I have ran into a particular issue a few times when activating phone numbers in Skype for Business Online Phone System. If you don’t look in the right place, you might be left scratching your head as to what the problem is.

The Problem

The user will be assigned a phone number using the Set-CsOnlineVoiceUser command but will not be able to make or to receive calls over the PSTN. In these cases I have looked at, the user’s licensing is all correct. If you run Get-CsOnlineVoiceUser for the person, it will show the phone number is assigned and will give a nice warning about the issue:

Warning: The telephone number and Line Uri are not match on user <USERID>.
From what I can tell is happening, the telephone number is successfully assigned to the user from the Set-CsOnlineVoiceUser command, but the phone number has not replicated over to the Skype user account on the LineURI property. This can be verified by running this command:
Get-CsOnlineUser -Identity <USERID> | select LineURI
and verifying that the field is blank. Unfortunately, there is not a corresponding Set-CsOnlineUser command available in Skype for Business Online to change the property. There is the Set-CsUser command but the LineURI parameter is restricted in Skype for Business Online PowerShell module and cannot be used.

The Solution

The best fix I have found is to remove the phone number from the user with the following command:
Set-CsOnlineVoiceUser -Identity <USERID> -TelephoneNumber $null
After the phone number is removed from the user account, I usually wait about 5 minutes. I then assign the phone number again using the Set-CsOnlineVoiceUser command and wait until it replicates to the LineURI property. Once this replicates successfully, the user is able to make and to receive calls successfully. The replication is not immediate, so be patient. If it continues not to show up, I suggest opening an Office 365 support ticket.

By default in Skype for Business, any two users (internal or external) who can communicate with each other can also see each other’s presence information. Some organizations may want to give their end users control on who they want to see their presence information. This can be configured through a feature called Privacy Mode, and this blog article will cover how to configure it and what it means from an end user’s perspective.
In a Lync or Skype for Business on-premises server deployment, there is not an option in the admin center to enable or disable Privacy Mode. The current settings can be viewed using the PowerShell command Get-CsPrivacyConfiguration. Privacy Mode is controlled through the EnablePrivacyMode property. When set to False, presence information is available to anyone in the organization as well as external federated companies. When set to True, this enables the user the option to control the Privacy Mode in their client. When enabled in their client, only their Skype for Business contacts can see their presence. Use the Set-CsPrivacyConfiguration command to change this for the deployment. Additional privacy configurations can be made at the site or service level using the New-CsPrivacyConfiguration command; however, a new global scope policy cannot be created.
In Skype for Business Online, there is an option in the admin panel to set the privacy mode. It can be found under Organization > General and has two options: Automatically display presence information or Display presence information only to a user’s contacts.

The first option is the equivalent to setting EnablePrivacyMode to False, and the second option is the equivalent to setting it to True. In fact, this can also be controlled in Skype for Business Online PowerShell using the Set-CsPrivacyConfiguration, but new custom configurations cannot be made like they can be in the on-premises server products. When changing this in Skype for Business Online, I typically found it did not take effect for 1 hour, but your mileage may vary due to replication in the system. Most Office 365 tenant related changes seem to have an SLA of 24 hours, so if you do not see the change happen after that, a support ticket is the next step. It also requires signing out and signing back into the Skype for Business client to change the settings options.
When presence information is configured to automatically be available, the Status option in the client appears like this:

When Privacy Mode is enabled, the Status option in the client changes to allow the end-user to choose whether or not their presence will show to everyone or to people in their Contacts list:

Selecting the first option of I want everyone to be able to see my presence will allow anyone in the organization or external federated partners to view your presence. When the second option of I only want people in Contacts to see my presence, you will appear as Offline to any one who is not in your Contact list. However, other people in the organization and federated partners can still contact you via instant message or voice and video calls. It does not prevent contact, only viewing of presence information. Also, these privacy settings are not honored by older clients, such as Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 or Microsoft Office Communicator 2007. If a user signs into one of these older clients, they may be able to see another user’s presence who they are not authorized to view. When enabling Privacy Mode, it is suggested to create client version rules that block these older clients (creating these rules is only possible in the on-premises server environments).
I would be cautious in changing this setting if you have an established deployment in either on-premises or Skype for Business Online. When I enabled Privacy Mode in a test Office 365 tenant and signed into my client, it automatically selected the radio button to only allow people in my Contacts to see my presence. If this were enabled after a deployment, this could cause some confusion among users as to why everyone starts to appear as Offline to them but they are able to contact and to call them. Before making this change, ensure there is proper change management and communication to the end-user population on the effects of the change and how they can control their options.
There is another option in controlling presence and communication through privacy relationships. Privacy relationships allow people to control how much of their information is shared with other people in their Contacts list. There are five privacy relationships that can be set for your Skype for Business contacts:

• Colleagues (default for new contacts)
• External Contacts
• Workgroup
• Friends and Family
• Blocked

This Office Support article has a table that outlines how much information each contact relationship can view for your account. Blocked contacts will not be able to contact you but can still view your name and e-mail address. However, blocking a contact only prevents a Skype for Business call from being established. It will not block an incoming call from the PSTN if the number matches that contacts phone number. To change the privacy relationship for a contact, right-click the contact in your Skype for Business client and choose Change Privacy Relationship. Contact privacy relationships put more control in the user’s hands but will require them to add each contact they want to block into their Contacts list and change the privacy relationship. If you need to block only a few users, this could be manageable but is not sustainable for blocking a large group of users.
References:
Office Support: Control Access to Your Presence Information in Skype for Business
Microsoft Docs: Set-CsPrivacyConfiguration
Microsoft TechNet: Configuring Enhanced Presence Privacy Mode in Lync Server 2013
Did you find this article helpful? Leave a comment below or follow me on Twitter (@JeffWBrown) for more information on Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams.

