July 31, 2021. That’s the retirement date for Skype for Business, when it’s users will need to find another a new way to collaborate. Microsoft recommends that Skype for Business users begin making the transition to Microsoft Teams in advance of the retirement date, if they haven’t already. Since Microsoft announced the retirement a little over a year ago, they’ve seen an increase in the use and adoption of Teams, up to 75 million daily users,  as “organizations have needed to find better ways to safely connect with their teams, customers, and partners”.

Teams offers significant benefits over Skype for Business, particularly in today’s remote worker environment.  These benefits impact user productivity and improve overall organizational efficiency.  A few of Teams' industry leading capabilities are its:

• Integration with other Office 365 apps.
•  Extensive chat capabilities including file sharing.
• Online meeting options such as Team meetings, Live Events, live streaming, and conference calls for mobile, desktop, and Skype Room Systems.
• Enterprise-grade security and compliance.

Whether your business is still using Skype for Business or has already implemented Teams, the time is now to streamline your migration process and enable your business to begin benefitting from the new features and capabilities of Teams.

 How can your company get a head start?  

If your enterprise doesn’t know where to begin in their migration or how they can leverage existing capabilities, a good place to start is Microsoft’s internal documentation and resources. Microsoft has a series of live interactive workshops that can help you plan your upgrade to Teams. The organization also has instructor led training for Teams, designed to aid all types of users, from the IT leader to key business decision makers.  

What if your organization needs more help ?

Your company may need a more tailored approach when migrating from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams. Microsoft’s rich partner ecosystem provides enterprises with a wide variety of solutions for various business challenges. As one of Mircosoft’s partners, Vitalyst has been recognized for our customer impact and industry leading solutions, specifically for the adoption of Teams. Our Adaptive Learning solution offers a comprehensive and powerful portfolio of end user and IT training services across all three phases of the product adoption lifecycle: change enablement, onboarding and activation, and continuous learning.  Whether your business is just getting started with its migration to Teams, or wants to increase usage of existing Teams features, Vitalyst equips your user community with the knowledge and skills necessary to leverage the full power of your workplace productivity tools. To learn more about why we won the 2020 US Modern Workplace Award for Teamwork, check out our press release, here.