IS YOUR BUSINESS STILL USING SKYPE FOR BUSINESSÂ ONLINE? If so, your organisation could be at risk!Â
Microsoft announced that Skype for Business Online will be retiring on July 31, 2021. When Skype for Business Online retires, it will no longer be accessible and Microsoft will not be offering Extending Support Updated, or releases further security patches – increasing your vulnerability to security risks with every passing day.Â
Microsoft Teams has replaced Skype for Business Online as Microsoft’s professional online meeting solution. We have been encouraging Skype for Business Online customers to start using Teams and begin planning their upgrades prior to the retirement date.Â
If you are currently still a SfB Online customer – Don’t worry! MS Teams has all the features your users need to continue business continuity, Teams actually has more, and better features! It combines instant messaging, video conferencing, calling, and document collaboration into a single, integrated app – and enables exciting new ways of working.Â
See here for Skype for Business and Teams feature comparison:Â
| Features | Skype | Teams |
| Chat |  |  |
| Persistent individual and group chat   | ✓ | ✓ |
| Start a chat with individuals or groups | ✓ | ✓ |
| Transition from a chat to a call | ✓ | ✓ |
| Share a file in chat | ✓ | ✓ |
| Share a file with offline participants |  | ✓ |
| Emoji’s |  | ✓ |
| GIFs and memes |  | ✓ |
| Like and acknowledge chat messages |  | ✓ |
| Persistent conversations with threaded replies |  | ✓ |
| Praise individuals and teams |  | ✓ |
| Search for files, content, and people |  | ✓ |
| @ mention people and groups |  | ✓ |
| File Management |  |  |
| Co-author auto-saved and auto-versioned files with others |  | ✓ |
| OneDrive file access and management |  | ✓ |
| Group shared file access |  | ✓ |
| SharePoint Online file access and management |  | ✓ |
| Meetings |  |  |
| Schedule meetings in application | ✓ | ✓ |
| Schedule meetings from Outlook | ✓ | ✓ |
| Integrate with Outlook calendar | ✓ | ✓ |
| View and interact with calendar within application |  | ✓ |
| Share screen | ✓ | ✓ |
| Share video | ✓ | ✓ |
| Blur background on video |  | ✓ |
| Live captions |  | ✓ |
| In-meeting access to all chat features and files | ✓ | ✓ |
| Persistent chat before, during, and after the meeting |  | ✓ |
| @ mention people and like conversations |  | ✓ |
| Record and share meetings via Stream with auto-transcription |  | ✓ |
| Contacts |  |  |
| Create individual and group contacts | ✓ | ✓ |
| Calls |  |  |
| Make, forward, transfer calls | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mobile |  |  |
| Chat, call, share/edit files, and meet from your mobile device | ✓ | ✓ |
| Set Quiet Hours |  | ✓ |
| Presence and Location |  |  |
| Share Presence and Location | ✓ | ✓ |
| Notifications |  |  |
| Desktop, web, mobile audio and visual notifications  | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mute conversations |  | ✓ |
| Application and BOTs Automation |  |  |
| Extensible with Tabs and Channels |  | ✓ |
| BOTs (Who, Polly, T-Bot, etc) |  | ✓ |
For a more in-depth comparison and technical look at SfB vs Teams please read this article.Â
If you are surprised by this announcement or you are not prepared, don’t worry, We are ready to support you however we can as we work together to help you make this transition. Contact us today for a free consultation call!  Â
Here at ADM, we also offer FREE training on Microsoft applications, subjects include Microsoft Teams, Excel, Outlook, Word, and more! If you are still fairly new to Microsoft Teams, or wish to find out what more can Teams offers, please click here.Â