Yesterday Microsoft announced the availability of new calling capabilities in Teams, including PSTN dialing, call history, hold/resume, speed dialing, call transfer, voicemail, and many more features. This follows Microsoft’s announcement at Ignite 2017 that Teams will replace Skype for Business as the primary communications tool in Office 365, and adding these calling capabilities moves us one step closer to that goal. In this post, I’m going to cover how to enable incoming calls to the Teams client as well as some screenshots on how the features look today.
First, in order to use the new calling capabilities in the Teams client, you will need Phone System and Calling Plans available and assigned to users in your tenant. This follows the same requirements needed for Skype for Business. If a user is already assigned these licenses and is configured with a phone number in Skype for Business, the functionality should be available in the Teams client. Of important note, hybrid voice is not supported in Teams, and Microsoft advises customers not to change any of the policies to receive calls in Teams. This will cause service interruptions. Federated calling is also not supported in Teams, meaning you cannot place Teams audio calls to other tenants or companies. Of course, these two provisions are subject to change as Microsoft continues to improve the service and enable new functionality.
Once the licensing is assigned, the user should see a new Calls tab available on the left side. Inside the Calls tab are sub-menus for viewing your contacts, call history, and voicemail along with a dial pad for placing outbound PSTN calls:


Voicemails are listed with the name/number, duration, date, and time. When selected, the voicemail will expand with a play button, playback speed menu, and a transcription of the voicemail (which is surprisingly accurate so far):

Next, incoming voice calls need to be routed to the Teams client. This is controlled via a Teams interop policy that is assigned to each user. This allows a controlled, staggered approach to rolling out PSTN calling to users to avoid potential interruptions. Here are the Teams interop policies available in my tenant:

The default Global policy does not allow end users to override their preferred client for calling and chat, and the default clients for each function is set to Default, which I assume is what the administrator will eventually set in the tenant. For now, Default means the Skype for Business client. Despite which policy is assigned, a user that has the correct licensing can always make outbound calls from the Teams client. For my testing, I assigned myself the AllowOverrideCallingDefaultChatTeams as this is the only policy that allows the end-user to change their preferred client. If none of these policies suit your needs, you can create your own using the New-CsTeamsInteropPolicy cmdlet available in Skype for Business Online PowerShell. Whether you are assigning a pre-made policy or creating your own, use the Grant-CsTeamsInteropPolicy cmdlet to assign the policy to a user.
Once I assigned the interop policy, the Teams client needs to be configured as the default calling application. If you click on your user icon in the bottom left, then Settings, then Calls, you will have several options for controlling your calling experience, such as simultaneous ringing, changing voicemail greeting, and setting the default application for incoming calls:

With Teams client select as my default app, I placed a call to my number. The incoming call window appeared in the bottom right corner of my screen with a purple Answer and red Decline button:

After answering the call, I have several in call options, including mute and hang up as well as hold, transfer, and a keypad that are available underneath the three dots or ellipses:




Clicking the gear icon in the upper right allows me to change my default audio and speaker devices:

For a first release, the options available for calling in Teams is looking really nice. I did not test and see if incoming calls from an auto attendant or call queue would function in Teams, and I have not seen any documentation or other information around this yet. As for missing features, I do not see the ability to call into your voicemail from the Calls tab to change your voicemail greeting. This only seems to appear within the Settings > Calls window. Second, there is only one option for transferring a call, I do not see options for a consult transfer. Third, from a few comments I’ve seen so far, incoming calls will not ring to third-party certified IP phones. This is on the roadmap for next year.
References:
Microsoft Teams Blog: Intelligent Communications Takes the Next Step with Calling in Teams
Quick Start Guide: Configuring Calling Plans in Microsoft Teams
Did you find this article helpful? Leave a comment below or follow me on Twitter (@JeffWBrown) for more information on Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams.

