How to successfully transition from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams

How to successfully transition from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams
Arkadin’s Charlie Doubek offers some important tips for deploying the collaboration platform

Elly Yates-Roberts |


Transitioning from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams can often be a challenge for organisations undertaking the task, according to Charlie Doubek, vice president of Professional Service at cloud communication services provider Arkadin. He offers some important tips on how to successfully avoid some common mistakes.  

In a recent webinar Doubek suggested than uncooperative service providers can often cause problems during the transition. He advises that organisations work with project managers who have experience in unified communications as a service, know the trends among telecommunication firms, understand the resulting delays and can build that knowledge into the project plan.

The second pitfall that Doubek believes many organisations struggle with is the lack of understanding of compliance planning. He suggests that tackling this problem can be simple if organisations provide service providers with an upfront understanding of their vision and roadmap. 

Doubek also notes that troubles can arise for companies deploying Microsoft Teams when the platform isn’t 100% integrated as a standard way of working. As a result, some users may choose to adopt it, but others may not, which introduces inconsistency across the company. However, working with a service provider’s change managers, such as those at Arkadin, can work with each organisation to help with their adoption journey. 

According to Doubek, companies often mistake Microsoft Teams to be an upgraded version of Skype for Business. To navigate this assumption, there must be a focus on training, coaching and communication to prepare customers for evolution in this context. 

Although most organisations use legacy technology, the associated challenge is integrating it into Microsoft Teams. This can be solved with help from solution architects who are trained specifically for this, ensuring business as usual. 

There is consistent confusion between migration modes in Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business and Skype Online. For example, users who have not moved to Microsoft Teams because they still need Skype functionality can use Skype Online to fill the gap. Arkadin delivers Teams Upgrade Planning Workshops to help these organisations get the most out of their Microsoft investment. 

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