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Office 365 includes Skype for Business, which lets you have instant messaging (IM), audio and video conversations, and Skype meetings. To download Skype for Business, sign in to Office 365, then at the top of the page, click Settings > Office 365 settings > Software > Skype for Business.
Microsoft renamed Lync to Skype for Business in April 2015, and it’s now been fully integrated into Office 365.
Skype for Business shares the look and feel of Skype, but it also adds some new features. The software offers easy access to IMs, video calls, voice calls, and online meetings, as well as the confidentiality of Lync through enterprise security, call encryption, and authentication.
You might already be using Skype for Business for all your business needs, but you could be missing out on some of the important features that this software has to offer.
Microsoft is phasing out Skype for Business & replacing it with Teams. Make sure you’re ready for the change. Learn all about Teams here.
What is Skype for Business?
Skype for Business is a robust replacement for Lync that lets you collaborate with 250 people at a time and helps you manage your employee accounts with enterprise-grade security. This pocket-friendly solution allows you to integrate all your office apps on the go and is available with the Office 365 suite of products. It costs $2/month/user.
Let’s take an in-depth look at some of the useful features of Skype for Business that make it an ideal tool for any business.
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12 Skype for Business Features
1) Conducts Meetings on the Go
Skype for Business lets you conduct audio, video, and web conferencing on the go. You can easily plan an online meeting well in advance, in addition to hosting one in real time. As many as 250 people can join a meeting with their individual devices. Other salient features are discussed below.
Schedule Meetings from Outlook
Skype for Business can be easily integrated with the Outlook plugin. This allows you to schedule your online meetings through Outlook with a single click. The presenter can choose a meeting topic and can also determine which participants can join the meeting. The details and information for a particular meeting or conference call are available on the Outlook template.
Schedule Meetings via the Web Scheduler
The web scheduler in Skype for Business helps you schedule a range of business meetings. In addition, it allows you to:
- Get an overview of upcoming meetings.
- View and adjust the details for a particular meeting.
- Delete an upcoming meeting.
- Send invitations to people to join a meeting.
- Join an upcoming meeting.
Single-Touch Join
This feature allows employees to join your meeting with a single click. If the meeting was scheduled well in advance, participants can join conveniently from their calendar meeting reminders.
Multi-Party HD Video
It lets you view up to 6 people simultaneously on your screen live in 1080p resolution.
Content Sharing
Skype for Business helps you take your meetings to the next level by allowing you to share your desktop screens, Excel sheets, and PowerPoint presentations.
2) Numerous Presenter Controls
Skype for Business provides various meeting controls, such as the ability to:
- Mute all or individual attendees
- Hide the names behind display pictures
- Block any person’s video
- Invite other people
- Customize permissions to allow presenters to act as participants
3) Customized Participant Views
Skype for Business offers an array of features to both the host and the attendees of a particular meeting. Participants can easily join a Skype for Business meeting from a phone via dial–in conferencing and choose what they want to view:
- Gallery View: lets you view other participants’ videos along with the meeting content
- Speaker View: lets you view the meeting content alongside the presenter’s video
- Presentation View: lets you view the meeting content
- Compact View: showcases the participant’s pictures as organized tiles
4) PowerPoint Presentations
Skype for Business helps you deliver PowerPoint presentations to more than one participant with high-resolution displays. You can also take advantage of other versatile PowerPoint features like embedded videos and slide transitions.
As the software uses standard JavaScript and HTML 5, you can also view presentations on a mobile device.
5) Conferencing Tools
In addition to all this, Skype for Business provides various web conferencing tools like a virtual whiteboard and annotations. The whiteboard allows you to arrange text, ink, drawings, and images on a blank canvas to deliver your message.
Participants can view annotations made on the whiteboard to gather more ideas, discuss the content, and brainstorm solutions.
6) Easy Broadcasting
The Skype Meeting Broadcast lets you broadcast content to over 10,000 attendees and is a perfect solution for conducting webinars. Though you can easily deliver content to large crowds over the internet, you can also reduce the number of attendees to however many employees you have in your organization.
Further, the tool allows you to post recorded video meetings to Office 365 Video. Anyone can join a broadcast using a device with a web browser and can either watch it live or afterward on Microsoft Azure.
You can host conversations between audience members via Yammer and can add external URLs to the broadcast to encourage viewers to take the next step.
7) Polling
Polling helps you enhance collaboration between the participants and the presenter by setting preferences for participants. It also helps you make decisions and take a final call regarding any topic by gathering responses in a group conversation. Additionally, the presenter can choose to either hide or show the poll results.
Thanks to this polling system, you can even gather your audience’s input while they watch a broadcast.
8) Recording and Playback
The presenters and organizers can record various aspects of a meeting, such as audio, video, IMs, handouts, sharing sessions, whiteboards, and more, and everything can be recorded on the go. You also have the option to choose your preferred resolution settings for the recording.
9) Meeting Lobby
The Meeting Lobby allows you to specify who may join and is a perfect solution for any meeting involving confidential and sensitive information.
10) Meeting Content Retention
Skype for Business users can upload a range of content for their business meetings in the form of Excel files, PowerPoint presentations, notes, and more. The retention period for a meeting’s content depends on the kind of meeting:
One-Time
Content can be retained for a period of 15 days from the day the last person left the meeting.