During Ignite 2017, several Microsoft representatives made comments that a features and capabilities roadmap for Microsoft Teams would be released in October. Holding true to this promise, Microsoft released the roadmap last week in this blog post in the Microsoft Tech Community. The roadmap lists what is available today and what is coming for three different categories of features: Messaging, Meetings, and Calling. The features and timelines listed are based on current expectations, but as Microsoft states in the roadmap slides, these are subject to change and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions. This blog post will highlight what I am looking forward to and what it means for any transition from Skype for Business Online to Microsoft Teams.
For the Messaging roadmap, there are several capabilities expected in Q1 of 2018 for messaging policies, retention, and interop. Currently in Teams, all chats and messaging is kept indefinitely, and this could be an issue for some organizations who want to have less data to produce in cases of discovery. Being able to limit chat history/retention will be a welcome addition for those who have requirements to control this.
For the Meetings roadmap, I’m looking forward to Cloud Recording (Q2 of 2018), large meeting support for approximately 250 participants (Q2 of 2018), and Edge/Chrome browser support for meetings (Q4 of 2017). I believe the inability to record a meeting is currently the biggest feature gap, and the move not to have client-side recording is a great step in the right direction. Microsoft also demoed several other recording capabilities, such as automatic transcription and the ability to search for keywords from the meeting. This is what will set Microsoft Teams apart from the competitors and even Skype for Business. While it could be argued that many meetings are less than 10 participants, being able to host meetings larger than the current 80 participant limit will only increase adoption and provide support for those smaller company-wide meetings (without going into Broadcast meetings). Also as pointed out in my post for dial-in conferencing in preview, there currently is not support for joining meetings inside the web app. Adding support for Edge and Chrome will add to the adoption story as well.
Finally, for the Calling roadmap, several new features settings it apart from Skype for Business include call park (Q4 of 2018) and location-based routing (Q4 of 2018). I do not remember hearing any details of these features during Ignite, but these are some current Skype for Business Server on-premises features that have not made it into the Office 365 features set yet. Seeing these on the roadmap for late next year is an encouraging sign that Microsoft Teams will fill the gap and finally be equivalent to Skype for Business Server on-premises.
As I recently pointed out in my last post titled The Future of Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business, the road to Microsoft Teams is not going to be quick. If you review the slide deck, many of the features are not expected to make it to Microsoft Teams until the middle of 2018, with others not making it until the end of next year. If you are a current Skype for Business Online customer, you should continue to follow the Office 365 roadmap and see when the feature sets you need are released. Once that happens, start preparing your organization for the migration to Teams from Skype for Business. If it looks like the feature set may be a while and you want to get started now, begin a pilot program to see what is still missing for your organization and determine use cases and governance around the product. Starting the process now will only make the transition easier once the product meets your organization’s needs.
References:
Skype for Business to Teams Capabilities Roadmap (PDF)
Did you find this article helpful? Leave a comment below or follow me on Twitter (@JeffWBrown) for more information on Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams.

In the Episode 54 of the renamed Teams on Air broadcast (https://aka.ms/TeamsOnAirReplay), Sr. Product Marketing Manager and host Delanda Coleman along with General Manager of Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams Lori Wright recapped the news from Ignite 2017 along with a Q&A. If you’ve read my previous recap of the keynote from Ignite 2017, there was not a lot of new information from this broadcast. Delanda and Lori outlined that Microsoft Teams is going to be the new vision for unified (or intelligent) communications in Office 365. Rather than putting technology together to solve a problem, Microsoft is bringing intelligence to elevate the collaboration experience with Microsoft Teams. In this post I wanted to touch on a couple of topics, in particular some information that came out of the Q&A at the end.
Skype for Business Online in Office 365 is going to be around for awhile. This means if you are considering moving from an on-premises Lync or Skype environment or starting new in the cloud, keep planning this project and move forward as normal. In the broadcast, Lori Wright addresses the concern that Microsoft is going to force people over to Microsoft Teams by emphatically stating that this is not the case. Microsoft is set on giving customers the tools to move their users to Microsoft Teams and help them when they are ready. Organizational change management can be a struggle for some, and the task of moving users to a new platform should never be taken lightly. If you are currently using Skype for Business, deciding when and how to migrate to Microsoft Teams should be planned as any other major project by training and preparing end users for the change.
During one of the Ignite sessions from this year, Microsoft said that they are looking to get full feature functionality from Skype for Business into Teams in the next 12-18 months. This means that if you are using advanced features such as auto attendants or call queues, the timeframe to move to Microsoft Teams could be a while. Audio conferencing in Teams is only in public preview right now, and PSTN calling has only been seen in demos and slides from Ignite. Some organizations will not be able to move until these features are fully ready, so there is time to continue developing your existing service until the Teams offering matures. The roadmap for Microsoft Teams features is expected to be released in the next few weeks, so keep a look out for new features be listed on the Office 365 Roadmap site.
Another topic that came up is the support for third-party integration, such as room systems, phones, and other devices. Microsoft fully intends to make all the current Skype for Business certified devices compatible with Microsoft Teams. This will provide some relief for both customers and partners as many have made significant investments in purchasing hardware to support their Skype for Business implementations. Microsoft has a continued commitment to supporting and to expanding the availability of devices provided by partners. This includes video interop capabilities such as Polycom, BlueJeans Network, and Pexip. During the Q&A for the Ignite Session Deploying and Managing Skype Room Systems and Microsoft Certified Devices, it was stated that IP phones will remain branded as Skype for Business and there will not be any Microsoft Teams branded phones. I believe this shows Microsoft’s continued commitment to the Skype for Business product name.
Along the lines of devices, there were several questions around customers who have deployed cloud-connector edition to bring their own SIP trunk to the cloud for PSTN connectivity. While the details are not finalized, Microsoft intends to keep this same functionality for Teams but in a different way. Instead of using CCE appliances, customers would be able to use session border controllers (SBCs) to connect their existing trunks out to Office 365. AudioCodes, a partner of Perficient, has already announced that their existing CCE devices will also function as SBCs. If you are considering deploying CCE for Skype for Business, continue down this path as your existing investment can be re-purposed for Microsoft Teams.
Lastly, Microsoft also announced during Ignite the vNext release of Skype for Business Server on-premises. This is tracking to be released in Q4 of 2018. If you look at Microsoft’s support model, this typically means 5 years of regular support plus 5 years of extended support. Microsoft stated several time during Ignite that they are committed to Skype for Business in the datacenter and are including several enhancements in a hybrid scenario with Office 365, such as leveraging Call Analytics, Auto Attendants, and Call Queues built in the cloud. I believe Microsoft will continue to release Skype for Business Server versions as there will always be organizations that have requirements to keep applications in a private datacenter. I also look at Skype’s cousin Exchange as an indicator of future on-premises version as it has had regular releases and will have an on-premises release in 2019 as well. Microsoft’s advantage over Amazon and Google for cloud computing is the fact that they have on-premises versions that gives them a foothold into the private datacenter, and I do not foresee Microsoft abandoning this.
To summarize, I see three scenarios that customers may be in and what action they should start taking now:

