Skype for Business Server – Script – Check if migrated to Cloud Voicemail

There doesn’t appear to be any obvious way to check if you have been migrated from Exchange Online UM to Cloud Voicemail in O365, other than calling your Voicemail box and checking to see if the announcement is different. I have been through various settings in O365 Remote PowerShell for different customers and can’t find anything concrete (Sorry SfBo customers). SfB Server customers can use the Skype for Business Monitoring Reports to identify if users have been migrated. Calls diverted to Voicemail will show RTCC/7.0.0.0 LyncTeamsGateway/1.1.319.0 rather than RTCC/5.0.0.0 MSExchangeUM/15.20.2686.025. But that’s not very fun, so here is a script to do it for you: ...

6 February 2020 · 3 min · Chris Hayward

Microsoft Teams – A real world use for Islands Mode with a SfB Contact Centre?

Scenario: Customer wants to migrate to Teams, but they have a Contact Centre (CC) / Call Recording solution attached to their Skype for Business Server (SfBs) environment. They can’t migrate the CC to Teams yet as there isn’t a feature parity solution that works with Teams. They are happy with their current CC solution so plan to leave their CC users on SfBs and migrate everyone else to Teams Only mode. ...

24 January 2020 · 4 min · Chris Hayward

Microsoft Teams – Error – Due to an org policy change

Over the past few days I have started getting an error when replying to people in Microsoft Teams. “Due to an org policy change, you can enjoy a richer chat and calling experience. Continue your conversation here.” I’m not 100%, but I think I know why this is happening. In my organisation everyone is in “Islands” mode (ignoring my own advice here in Step 2 and 3): /2019/05/17/skype-for-business-server-to-microsoft-teams-in-10-steps/ I am one of a few users in Teams Only mode, i.e. I can no longer use SfB to initiate IMs and Calls. My SfB client is now only used to join SfB meetings. ...

16 December 2019 · 2 min · Chris Hayward

Teams/Skype Online – Unable to discover PowerShell endpoint URI

When connecting to Microsoft Teams or Skype Online ( https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/enterprise/powershell/manage-skype-for-business-online-with-office-365-powershell) you may experience the following error: Unable to discover PowerShell endpoint URI At C:\Program Files\Common Files\Skype for Business Online\Modules\SkypeOnlineConnector\SkypeOnlineConnectorStartup.psm1:114 char:9 + throw $resources.DiscoveringEndpointFail + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + CategoryInfo : OperationStopped: (Unable to disco...ll endpoint URI:String) [], RuntimeException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Unable to discover PowerShell endpoint URI This occurs when your Office 365 Admin Account is not an onmicrosoft.com account. To resolve you need to specify the -OverrideAdminDomain switch on New-CsOnlineSession and specify your default O365 onmicrosoft domain. E.g: ...

30 May 2019 · 1 min · Chris Hayward

Skype for Business On-Prem – One way Federation with Skype Online customers

Over the past month, I have had a few different SfB Server (On-Premises) customers report issues Federating with Skype Online (O365) customers. This includes customers who have SfB Hybrids and users homed online. The On-Premises customers have O365 tenants for other services and I always tell non-hybrid Skype On-Prem customers to ensure they don’t assign any Skype Online licenses to users. If they assign an E3 or E5 they should un-check the “Skype Online” license box and for many years, this has worked fine. ...

21 May 2019 · 2 min · Chris Hayward

Skype for Business Server to Microsoft Teams in 10 steps

A Teams upgrade can’t be approached like a Lync 2013 >Skype for Business 2015 upgrade. These upgrades are Technology driven, 99% of the work is done by IT. Your end users probably received an email saying “From tomorrow morning your Lync client will now look like Skype ” and that’s about as much involvement as they had. Your Teams upgrade needs to be business driven, it’s a new way of way of working. ...

17 May 2019 · 7 min · Chris Hayward

Teams and Skype for Business Interoperability feature Matrix

I get asked this quite frequently. What features are available between Teams and Skype for Business? First I must clarify that interop does not work in Islands mode. If you’re in SfB and Teams Islands, then you will experience quirky issues. You must be in one of the following modes: Teams Users = Teams Only Mode SfB Users = SfB Only, Collab Mode or Collab & Meetings Basically, if you’re in Islands today, before you move anyone to Teams Only, you need to move all users to one of the SfB Only modes, or face a broken interop model ...

28 April 2019 · 2 min · Chris Hayward

Microsoft Teams – Schedule a Skype for Business Meeting

Can you schedule a Skype for Business meeting if you’re in Teams Only mode? When a user moves to Teams Only, the “New Skype Meeting” button is removed from the Outlook Ribbon. Therefore the user can no longer schedule Skype for Business Meetings. I’ve been testing Teams Only for the past couple of months and out of interest I wondered whether I could still schedule a Skype for Business Meeting. Note, I can’t find any official guidance from Microsoft, so although this works today, I would imagine Microsoft could disable this at any point. When you’re in Teams Only mode, your meetings should be scheduled in Teams. ...

27 March 2019 · 2 min · Chris Hayward

Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business – Ignite – A roundup from Twitter

The biggest news from Microsoft Ignite is the announcement of Microsoft Teams replacing Skype for Business Online. This has sent the Community, Skype for Business service providers and Integrators around the globe into a bit of a rumour mill. So the key point is Teams will replace Skype for Business Online. Microsoft will be announcing a new version of Skype for Business Server 2019 (Formerly LCS, OCS & Lync) that we all know and love next year, however this will be for On-Prem customers (I.E. not in a Microsoft datacentre). You will be able to have a Skype for Business and Teams Hybrid deployment. ...

26 September 2017 · 5 min · Chris Hayward

Skype for Business – Why you should install Office 2016 CTR rather than traditional MSI

If you don’t have Office 365 or are not using the Office 2016 Click To Run (CTR) software on your end users computers they may be missing out on some great new features. The first great feature of the CTR version of Office 2016 is Consult and Transfer. Lync 2010, Lync 2013 and Skype for Business has desperately needed a Consult and Transfer button. In the past this was a complicated process for some users and I have had potential customers reject Lync and Skype for Business because the process wasn’t slick. I was always of the opinion you could drop a user an IM before transfering rather than making an actual call but some businesses insist they need this feature. Well, it’s here but you need to be running the Office 2016 CTR Skype for Business installed from the O365 portal. ...

28 July 2017 · 2 min · Chris Hayward