 3 we have used being UberConference, Zoom, and Join.e), it is significantly overpriced. The power of Skype for Business is extreme, however, they are all great at this point and it has no specific qualities (other than calendar integration) that the others do not also provide.

Support Rating

Microsoft Customer support is terrible all around. We have tried to get ahold of them constantly and get in the loops of customer service where no one knows what to do and no individuals are able to help us ever. The online forums are fine, but also throw you in a custom service loop as well.

Key Insights

Do you think Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams delivers good value for the price?

Are you happy with Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams's feature set?

Yes

Did Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams go as expected?

Would you buy Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams again?

Other Software Used

UberConference, Zoom, Join.me

Likelihood to Recommend

If you have meetings that need to bring a lot of people into a conversation via phone or video, it would make sense to use Skype for Business. If you are already a Microsoft user for your email/calendar, the integrations with the calendar are extremely helpful, as every meeting has a default way for people to connect.

Skype for Business is a bit overrated

Overall Satisfaction with Skype for Business (formerly Lync)