With Microsoft Teams moving in to become the core collaboration & communication client for Office 365, Skype for Business will officially retire on July 31^st, 2021.

Finally! Microsoft has officially announced the retirement of Skype for Business Online. After July 31^st, 2021 the service will no longer be accessible. If you’ve been putting off the decision to migrate to Microsoft Teams – now is the time to start your planning.  Here’s the update on the retirement plan and the next steps to take. 

There’s a major shift coming up for companies using Skype for Business, and whether they’re ready or not, Microsoft Teams will be taking over. There has been a lot of improvement since Teams first rolled out, and Microsoft announced they would be phasing out Skype. The roadmap for this integration is complete, and Teams is now the go-to solution for collaboration services. However, we know that with this big shift companies will inevitably have questions and concerns.  What is the future for Skype? Can the two tools coexist? What does this transition mean in terms of licensing? Not to fear—Interlink is here to guide you through the transition and answer any questions you may have. Here are some common questions and concerns that we’ve seen.

Are you currently using Skype for Business and skeptical about a move to Microsoft Teams? You aren’t alone. Ever since Teams was released, there has been a huge push for feature parity between the two technologies due to concern that Teams will lack the same capabilities.

Like most businesses, your environment is ever-changing, and keeping up with all the new and constantly updating software applications and devices can get quite cumbersome. It often detracts focus from larger, or more critical, business projects and agendas. These changes are happening so frequently that many businesses are investing some of their dollars in to communications. Whether it’s a chat solution, video conferencing system or some other files sharing application, you’re most likely in the same ball park. This is where many businesses fail to adequately determine actual business requirements and establish some level of governance and standardization, which often leads to IT having to manage multiple platforms or applications to support end users. I’m sure you don’t want to negatively impact your IT staff’s productivity either.  

The move to a cloud-based hosted PBX from a traditional on premises PBX is growing as more businesses recognize the value of having a phone system built on cloud technology rather than circuit switching. But if you are considering making the move, you still have important choices to make. Do you go with an in-house PBX system or instead opt for a hosted PBX solution? There are pros and cons to each so here are some things to consider as you work through your decision-making process.