It was in late 2017 that Microsoft said its plans to make Microsoft Teams its primary communications platform for businesses, by replacing Skype for Business over time.
But before that can happen, Microsoft had to make sure that Teams is packed with all existing features that Skype for Business users take advantage of. And in August 2018, the company announced that the process has been completed, and Teams is ready for business.
"We are pleased to announce we have completed our roadmap for bringing Skype for Business Online features and functionality into Teams," said Microsoft on its blog post, highlighting that messaging, meetings, callings and device-ecosystem enhancements has been available iin Teams "in recent weeks."
It was in the calling arena, where Microsoft had the most work to do in bringing Skype for Business Online features to Teams. With the roadmap completed, below is a list of what Microsoft offers in Teams:
- Boss and delegate support.
- Call queues.
- Auto-attendant.
- Consultative transfer.
- Do-not-disturb breakthrough.
- The ability to forward a call to a group.
- Out-of-office support.
- Direct Routing for bringing a user's own telephone service to Teams.
Microsoft said that there are "more than 200,000 organizations are using Teams, including nearly 70% of enterprise customers who use Skype for Business Online."
As of the announcement, Microsoft isn't forcing companies to use Teams instead of Skype for Business, but do encourage them to switch. With Teams ready for business, Microsoft is offering self-service guidance with best practices and resources to those who either want to use Skype for Business and Teams side-by-side, or to transition to Teams completely.
The company is also working to provide upgrade and migration tools in the Microsoft Teams & Skype for Business Admin Center, which should be available later on to all Office 365 customers.
There is also a plan to offer customers "Microsoft-driven automated upgrades to Teams" as an option for those organizations that don't have the IT resources available to manage things themselves.