Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams is a great collaboration tool!
June 13, 2024

Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams is a great collaboration tool!

Austin Lin | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams

Our team currently works remotely with no physical office. In order to collaborate effectively we needed a solution that allows us to meet virtually and share information (files, documents) in real-time. Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams provides this solution perfectly...especially because we were already using Microsoft Office/Microsoft 365 tools.

Pros

  • Planned and impromptu virtual meetings that require sharing of "visual" information with other team members. Check in and project meetings using Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams are easy to schedule and execute.
  • Interactive collaboration and communication with remote team members. When you need to interact collaboratively with one or more person, Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams is arguably just as good as meeting in person...whether you use Video and Audio or just Audio. Also integrated chat which can be both active and passive works great. Modern communication for the modern world.
  • Integration with Microsoft 365 documentation related tools. It is easy to organize, manage, and share documents from the Microsoft suite of tools such as PPTs, XLSs, DOCs, etc.
  • Integration with Outlook (which is technically part of MS 365) is excellent. Email is not dead just yet so having a tool like Microsoft Teams that makes email even more useful and productive is great. Scheduling and managing meetings and activities and email threads are easy with Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams.

Cons

  • There is something about Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams' overall layout that seems kind of clunky/old school...like it could use a UI makeover
  • This might be a non-issue moving forward, but the integration process from Legacy to Go Forward applications was a bit painful and disjointed. Normally, there is one go forward tool and you migrate to it from the legacy tool and then that go forward tool just releases new updates vs going from Skype for Business to Teams (Classic) to Teams (New).
  • The control bars sometimes seem to have issues. For example, the share control bar/button seems to get in the way of the browser tabs when sharing so you have to minimize or resize the whole browser page and move it away from the Share button to be able to get to the browser tab that the Share button covers. And then the small floating control bar to see who is talking and houses the quick access mute control button sometimes disappears (or gets buried) from the top shared screen and is hard to get back to easily get on and off mute.
  • Increased efficiency
  • Increased collaboration
  • Increased productivity
Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams is just better for us since we were already a Microsoft productivity suite (Office) user. No additional cost when we went from traditional product license model to SaaS. Continuous integration and upgrades with MS 365 make it even easier to use and therefore stickier.

Do you think Skype for Business / Lync (discontinued) delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Skype for Business / Lync (discontinued)'s feature set?

Yes

Did Skype for Business / Lync (discontinued) live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Skype for Business / Lync (discontinued) go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Skype for Business / Lync (discontinued) again?

Yes

Skype for Business, now part of Microsoft Teams is a remote/virtual team collaboration tool must have...especially if you already use Microsoft tools. Of course, since it now part of an MS 365 subscription, it really doesn't make sense to use anything else. It is easy to use and just works. I'm not sure how anyone who works with digital files/documents and needs to work with other people doing similar work can be effective without such a tool. Of course, there are a number of alternatives like Zoom or Webex, but why pay or use another separate tool if you don't need to. :-)

Skype for Business / Lync (discontinued) Feature Ratings

10.0
High quality audio
10
High quality video
10
Low bandwidth requirements
Not Rated
Mobile support
10
10.0
Desktop sharing
10
Whiteboards
Not Rated
10.0
Calendar integration
10
Meeting initiation
10
Integrates with social media
Not Rated
Record meetings / events
10
Slideshows
10
10.0
Live chat
10
Audience polling
10
Q&A
10
10.0
User authentication
10
Participant roles & permissions
10
Confidential attendee list
Not Rated
Not Rated
Video conferencing
Not Rated
Audio conferencing
Not Rated
Video screen sharing
Not Rated
Instant messaging
Not Rated
10.0
Virtual Backgrounds
Not Rated
Chat Messaging
10
Meeting Recording
10
Meeting Scheduling
10
Participant Management
10
Web Conference File Sharing
10
Polls and Surveys
10

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