1. If you are new to Skype for Business and are looking to deploy in Office 365, consider deploying Microsoft Teams instead IF it offers the features you are looking for. Outside of chat and presence, these organizations need to have SharePoint, Exchange, and OneDrive readiness as well as Teams relies heavily on these. If you require Cloud PBX/Phone System and other advanced capabilities, continue to plan and to deploy Skype for Business Online and migrate to Teams later.
2. If you are an on-premises Lync Server or Skype for Business Server environment and are looking to move to a hybrid configuration, continue down this path as normal. Complete the hybrid setup or migrated completely to Online and wait for Teams to meet the functionality you are looking for before switching over.
3. If you are an on-premises Lync Server or Skype for Business Server environment and have no interest in the cloud, start planning to deploy the vNext version starting in 2019. This version will be supported and maintained by Microsoft for many years if you wish to continue your on-premises deployment. Also consider a hybrid scenario to take advantage of features built in Skype Online.

Did you find this article helpful? Leave a comment below or follow me on Twitter (@JeffWBrown) for more information on Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams.

Back in April 2017, Microsoft announced the release of support for Modern Authentication for the Skype for Business Online PowerShell Module. Adding Modern Authentication introduces new scenarios where multi-factor authentication (MFA) can be used for authenticating remote PowerShell sessions out to Skype for Business Online. Using MFA for authentication for PowerShell sessions provides another layer of security for administrator accounts when managing Office 365 workloads. This blog post is going to go through enabling and configuring a Skype for Business Online tenant with MFA. I am not getting into the pros/cons of enabling Modern Authentication or other considerations for enabling MFA for a user. This is a simple demo using a strictly Skype for Business Online deployment.
Some minor prerequisites are needed, such as the latest version of the Skype for Business Online PowerShell Module, or at least version 7.0.1045.0 or higher (Download Link). You will also want to connect to your Skype for Business Online tenant and use the Set-CsOAuthConfiguration to enable ADAL Authentication. Also use the Get-CsOAuthConfiguration command to verify the setting is changed.

Now it’s time to set up MFA in your tenant. First, log into the Office 365 admin portal (https://portal.office.com) and select Active Users on the left menu. In the Active Users window, select the More drop-down menu, and select Setup Azure multi-factor auth.

In the multi-factor authentication page, select the Service Settings menu to view the various options for creating app passwords, verification options, and MFA timeouts. For now, I am leaving all MFA options enabled. When finished, click Save and click back on the User menu.

Next, select the user(s) to enable for MFA, and select Enable underneath Quick Steps on the right. The steps for enabling are pretty straight forward, and once completed, the user’s Multi-Factor Auth Status is now Enforced.

Now that the user is enabled, he or she will need to configure their preferred MFA option. If the user regularly uses a web application, such as Outlook on the Web or OneDrive, the next time the user navigates to those pages, he or she will need to set up MFA. If they do not use web applications often, a different URL is provided to send them when they were enabled in the previous step. For myself, I decided to navigate to outlook.office.com and was presented with the following screen to set up my account with additional security verification.

After clicking Set it up now, I had the option to select which MFA format I wanted: Authentication Phone, Office Phone, or Mobile App. I opted for the mobile app option using Microsoft Authenticator for iPhone and to provide a verification code. After select the mobile app option, click Set up.

The next page presents the instructions on how to configure the mobile app with a QR code to link your account. After following the instructions and completing the set up, the account was added to my authenticator app with a 6-digit code that refreshes every 30 seconds. This code is entered into the web site to complete the set up.

