Skype for Business is Being Replaced!
On 31st July 2021, Microsoft is shutting down Skype for Business Online. You won’t be able to use the app from this day onwards, but you’ll still have access to it until then. The Skype Consumer Service and Skype for Business Server won’t be affected. Microsoft has been onboarding new customers onto Microsoft Teams for meetings, chats and calls since September 2019. To help with the move, Microsoft has been addressing requests from current Skype customers and investing these into Teams, including:- Shorter Retention Periods. Lets users limit chat and channel retention periods to 1 day. When data is deleted from Teams, it will be removed from all storage locations.
- Teams and Skype Consumer Interlop. Allows people to chat and call between these apps.
- Contact Centre Integration and Compliance Recording. Microsoft is working with several partners to make compliance recording a feature in Teams.

What is Microsoft Teams, and Why Use it?
Microsoft Teams comes included with Office 365 subscriptions. It’s a cloud app for communication, collaboration and customisation. You can use it to make audio and video calls, send messages and access other Microsoft and third-party apps through its dashboard. Microsoft and Forrester have a report outlining the productivity benefits of Teams. The report was completed over a 3-year period and reveals business gains in these areas:Microsoft Teams Improves Business Communication
Teams is useable anywhere with an internet connection, which means:- More reliable and higher quality audio and video calls
- Less time spent addressing issues with these
- Time savings worth around £5.28 million
- Cost savings thanks to needing less hardware and software, of around £496,837.30
Microsoft Teams Improves Business Collaboration
Teams connects to lots of other Microsoft apps and can use them all through its dashboard. This is helping:- Information workers save up to 4 hours per week, with easier file sharing
- Frontline teams save up to 45 minutes per week, thanks to easier information sharing
- Decision-makers are improving their time-to-decision by 17.7%, as they can get to important materials faster
Microsoft Teams is Good for Business Customation
With Teams, you can also access non-Microsoft apps, such as Trello and SalesForce, with a few clicks. It’s good for:- Saving information workers up to 15 minutes per day and firstline workers up to 5 minutes per day, as they can get to apps quicker within the Dashboard
- Speaking to colleagues in other companies, as Teams lets you have a communication channel with them