This post has been republished via RSS; it originally appeared at: Microsoft Teams Events Blog articles.
The session started by noting that the cloud is ready, the only question is your organization? Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams have a long history and legacy behind them that indicates maturity you can trust.
It was emphasized that a lot has happened with Microsoft Teams in the last 2 years. This is perhaps an understatement. And especially in the phone system feature area, the addition of new functionality is almost hard to keep up with.
Skype for Business and Teams were contrasted: Skype for Business is mostly calling, chat and presence where Teams is a collaboration tool which enrich a powerful collaboration work space.
Teams collaboration in March 2017 was collaboration and now a single hub for communications and collaboration.
Teams with Microsoft Calling Plans or Direct Routing creates a full enterprise calling experience. Calling Plans have the benefit of rapid provisioning, number porting & enhanced 911 and local, long distance and international calling.
There are some ways to get to the cloud without calling plans:
- Skype for Business hybrid
- Cloud Connector Edition
- Direction Routing
All these methods allow you to bring your existing PSTN to the cloud.
Some of the capabilities coming to Voice & Calling in Q4 CY2018 which include:
- Call Park
- Group Call Pickup
- Location-Based Routing (Preview)
- Shared Line Appearance
- Calling for everyone – Voip
- Oracle SBC partner for DR
It was also noted that some features are left to third party add on vendors like contact center, attendant console, recording, etc. (And since I'm writing the article I will note that Landis Technologies provides attendant console & contact center for Microsoft Teams & Skype for Business ;)
You can use the live Office 365 Road Map to keep up to date on what is coming for Teams Calling functionality at https://products.office.com/en-us/business/office-365-roadmap?filters=microsoft%20teams
This session was packed and overflowing, indicating the high interest in organizations moving entirely to the cloud for communications.
Speaker:
Lasse Nordvik Wedø (Telenor Inpli)
@lawedo
Blogger:
Matt Landis, Landis Technologies llc
@matthewlandis