Authentication code from the mobile app:

After completing set up, I was redirected to Outlook on the Web, but this wasn’t our final goal. Let’s return to a new PowerShell window and create a new CsOnlineSession. In the announcement above, Microsoft specifies that when using an account with MFA enabled, you can no longer use a PSCredential object when creating the session. This means when using the New-CsOnlineSession, specify just a username or leave it blank as it will prompt for the username. After entering the command, I was prompted for the user principal name to use, and then the SkypeForBusinessAuth window appeared. Here I entered my username’s password and was redirected to another security page to enter the 6-digit code from my mobile app. After the session was created successfully, I imported the session using the Import-PsSession command and successfully connected to the PowerShell session.


If you attempt to use a PSCredential object when creating the session, you will receive an error stating that you must use multi-factor authentication to access the tenant:

References:
Set Up Multi-Factor Authentication for Office 365 Users
Modern Authentication for the Skype for Business Windows PowerShell Module
Did you find this article helpful? Leave a comment below or follow me on Twitter (@JeffWBrown) for more information on Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams.

Today at Microsoft Ignite 2017, Microsoft officially announced what was accidentally released a couple weeks ago. Microsoft Teams will become the primary unified communications (or rather, intelligent communications) platform in Office 365. Skype for Business Online will still be available for an unknown amount of time to allow organizations to make the transition to Microsoft Teams.
Here, I am going to recap the keynote during which Microsoft gave out lots of great information including upcoming features and the controls on how to transition to Microsoft Teams. All images are screenshots taken from a recorded version of the keynote, apologies for the blurriness.
The keynote began with giving several astounding statistics. Since Microsoft Teams went into general availability 6 months ago, more than 125,000 organizations have enabled the service. On the Skype consumer network, more than 3 billion minutes of voice are happening every day. Skype for Business Online usage also doubled in the previous year. Microsoft is now bringing communication alongside more intuitive capabilities and branding this as intelligent communications through Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft Teams is built on cloud-born infrastructure built for Skype. This new infrastructure will allow for better quality of service and faster innovation than the previous platform, which was ported from on-premises versions of Lync and Skype for Business. Moving forward, Skype for Business capabilities will combine with Microsoft Teams capabilities, and Microsoft Teams will be the single client experience for Office 365 communications and collaboration. Simply put, Teams is Microsoft’s future of intelligent communications.
Next the keynote moved in the product demos. First, Teams already has several capabilities that Skype for Business does not have, including integration with third-party apps such as SurveyMonkey, Twitter, and YouTube. Teams also has the ability for animated GIFs (a lacking feature from Skype). Teams has full chat history along with the recently released guest/external access (only for other Office 365 customers currently). Inside of Teams and their sub-channels, tabs offer integration with OneDrive as well as other third-party file sharing services like Dropbox. You can edit Office documents directly inside of Teams or open in their desktop or online version. You can also attach conversations to documents and see the chat history to see what others have worked on in the document. Inside the Chat icon, chat history is available and a contacts list. Teams will have the ability to import your existing Skype for Business groups and contacts. Presence in Teams and Skype is also unified.

The biggest feature to come is the Call icon. This will bring PSTN calling to the Teams client. You will be able to configure a list of speed dial of contacts for easy single click calling. There will also be an alphabetical list to view all your contacts.  Call history including missed calls will also be available along with duration and easy click dialing to return the call. Voice mail will also be available with playback and a transcript of the voice mail. Full PSTN calling will be available with domestic, international, extension dialing, and 911 capabilities.

Meetings are already available in the Teams client, and recently dial-in conferencing was released in a public preview. Dial-in conferencing with local numbers are available in 90+ countries and 400+ cities. Scheduling meetings is possible directly from Outlook, the Meetings tab, or directly from a conversation. Once in the meeting, it is easy to switch between content being presented or participant’s video.

Microsoft has also made significant investment with developing new apps across all the major mobility platforms. Single-click join of meetings is possible when view your calendar.

Recording is now cloud-based (yay!) and available directly in the channel conversation. The video can be replayed directly from the Teams client along with a searchable transcription of the meeting audio.

The keynote then moved onto deployment. Microsoft first addressed the on-premises deployment by saying they are still dedicated to the on-premises version of Skype for Business. Skype for Business Server vNext is expected to be released in Q4 of 2018. vNext will bring cloud innovations and security to the on-premises infrastructure such as cloud connected call analytics. There will also be better interoperability with cloud-based Teams users and on-premises Skype for Business users. A new client will be released as well.
Next Microsoft addressed that Teams was built from the ground-up in Office 365 with reliability and security at the forefront. Mobility will have deep integration with mobile application managers with multiple authentication options available. Persistent chat capabilities and retention policies will allow IT administrators to control how chats are archived and how the data is managed. Microsoft has already released Teams audit log capabilities into Office 365 Security and Compliance center.

A new Skype for Business and Teams admin center is also coming. This will be one admin center “to rule them all”. This will give access to user based policies for Teams, Skype and other controls that are currently missing from the Skype-only admin panel. All of your existing investments into PSTN calling plans, conferencing bridges, call queues, and auto attendants will transition over to Teams. All devices including audio headsets, phones, video, and room systems will be supported in Teams as well.

