Skype for Business disappears. Discover Microsoft Teams!

Skype for Business has been one of the most-in-demand options within businesses, but the Microsoft platform is on the clock. Below, we tell you all the details about its future, why and its alternatives.

When will Skype for Business disappear?

Microsoft has set a deadline for the Skype Business platform, and it will be July 31, 2021. Until that day, users of the tool will be able to migrate all data from their organization to Microsoft Teams, the platform that will take over from business meetings and that it has become the central axis on which all kinds of companies manage their communications through Microsoft 365.

The user himself will be in charge of defining the path of his organization from Skype Business to Microsoft Teams. In the management center of Teams, you can see all the options of the modes of coexistence, where you can choose the route that best suits each organization.

Skype Meeting Broadcast will also disappear on the same day and will be replaced by Live Events, the perfect tool for streaming video sharing or disseminating meeting content to a wide online audience.

Why is Microsoft withdrawing Skype for Business?

Microsoft has been implementing and adding updates and improvements to Teams, laying the groundwork to be a worthy successor to Skype for Business. In fact, since September 2019, new users no longer had access to Skype for Business and were redirected to Teams.

This decision comes because Microsoft Teams users have seen the improved collaboration in their teams, in addition to having had the opportunity to rethink the workflows. The platform is continuously renewed with new updates, features and improvements that adapt to the needs and changes of each moment. This has led them to opt for Teams and leave Skype for Business behind.

Skype for Business vs Microsoft Teams

That these three tools support video calls can be misleading, because although they all start from the base of connecting two or a group of people in the same space of time, regardless of where they are, they are different from each other.

• Skype: for more domestic use or for small businesses with less than 20 employees. It is free in its basic version, unless you want to make calls to mobile or landline phones.
• Skype for Business: offers the possibility to add up to 250 people in online meetings, providing enterprise security and integrated into Office applications.
• Microsoft Teams: is the most complete version and integrates video calls from up to 10,000 people from inside or outside an organization.

Advantages of Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams has become the perfect choice to facilitate communication between employees of a company, either remotely or in person. The pandemic has made it the number one tool for conducting business meetings, as well as being the preferred option for storing all conversations, meetings, files and applications in a single workspace.

Teams is the ideal tool to help employees work as a team from anywhere around the world. Some of the advantages of Microsoft Teams are:

• Simple management of shared projects of the team
• Possibility of connecting from anywhere with HD quality
• Private and group chats
• Greater concentration in important moments
• Search for personalized conversations
• Maximum security in the data of a company…

If you’ve never used it before, we help you implement it in your company thanks to the free 6-month trial period and help you discover all its features using our Microsoft Teams Handbook.