What is Microsoft Teams and how it differs from Skype for Business

Skype for Business Users: Things to Know about Microsoft Teams for 2018

If you have made significant investments in – or are in the process of evaluating/deploying – Skype for Business, what is your path forward in terms of migrating to Microsoft Teams? Don’t panic. Your Skype for Business investment isn’t for naught, and your current tools will continue to work. While every client situation is different, general recommendation is as follows:

Continue using Skype For Business until Teams meets your business needs.
Microsoft is providing their customers with tools and guidance to manage the transition, which can be found here.

To that end, here is a list of commonly asked questions by our customers regarding Microsoft Teams, as it relates to Skype for Business Online and Office 365, to determine the best migration path forward.

What is Microsoft Teams?

Knowing that we work more and more in collaborative environments, Microsoft has created the Microsoft Teams environment to seamlessly integrate communication into a central hub for meetings, conversations, contacts and content. Teams connects seamlessly to SharePoint and OneNote, tools which many have access to, but few use skillfully. It is a robust, customizable collaboration hub that delivers intelligent communications, all in one location.

What does Teams offer that Skype for Business does not?

Any Skype user knows that chat conversations can easily derail, especially in groups. Teams offers persistent and searchable threaded chat and content that is easy to follow and reference. Skype for Business is part of Office 365, but Teams has integrated access to the entire Office 365 suite. We would summarize Teams as offering simple yet intelligent integrated communications.

Who is Teams best suited for?

If you’re an existing Skype for Business user or plan to implement it, Teams might be the perfect tool for you. Further investigation into Teams is definitely worthwhile to evaluate if the features meet your specific needs. If you’re an Office 365 customer who is currently not using Teams or Skype for Business as your enterprise communications platform, or if you’re an Office 365 customer looking to improve your ROI, you should look into Teams as soon as possible.

How does MICROSOFT Teams compare and compete with Cisco Spark?

Both are similar workspaces and great products. Each company’s situation and infrastructure impacts what we would recommend at an individual level. Based on the Microsoft Roadmap, we believe Teams will be a complete collaboration solution while optimizing existing Office 365 investment, making it a great choice for many clients.

Is MICROSOFT Teams secure?

Teams is built on the Office 365 hyper-scale, enterprise-grade cloud, delivering the advanced security and compliance capabilities customers expect. Teams is Tier C-compliant at launch. This includes the following standards: ISO 27001, ISO 27018, SSAE16 SOC 1 and SOC 2, HIPAA, and EU Model Clauses (EUMC).