IT administrators will have three options when moving from Skype for Business to Teams. The first is a Side by Side option, where users will have the ability to use both clients and allows a slow introduction to Teams. Next is the Side by Side with Notify, where users will get a notification inside the Skype for Business client that Teams will soon be their new client. The Teams client will auto-download in the background and be ready for when the user is ready to switch. Groups, contacts, and policies will also be migrated over to the Teams client.


Finally, when ready, the last option is Teams Only, where a final migration of contacts and groups will be performed. Teams will become the primary client for all communications, and Skype for Business client will be in a join-only mode for meetings. Users inside of Teams can still interact with users in Skype for Business who have not been moved over yet.

Overall, I have to applaud Microsoft. It seems they have a solid plan for porting over Skype for Business to Teams and are building several new tools to assist in the process. More details are yet to come but right now it looks like a lot of work has been put into place in order to make this process as seamless as possible. While it may be frustrating to change platforms and clients after recently adopting Skype for Business, but this new service promises more innovation and better reliability for the future of “intelligent” communications.
Did you find this article helpful? Leave a comment below or follow me on Twitter (@JeffWBrown) for more information on Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams.

More and more Skype for Business functionality is making its way into Microsoft Teams. I opened my Outlook client today to create a new Microsoft Teams meeting, and, to my surprise, there is a “Join by Phone” option with a dial-in number and conference ID:

It looks like Teams is using the dial-in conferencing information that is assigned to me in Skype for Business. Here is a screenshot of my Skype for Business meeting invite with the same dial-in toll number:

However, when creating the meeting inside the Teams client, the dial-in information is not available when creating the meeting, but it is available after the meeting is created. Here is a side-by-side comparison of creating the meeting versus viewing the meeting in the Teams client:

Microsoft has also ported over the conference dial-in numbers page to dialin.teams.microsoft.com/<GUID>, with the GUID being an identifier to your Teams’ tenant. This page remains familiar from its Skype for Business counterpart with some re-branding to Teams:

The forgot your dial-in PIN page redirects to the current Skype for Business Settings page, but I suspect this will be re-branded shortly as well:

When joining the meeting via the PSTN, the conferencing attendant sounds just like the Skype for Business attendant with the exception of the voice asking if the caller is the leader. This audio was definitely new and spliced into the attendant menu. When joining the meeting, the Teams meeting participant list shows just the caller’s phone number:

Also of note is meeting participants who were invited but have not joined as indicated by the “Other invited” versus the “Currently in this meeting”.
I tried copying and pasting the join meeting URL into a web browser and skipped the prompt to open the meeting in the Teams desktop client. When I tried to join just through the web app, it looks like this feature is not supported but will be coming soon:

The dial-in conferencing is a welcome feature and only goes to show that Microsoft Teams is rapidly taking on Skype for Business features. One noticeable feature missing from meetings is the ability to dial-out or the “call me at” feature to dial out to a phone.
Did you find this article helpful? Leave a comment below or follow me on Twitter (@JeffWBrown) for more information on Skype for Business.

With one week to go until Microsoft Ignite 2017 in Orlando, FL, I decided to take a look at the Skype for Business sessions to see which ones gave clues about new and upcoming features to the product. Here are the top four that I found.
First, there is Real Time Communications with Network Planner. It looks like Microsoft will be releasing a new tool to centrally organize networking data, such as subnets and number of users. Right now the Call Quality Dashboard and Call Analytics tools require uploading the same network information to both tools, so maintenance requires keeping two different data sets up to date. Having a central repository of network data will ease administrators’ burden and be a welcome change. The description also mentions using this data in order to perform bandwidth calculations, so there may be a future where the Skype for Business bandwidth spreadsheet is no longer needed. However, the session description does not mention if this centralized network data could be used for location-based E-911 services, but maybe that is the direction they are heading.
Next, there is Manage All Your Communications Workloads in Office 365. Microsoft has hinted at a new Skype for Business Online administrative portal by releasing a different portal for users to control of some their own settings, such as resetting conference PINs and voice mail management. This will also be a welcome change as the current admin portal is very limited as it does not have the ability to manage user and conference policies. Here are some screenshots of the new user settings page that point to what a new admin portal could look like:


Next up is Best-in-Class Authentication in Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams. This 400 level expert session will get into security and how to implement it with Skype for Business. Being able to provide multi-factor authentication to meet security requirements is often a popular topic with clients as well as when or if to enable Modern Authentication. This session should provide details on how to meet those requirements in all scenarios.
Last but definitely not least is Plan Your UC Refresh Correctly: Skype for Business On-Premises vNext. With the leaking of the Skype for Business becoming Microsoft Teams from a few weeks ago, this is sure to be a popular session. What does the next version of Skype for Business on-premises look like, and how much of the Microsoft Teams functionality is being brought into the data center? I suspect Teams in the Office 365 will be its own product with Skype for Business on-premises remaining separate with its own set of updates and product roadmap.
Did you find this article helpful? Leave a comment below or follow me on Twitter (@JeffWBrown) for more information on Skype for Business (and Microsoft Teams!).

