Microsoft Office 365’s key advantage is its ability to evolve. Its cloud-based architecture makes it easy to quickly roll out updates to its large user base, regardless of whether they are security patches or major overhauls to core apps. Sometimes, new applications are added to the group.
Office 365 offers new options for collaboration
This was the case when Microsoft’s new Teams app was announced in late 2016. Richly-featured chat apps have been a major focus of enterprise tech and consumer tech over the past few years. Software like Google Hangouts and Apple iMessage, Facebook Messenger, and especially Slack, and Atlassian HipChat are now the most popular apps for collaboration. Bloomberg reports that Slack has been the subject of many acquisition rumors. According to Bloomberg, it may be worth at least $5 billion based on its most recent round. Teams, part of Office 365 was created to respond to the popularity and use of Slack. It would ideally capture some users by being directly integrated into one of the most popular office suites in the world. What does Teams do? And how does it fit in with the other collaboration tools that Microsoft offers? Skype for Business, Microsoft’s retooled successor of Lync, already offers similar functionality. Let’s see which one is best for what use cases.
Understanding Microsoft Teams
Teams’ main selling point is its integration with other Microsoft services. All of these services are easily accessible from Teams workspaces.
Skype for Business is available to users. OneNote and SharePoint are also available to them. It can place legal holds on individual files, chats, and channels. The “channels” setup is very similar to Slack with segmentation by work group. To protect data from prying eyes, it is encrypted at rest and in transit. Multi-factor authentication is also available. An attacker can now access an Office 365 account with a set of stolen login credentials. Teams is a cross-platform app that can be used on both mobile and desktop devices with Microsoft and non-Microsoft OSes. It is a great choice for any organization using Microsoft’s productivity suite. It has a lot to gain over Slack and Google G Suite, however.
Skype for Business: What you can do
Skype for Business combines two very old brands – Lync and Skype – into one platform. Teams is a new addition in Office 365. Skype for Business, which is billed as a way to collaborate on any device with anyone, is the result years of development within the Microsoft stack that started with instant messaging with Exchange Server 2000. Skype for Business and Teams share a lot of similarities. Skype for Business and Teams have significant overlap in their features for advanced chat, app integration, and telephony. Teams is the only one that supports threaded chat. It is also more integrated with Planner and OneNote. Skype for Business can use the public switched telephone network and meeting room systems. Skype for Business has many advanced features that are part of theOffice365 Enterprise E5, including:
Broadcasting meetings over the internet to up to 10,000 participants.Integration with Yammer for real-time dialogue during a broadcast.PSTN conferencing so that a meeting can be joined from a local dial-in number.Alternatively, use cloud private branch exchange to seamlessly transfer calls between devices without using a standard phone system.It should also be noted that the E5 offerings includes chat-based workspaces enabled via Teams. Skype for Business and Teams are marketed separately as part of the larger Office 365 suite.
“There is a lot of overlap between Skype for Business and Teams.”
It is possible that Skype for Business may fade into the background and become an important but seldom noticed component of Office 365. This is similar to what happened with Exchange and SharePoint which can both be accessed via Outlook. Because of its support for legacy telephone systems and the many integrations, it would be essential. Teams would be the preferred collaboration interface for end-users.
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