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Brief Overview of Microsoft Teams and Skype

What is Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a trusted chat-based communication and collaboration platform that brings together all the stakeholders and employees under one roof. It makes conversations, meetings, file sharing, and many other workplace activities more efficient.

It has built-in access to SharePoint, OneNote, OneDrive for Business, and other Office 365 apps. It allows the creation, sharing, and editing of documents within the app. It enables users to schedule and join meetings and conferences. Additionally, users can access it through desktop, laptop, browser, and mobile devices.

What is Skype

Skype was once the leading audio, video, and text communication app freely available to use across all devices and multiple platforms. Skype is an excellent platform to keep in touch with friends, families, and remote working colleagues.

Skype is a signature product of Microsoft with versatile capabilities that can be extended with a paid version. Small businesses relied on Skype for chat, make audio and video calls, share documents, and send links.

Microsoft Teams Replaces Skype

Microsoft has made it mandatory for all Skype for Business users to start migrating to Teams and begin planning their upgrades in a manner to get ample time for an upgrade before Skype breaths its last. If you need any help in upgrading to Microsoft Teams from Skype, EPC Group will always be there for your assistance.

Microsoft Teams Vs Zoom – Feature Comparison

Find out What’s best for you!

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Microsoft Teams

Skype

Pricing

 

 

 

 Offers a free version with video calls, 2GB personal cloud storage, and unlimited chat

 

 Offers a free version for personal and commercial use

 

 Pricing Options Pricing Options

 

 Microsoft 365 Business Basic – $5.00 per user per month Business Essential: $2.50/user/month (annually)
Microsoft 365 Business Standard – $12.50 per user per month Business: $8.25/user/month (annually).
Microsoft 365 Business Premium – $20.00 per user per month Business Premium: $10/user/month (annually).

Features

    
Audio and Video Calls Microsoft Teams tends to be more tolerant of networks that struggle to provide sufficient bandwidth. As long as there are 1.2Mbps available, you can enjoy a smooth, high-quality audio/video experience without having to worry about frequent freezing and stuttering. You can easily schedule a meeting through Outlook or host an ad-hoc meeting with your team and external participants who do not have a Microsoft Teams account. Skype for Business also offers video conferencing calls that can support up to 250 people.
Chat and Messaging Users can sign in to Microsoft Teams, access every private or group chat, and view the entire history. All conversations are available unless individually deleted, regardless of when you left or were added to the chat. You can add multiple contacts in a single group chat. However, chats disappear once you close out the window. The conversation can still be saved, but it requires Microsoft Outlook to be your default mail client.
Integrations Microsoft Teams can integrate more than 150 third-party applications for improved productivity. It allows users to share Wikipedia articles, weather updates, stock information, and other points of interest without ever leaving the chat window. Native integration was limited to primarily calling from telephony apps and systems. Zapier, a popular third-party app, is what ultimately provided the IFTTT functionality.
File Transfer File transfers can be conducted through SharePoint, and unlike Skype for Business, they are available for offline users. As an added perk, you can send GIFS, stickers, and memes to users, directly from the Microsoft Teams store.

 

 File transfer is offered directly from the client’s computer with file transfer options in the client application via copy/paste or drag and drop functionality. Users can configure the file size limits, as well as the file types. However, file transfer is not available for offline users.
Guest Access When an individual is granted “guest access” in Microsoft Teams, they can create a channel, participate in a private chat, participate in a private channel, share a channel file, and post, edit, and delete messages. Guests can also join a meeting even if they don’t have a Skype for Business account. They can be invited either via email or calendar but have to install a web plugin or the Skype for Business app to attend.

 

Security

    

 

 Microsoft Teams is also Tier C-compliant and includes the following standards: ISO 27001, ISO 27018, SSAE16 SOC 1 and SOC 2, HIPAA, and EU Model Clauses (EUMC). They offer support for more than 90 regulations and standards worldwide. As part of the Office 365 services, Skype for Business is created in compliance with the Microsoft Trustworthy Computing Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) and follows all of the same security best practices and procedures.

Microsoft Teams Advantages Over Zoom

Built-in Meeting Notes

Microsoft Teams allows users to keep a written record of an ongoing meeting using the Meeting Notes tab. A link to the notes is sent automatically to the channel.

