Skype for Business

A busy week with lots of new things to discuss in the world of Office 365. The Outlook for iOS client has a new scheduling assistant, Microsoft launched Teams, its hoped-for Slack-killer, Quest returns to full life, and Skype for Business is going to improve voice calls.

Some interesting announcements during the last week informed us about Yammer getting better at compliance and a new Office 365 connector. I’m not so hot on the bots, though. In other news, MyAnalytics has an unexplained love for Internet Explorer and the topic of password trimming and the Office 365 maximum password length caused some confusion – at least for one administrator! And some news about an interesting Exchange 20th anniversary video and a VDI collaboration project between VMware and Microsoft for Skype for Business rounds out the week.

Ignite is two weeks gone, but there’s still lots of work to reveal all the sessions that I missed. The OneDrive roadmap was one such session, and it included some interesting figures for OneDrive usage. The Grand Exchange on-premises or cloud debate is also online and I also listened to how the dedicated team at Microsoft has lovingly assembled a profanity list for you to use. Finally, some reflections on transforming distribution groups to Office 365 Groups and what this means for mail contacts.

Yammer and Office 365 take two very different approaches to collaboration, but both exist inside Office 365. Although slow in coming, Microsoft has finally given details about how Yammer and Office 365 Groups will connect to each other. AAD is the glue and SharePoint, notebooks, plans, and calendars are the common functionality available to both types of groups.

For some customers that use Office 365 or Office 2013 and try to upgrade to Office 2016 apps, they may lose Skype for Business.

A new version of the Skype for Business for Mac Preview is now available, adding new contacts and presence, IM, peer-to-peer calling, group video calling, and conversation history capabilities.

Microsoft has now added Skype for Business to their suite of apps available for mobile app management through Microsoft Intune.

Skype for Business is Microsoft’s premier communication tool that can replace your PBX and messaging systems with one integrated tool that is packed with features.

The General Court of the European Union ruled Tuesday that Microsoft cannot register trademarks for the Skype name and logo. The reason? The name is too similar to that of British broadcast giant Sky, and its distinctive logo is too general. Yep, it’s déjà vu all over again. This is the second time Microsoft has…

Last November, Microsoft revealed that it would be rebranding the next generation of its Lync products and services to Skype for Business in order to align it with its popular consumer-oriented messaging solution. That change starts this week with the launch of a Skype for Business client preview, and it will continue in April and…