WOW Microsoft Teams! I am truly impressed with the capabilities coming to Microsoft Teams now and in the future. This is a game changing all-encompassing communications and collaboration product. The vision for “Intelligent Communications” from Microsoft is what I have personally been waiting for a long time; a single place to manage all your communications and collaboration needs! Do not underestimate how important this product is for your business, and its ability to keep your business up to the pace of the fast moving digitization of ALL businesses across ALL sectors!
Try it today, you’ll be impressed, and as always I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments section below. There is a good list of FAQ’s here.
Summary of Coolness
- Skype for Business is transitioning to Microsoft Teams “over time”
- You chose when you are ready to make the move
- For those not ready to move to the cloud, on-premises Server will continue to build on its capabilities and integrations with the cloud. vNext targets for Q4 2018
- Skype for Business Online and Microsoft Teams will share a common backend, making the transition seamless. Both clients can be run in parallel so you can try Microsoft Teams now
- Dial-in Conferencing and Phone System capability coming to Microsoft Teams
- Cloud Connector Edition (CCE) to support Microsoft Teams allowing Phone System capability in Office 365 regions that don’t have Microsoft Calling Plans
- Longer term plan to allow ‘bring your own SIP trunk’ to Microsoft Teams, ultimately doing away with a full blown CCE device
- Ad-hoc and Scheduled meetings right within Microsoft Teams
- New shared Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams Admin Centre including call analytics
- Automatic Closed Captioning and searchable transcription of Online Meetings
- Voicemail with Transcription
- Collaborate and edit documents within Microsoft Teams while participating in contextual chat
Note that not all features are available now, but they are coming soon. Some are already in preview. The features I consider key around phone system features, calling and the ability to leverage on-premises Telco breakout are slated for Q2 2018.
More to come soon, but for now, here are some screen shots which paint the picture for the future of Intelligent Communications.
Screenshots
Below are a collection of screenshots care of Microsoft Ignite 2017.
Chat
Contacts
History
Voicemail
Document Sharing and Collaboration
Documents shared in-line with chat:
All documents shared within a Microsoft Teams Channel is aggregated in the Files tab, which is a front end to SharePoint which manages the documents in the back-end:
Documents can be edited in Teams, Office or Office Online:
Below we are editing a Word document directly in Microsoft Teams:
Online Meetings
Online Meetings with dial-in conferencing can be scheduled right within Outlook:
Ad-hoc Online Meetings can be created directly within the chat window:
Meetings can be scheduled directly in Microsoft Teams:
Desktop/Web client Online Meeting experience:
Mobile client Online Meeting experience:
Meetings are recorded and posted to the Microsoft Teams channel they were started or scheduled from. Users can playback the meeting with full context of what was going on in the Channel at the time; that may be IM, shared documents etc
Automatic Closed Caption powered by the cloud:
Automatic searchable transcription powered by the cloud:
View and join currently active meetings right from the Microsoft Teams Channel:
T-Bot
Automated help bot, T-Bot provides answers to commonly asked questions:
Security & Compliance
Call Analytics
Admin Centre
An all new admin center for Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business:
Choosing your Microsoft Teams upgrade status:
- Side by side – use both Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams
- Side by side with notify – use both; notify Skype for Business users to try Microsoft Teams
- Teams only – enforce Microsoft Teams only
Side by side with notification will prompt users to try Teams:
Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business integration allows users to live in both worlds. Microsoft Teams notifies you of users still using Skype for Business, highlighting that they wont be able to utilize any Microsoft Teams features:
Summary
This is all pretty cool if you ask me! Let me know what you think.
MS rushing to have alternative to Slack and Stride. Skype part is Beta (and look’s like its Skype, not S4B). With all these appealing features for IT workers, I think it’s hardly can find a place for the other people in a company (Sales, HR, Accounting, Admins). Integrator apps never lived up to the hype.
Correct, looks like calling features will be fully released Q2 2018. I hear what you are saying around IT Workers and to a degree agree. However, I do think the role of “IT” is being decentralized, and that all departments will have a role in this in the future and will need to get up to speed. I have seen Teams work across all departments in forward thinking companies, and all companies will need to get here at some point to survive. A flexible communication and collaboration platform is a must in my opinion.
Great stuff, nice write up! Thanks!
Thanks appreciate it 🙂
nice and concise writeup – time will tell how well the prescribed features manifest themselves and how well the uptake is by the wider community.
Thanks for the feedback. On paper there is some very exciting stuff, lets hope they deliver well 🙂
Seems like Skype for business is is designed for Adhoc chatting/conferencing when participants come together for a topic not a defined team. Going forward in Teams in seems like commnucatuons are boxed within a team? Maybe I am missing something?
That chat tab is designed for non-team discussions. There is also a calls tab coming in a future release. So they are bringing some of that functionality over from the SfB client, and I am sure it will get better and better. One thing the MS Teams guys are good at is listening to feedback, so I’d recommend posting any suggestions here – https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public