It has been speculated that some type of change or re-brand of Skype for Business might be happening due to the overlapping feature set of Teams along with the upcoming Ignite session names. Today’s “glitch” only seemed to add speculation to this. In a blog post by Mary Jo Foley over at zdnet.com, she shows that several people signing into Skype for Business today received a notification that “Skype for Business is now Microsoft Teams!”. However, the message was short lived and was quickly removed. The same happened with this message in the Office 365 Admin Portal Message Center (now also removed):

Without an official announcement from Microsoft (and guessing this won’t happen until Ignite in a couple weeks), we are left with questions as to what this means for current implementations and the future of the on-premises product. Some quick thoughts at this potential news:

• Microsoft Teams is pretty cool. It brings together multiple collaboration elements and adds the persistent chat feature from on-premises Lync and Skype deployments that has been missing.
• Possible new and more streamlined on-premises infrastructure. If you look at the evolution of Exchange from 2007 to 2016, they’ve greatly simplified the server roles and deployment to match what is in the cloud. I hope this means better collocation and easier deployment of server roles for the next version of the on-premises product.
• Another rebranding of the product name. Much of the community grumbled at changing to “Skype for Business” as Lync was gaining its own recognition as well as confusion with the consumer service. Microsoft has also spent significant time in building out the Skype Operations Framework, and partners, like Perficient, have been certified on this content and methodology.
• Teams is still lacking features in comparison to Skype, such as external access, not to mention the more traditional PBX features such as PSTN calling, auto attendants, etc. These features just made it into Skype for Business Online, is there going to be another transition to Teams?

I get it though. The on-premises and Skype Online product code has been around for several years, and being able to add new features or significantly change the code base is probably a hassle. So why not start with something new and build from the ground up? Unfortunately, another significant change like this could turn people away from the service as it is seen as “new” and not fully tested. There are multiple organizations that are now rolling out Skype for Business brand new to their organization, and now potentially need to turn around and make another change.
However, in a few weeks at Ignite we are now expecting an announcement that will clear up this confusion but introduce many more questions. Be on the lookout for future blog posts for more information.
Did you find this article helpful? Leave a comment below or follow me on Twitter (@JeffWBrown) for more information on Skype for Business.

Recently I had to perform a familiar function: integrating Skype for Business with Exchange in order to allow IM and presence functionality inside of OWA (or “Outlook on the Web” as it is now known). While the process on the Skype for Business side has stayed the same, Microsoft has introduced a new way to configure the IM server and certificate on the Exchange side that is simpler and easier to manage. Gone are the days of modifying web.config files to make way for managing this via a few simple PowerShell commands. The following outlines the pieces of information needed to configure the environment and their values in our mock scenario:
Exchange OWA URL:  owa.domain.com
Exchange Autodiscover URL:  autodiscover.domain.com
Skype Front End Pool: fepool.domain.com
First, let’s review the steps needed to configure the Skype for Business environment. The process here has not changed from previous versions and is well documented in TechNet and other blogs. The Skype for Business Server needs to know where to find the autodiscover service, and this is set using the following command:

Set-CsOauthConfiguration -ExchangeAutodiscoverUrl "https://autodiscover.domain.com/autodiscover/autodiscover.svc"

Notice the URL ends with “.svc” and not “.xml”. The XML document is often used to verify access to the service, but in this case we are wanting to point to the service itself. Now we need to create a partner application for Exchange as well as a trusted application pool with a trusted application. This can be accomplished using the following three commands:

New-CsPartnerApplication -Identity Exchange -ApplicationTrustLevel Full -MetadataUrl "https://autodiscover.domain.com/autodiscover/metadata/json/1"
New-CsTrustedApplicationPool -Identity owa.domain.com -Registrar fepool.domain.com -Site 1 -RequiresReplication $false
New-CsTrustedApplication -ApplicationId OutlookWebAccess -TrustedApplicationPoolFqdn owa.domain.com -Port 5199

If you do not know the site number, run Get-CsSite and retrieve the value of SiteId. Also, the port is somewhat arbitrary, is just has to be unique within a Skype pool and cannot be reused with other applications. Finally, publish topology using Enable-CsTopoogy and verify there are no errors.
Next, let’s move onto the Exchange configuration. You will need to enable the instant messaging and the type of instant messenger on the OWA mailbox policies and virtual directories:

Get-OwaMailboxPolicy | Set-OwaMailboxPolicy -InstantMessagingEnabled $true -InstantMessagingType Ocs
Get-OwaVirtualDirectory | Set-OwaVirtualDirectory -InstantMessagingEnabled $true -InstantMessagingType Ocs

Yes, you are setting it to “Ocs”, which is the old name for Lync, which is the old name for Skype for Business. Also, setting the OWA virtual directory like this across servers in multiple sites can take a while, so be patient. After instant messaging has been enabled via the policies, create a partner application for Skype inside of Exchange. Unlike Skype, Exchange does not have a built-in PowerShell cmdlet to create a partner application, but a handy script is available in the “Scripts” directory where Exchange was installed:

.\Program Files\Microsoft\Exchange Server\V15\Scripts\Configure-EnterprisePartnerApplication.ps1 -AuthMetadataUrl "https://fepool.domain.com/metadata/json/1" -ApplicationType Lync

You will also need the certificate thumbprint that is currently assigned to IIS. This can be found using the Get-ExchangeCertificate PowerShell cmdlet.
The following steps are where Exchange 2016 diverges from previous versions. Instead of modifying the web.config file on each server, Exchange now uses the New-SettingOverride PowerShell cmdlet to set the IM server and IM certificate names.