Chat with Rich Formatting

A large selection of stickers and a meme creator make chatting fun. It also keeps a record of all chats from every meeting and posts all comments on the channel.

Blur Background

MS Teams offers custom backgrounds for your meetings so users can hide the actual background of the place from where they are attending the meeting.

Live Captions

Real-time captions in MS Teams are another feature that is not available in Zoom. Turn on the feature for the captions to start appearing at the bottom.

Skype Is Dead – Upgrade to Microsoft Teams

Remembering Skype (2003 – 2021)

Skype was started in Luxembourg in 2003, by Janus Friis of Denmark and Niklas Zennstrom of Sweden, along with others as a peer-to-peer communication system. The initial name of the project was “Sky-Peer-to-Peer”, which was then shortened to “Skyper” and then to “Skype”. Since then, ownership of Skype changed hand a few times from eBay to Canada Pension Plan Investment Board to eventually Microsoft. Skype was integrated with many other Microsoft Products to work as a default business communication and collaboration tool.

Around July 2019, Microsoft announced its plan to retire Skype from active duty and replace it with Teams. Skype for Business is scheduled to breathe its last on July 31, 2021. Microsoft built Teams as a next-gen communication and collaboration platform for the cloud from the ground up by leveraging Azure and other Microsoft service innovations. The capabilities of Microsoft Teams are more comprehensive and go beyond those of Skype for Business.

As directed after July 31, 2021, Skype will not be accessible. Users will start getting notifications in both Teams Admin Center and Microsoft 365 Message Center 90 days before its retirement. Consider this as an intimation to schedule the upgrade to Microsoft Teams so organizations could get ample time for technical and user readiness.

Microsoft Teams is Superior to Skype

Even though Skype retired, Microsoft Teams is built to offer almost all the functionalities offered by Skype for Business along with some innovative and comprehensive features that were absent in Skype. Microsoft Teams aims to make organizations more collaborative, efficient, and productive.

Offers Enriched Communication:

Microsoft Teams has feature parity with Skype for Business Online. Besides offering the basic voice, video, and chat capabilities, Microsoft Teams offers more effective group conversations and social networking features that drive engagement. Notifications, mentions, comments, adding rich media content, GIFs, emojis in chats, and much more make MS Teams a feature-rich platform. It allows real-time, contextual conversations with multiple participants.

Integration with Office 365 and Other Third-Party Apps:

Microsoft Teams has inbuilt integration with numerous Office 365 apps such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Yammer. It allows users to get rapid access to the most relevant files and apps they daily use in their workspace. Additionally, third-party integrations expand the functionality of MS Teams by making workflows even more efficient to minimize friction and potential silos within the environment.

Rapid Access to Information:

Users acquainted with Skype often find it difficult to find the precise information or document they are looking for as it lacks powerful search and archiving capability. On the other hand, Microsoft Teams, with its powerful search tool, persistent chat, and bookmarks, makes it easier to access the required information speedily. Adding tabs for specific channels in Teams and using keyboard shortcuts for navigation makes searches simpler and easier.

Superior Security and Compliance:

Microsoft Teams is a cloud-based service. Therefore, it supports the multi-billion-dollar investment Microsoft has made in its Cloud architecture. It ensures excellent security and compliance by automatically applying the updates and preventing downtime. Apart from inbuilt security and compliance measures, Microsoft Teams provides the flexibility to update customized data governance and compliance policies.

EPC Group Offers Skype to Teams Migration Consulting Services

EPC Group is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner offering Microsoft Teams consultation, migration, and governance services. We help businesses deploy Microsoft Teams, migrate legacy communication platforms to Teams, and drive adoption. Delivering end-to-end solutions for every component of the collaboration tool is our specialty.

Our certified Microsoft Teams consultants will help you plan and set up Microsoft Teams within the organization, ensuring seamless collaboration. With our expertise in Office 365, we will determine the best possible way to build a suitable architecture for precise user adoption.

Our consultant will work on the custom development of Teams, so it fulfills all your business requirements. From development to integration with third-party apps such as CRM, Financial systems, and chatbots.

If you want to migrate to Microsoft Teams from skype or any other collaboration platform, we will make your transition smoother, including Teams Tenants merge and Tenants split. Now that Skype has retired, we will be at your assistance to plan an effective migration from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams.

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