Recurring
These work just like one-time meetings, except the retention timer resets if any other user enters the meeting within the 15-day retention period.
Meet Now
Content is retained for a period of 8 hours.
11) No Mandatory Authentication
Authentication is not mandatory for Skype for Business attendees. If a user does not have an account with the hosting company but has received an invitation, they may join the meeting by signing in with a guest account.
12) Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) Conferencing
As an added alternative, anyone can join Skype meetings by phone with Microsoft’s PSTN conferencing solution, which is useful when there is no internet connection.
Local Dial-In Numbers
A Skype meeting invite contains the dial-in number by which one can easily join the meeting.
Easy Dial-In Conferencing
You can involve a person in your Skype meeting by simply dialing their phone number.
Meeting Roster and Controls
For greater control over a meeting, you can identify who recently joined via the internet or phone with the handy Skype for Business meeting roster. This also lets you check who the current speaker is or even mute a noisy attendee.
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Make the Switch
These are just a few of the Skype for Business features that you should use for better management and productivity. Considering that Skype for Business has so much more to offer, it’s highly recommended that you make the switch.
Are you an existing Skype for Business user? What are your thoughts? Do let us know in the comments below.
In this post, we will discuss how to enable Cloud PSTN Conferencing in Office365, assign to a user account and test. Total time required is 5-10 minutes.
What is Cloud PSTN Conferencing?
Cloud PSTN Conferencing is a feature in Office365 E5 offering the capability to join a Skype for Business meeting using a traditional dial-in telephone number as an alternative to using the Skype for Business client on a PC or smartphone. This will allow the meeting attendee to participate in the audio only portion of the meeting.
This can also be used independently of Skype for Business as a traditional conference bridge, a useful scenario when the full client experience is not desired or inaccessible.
What's Required?
To enable, you must have:
- An Office365 tenant
- A E5 subscription (either trial or purchased)
- At least one user account located in the tenant
- Assign the user the full Office365 Enterprise E5 license, or the Skype for Business PSTN Conferencing license.
How Do I Enable It?
1) Login to your Office 365 tenant as an administrator
2) From the left side of the Office365 Admin Center, expand Admin and click Skype for Business.
3) From the left side of the Skype for Business Admin Center click Dial-In Conferencing.
4) Click the Microsoft Bridge tab
5) The phone numbers in this list are all available conference bridge telephone numbers available to you.
6) Click the Dial-In Users tab.
7) Check the box next to a user you wish to assign a dial-in conferencing number to and click the pencil icon.
8) This will display the user's dial-in conferencing properties. From the Provider Name menu select Microsoft
9) Microsoft will be assigned as the dial in conferencing service provider for this user. From the Default Number menu select a default dial-in conference telephone number for this user. This number will be used on all meeting invitations sent by this user. Note the check box to allow unauthenticated callers to be the first people in a meeting. When finished click Save
10) Please allow a few moments for the changes to be saved. When complete, the following dialog box will display confirming the dial-in conferencing provider has been changed to Microsoft and the Conference ID and PIN that have been assigned to the user. Click Close
11) Next, let's run a test to see the new dial-in conferencing number. Launch Outlook as the user. A new email message has been sent by Office365 informing the user they have been enabled for Skype for Business Dial-In Conferencing and contains the telephone number to access conferences, their personal conference ID and their organizer/leader PIN.
12) Login to the Skype for Business desktop client on the PC as the same user that was enabled for Dial-In Conferencing. Within Outlook, click New Items then click Skype Meeting. This will create a new Meeting Request that is Skype enabled.
13) In the body of the Meeting Request contains the dial-in telephone number that was assigned to the user, along with the conference ID. This conference ID will be entered when dialing into the meeting using this telephone number.
Important: The conference ID will stay the same for each new meeting that is created.
14) Open the Skype for Business desktop client, and from the options menu (gear icon) select Meet Now:
15) Click the ellipsis icon (three dots) and select Meeting Entry Info
16) The dial-in telephone number will be displayed along with the Conference ID. This can be useful if needing to rely the information to a meeting you are currently joined to. (Alternatively clicking the Invite More People button will allow you to type a phone number, Skype for Business will automatically call that number and add the participant to the meeting - no need to enter a conference ID!)
That's it! Now, let's explore the administration of Cloud PSTN Conferencing in Office365:
1) Return to the Skype for Business Admin Center in the Office365 Admin Portal
2) Click on Dial In Conferencing on the left
3) Click the Microsoft Bridge Settings tab
4) From here, the following can be configured:
- Entry and Exit notifications can be enabled/disabled.
- Asking callers to record their name prior to joining the meeting.
- Configuring the PIN length.
- Send users to email when changes to their dial-in conferencing settings are modified.
There are also personal meeting options the user can configure, from within a new Skype Meeting within Outlook:
1) Click Meeting Options from the ribbon.
2) From the Permissions tab on the left, note the various items that can be configured by the user such as Lobby settings, who get's marked as a presenter and any features of the meeting to limit. These settings are only applied to this specific meeting, however, clicking Remember Settings will save these settings for each new future meeting.
Finally, it's important to note that if a new user is created in Office365 and assigned a Skype for Business PSTN Conferencing License, the user will automatically be enabled for dial-in conferencing, no configuration is required.
Cloud PSTN Conferencing is that easy! Who would have though conference bridges would be this easy in the cloud?
Enjoy!
--Matt