New-SettingOverride -Name "IM Override" -Component OwaServer -Section IMSettings -Parameters ("IMServerName=fepool.domain.com","IMCertificateThumbprint=thumbprint") -Reason "Configure IM"

If you have configured OWA integration in the past, you will recognize the IMServerName and IMCertificateThumbprint attributes (note: in the above command, replace “thumbprint” with the actual Exchange certificate thumbprint). These were previously added to the web.config files. If you run the above command without the -Server parameter, the setting will apply to all Exchange 2016 servers in the Active Directory forest. If you need different settings for specific Exchange servers, use the -Server parameter. Once the IM server and certificate information has been added, refresh the IM settings on each of the Exchange server using the following PowerShell cmdlet:

Get-ExchangeDiagnosticInfo -Server ExchangeServer -Process Microsoft.Exchange.Directory.TopologyService -Component VariantConfiguration -Argument Refresh

Finally, reset IIS using iisreset command, and if needed, restart the Outlook on the Web web pool on each Exchange server using the following PowerShell cmdlet:

Restart-WebAppPool MSExchangeOWAAppPool

At this point, a Skype enabled used should be able to sign into OWA and message other users:

Did you find this article helpful? Leave a comment below or follow me on Twitter (@JeffWBrown) for more information on Skype for Business.

On June 20 of this year, Microsoft announced support for Skype for Business Server 2015 with Window Server 2016. This comes on the heels of the May 2017 update for Skype for Business Server 2015, and it has been anticipated that this update would provide the support. While Microsoft does provide a basic guide on how to install Skype on Windows Server 2016, I found that article lacking in detail on some of the finer points. This blog post will hopefully provide some additional guidance and support for your installation.
The article above assumes the server has connectivity to the Internet to be able to download the latest updates. It does not address what to do if you are working in an environment where access to Microsoft updates is not allowed or forced through another service like SCCM, nor does it address any changes in the prerequisites required for the server. The following steps outline what I did to install this in my lab without Internet access.
First, when installing the required Windows Roles and Features for a Standard Edition server, the “Desktop-Experience” is no longer available as a feature to be installed. This altered my PowerShell install command to the following:
Add-WindowsFeature RSAT-ADDS, Web-Server, Web-Static-Content, Web-Default-Doc, Web-Http-Errors, Web-Asp-Net, Web-Net-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Ext, Web-ISAPI-Filter, Web-Http-Logging, Web-Log-Libraries, Web-Request-Monitor, Web-Http-Tracing, Web-Basic-Auth, Web-Windows-Auth, Web-Client-Auth, Web-Filtering, Web-Stat-Compression, Web-Dyn-Compression, NET-WCF-HTTP-Activation45, Web-Asp-Net45, Web-Mgmt-Tools, Web-Scripting-Tools, Web-Mgmt-Compat, Telnet-Client, Windows-Identity-Foundation
Next, during Step 2 of the Deployment Wizard, when attempting to install the IIS URL Rewrite module, it will fail but does not explain why:

If you browse to the MSI on the installation media and try to install it manually, the wizard displays the following error about need IIS 7.0 or greater to install the module:

Since this is Window Server 2016, we are obviously running an IIS version greater than 7.0. The issue appears to be with the installer not recognizing the version installed on the server as meeting the requirements (probably some prerequisite checks that are hard-coded). From here you have two options, one “ok” and one preferred. The first option is to modify the registry to change the version of IIS to one the installer recognizes, then install the module, and change the registry back. While this may work, I always err on the side of caution when making registry changes unless it is part of a documented workaround. The second option is to download a newer version of the IIS URL Rewrite module that correctly installs on Windows Server 2016. I went this route and the Skype for Business Deployment Wizard correctly identified that this prerequisite was installed and continued the installation:

After completing the installation of the components in Step 2, I decided to install the May 2017 Cumulative Update (CU5) into the environment before configuring certificates and starting services. Microsoft has documented that prior to CU5 the RTCSRV service may fail to start or crash on Windows Server 2016. Follow the standard procedures for applying Skype for Business Cumulative Updates found in this Microsoft knowledge base article. Be sure to stop services as there are a few now running after the core and server components have been installed. Once the cumulative update was installed and database updates applied, I completed Step 3 to configure my certificates and started up the services in the pool successfully.
Did you find this article helpful? Leave a comment below or follow me on Twitter (@JeffWBrown) for more information on Skype for Business.