On July 30^th Microsoft formally announced that Skype for Business Online was going to be retiring and a lot of our clients have been reaching out to us wondering how this will impact them.

“We aren’t ready for Microsoft Teams.”

“We don’t know what Teams is.”

“We use Skype, what do we do?”

We can help you answer those questions and concerns. Microsoft has shared that Skype for Business Online is going to be retired on July 31^st, 2021. Which gives you plenty of time to learn and implement Teams into your organization. However, after that date, the Skype for Business Online Service will be completely inaccessible.

As of September 1^st, of this year all new Office 365 customers are going to be directly using Teams for chat, meetings, and calls.

A disclaimer that we want to make sure you know is the Skype consumer brand, product, and Skype for Business Server on-premise will not be affected by these online changes.

Why are they doing this now?

They are doing this now because of how far Teams has matured. Back in 2007 when Microsoft first launched Teams, they called it the Hub of Teamwork for Microsoft Office 365. It really looks at how Teams is combining chat video and calling, as well as, the document collaboration piece into a single integrated app. It really focused on enabling a new way of working. Over the last two years, Microsoft’s worked with a lot of their customers to refine Teams and they have reached the point where instead of having two different products they want to consolidate everything down and make that transition.

If you want to hear more about what does it mean for your business? How should you prepare for the transition? I will be hosting Skype for Business to Teams Webinar where I will share all the details that you need to know and answer your questions.

You can register here: redlevelgroup.com/skype-for-business-to-teams-webinar/