Microsoft Teams

Skype for Business Online End of Life

Richard Green on 14th May 2021

Skype for Business Online has been with us for many years but it’s time for the Skype for Business Online End of Life. Let’s set one thing straight from the offset and that is that Skype for Business Server on-premises is not affected by this milestone and we’ll go on to clarify that point here.

If you are using Skype for Business Online then you will be impacted by the changes unless you move to Microsoft Teams before the end of life date. In this article, we’ll cover in summary what’s changing, the broad impact, and what you need to consider along the way.

One to One Call Recording in Microsoft Teams

Richard Green on 12th February 2021

Recording meetings of online meetings is a common occurrence to allow people to refer back to them later or to allow people unable to join catch up. A less common requirement is the ability to do one to one call recording in Microsoft Teams. Until now, the ability to perform the recording of one-on-one calls was governed by the same Meeting Policy as the ability to record multi-participant calls, however, this is changing and breaking out to a new, separate setting.

Use OneDrive and SharePoint for Microsoft Teams Meeting Recordings

Richard Green on 15th December 2020

Microsoft Stream is an odd service. It’s fantastic in its own right but limitations built within it and it’s positioning as a Microsoft 365 outsider has always been problematic. For Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Stream as the location for meeting records brought its own set of challenges. With change approaching, let’s explore how this is moving to use OneDirve and SharePoint for Microsoft Teams meeting recordings.

Microsoft Stream sure has a time and place. We think, for example, that it’s a fantastic platform for sharing videos internally such as corporate messaging, training, and more. But that is also it’s Achilles Heel. It is limited to internal use only and you cannot share recordings [directly] from Microsoft Stream with external users.

When you participate in a meeting with people from multiple organisations and the meeting is recorded, that goes to Microsoft Stream for the organisation of the meeting organiser. If you’re outside that organisation, the only way you can access that is if someone downloads the recording video file and shares it with you by manually copying the file to their OneDrive or SharePoint or worse, emails you the file.

Block Incoming Calls with Microsoft Teams

Richard Green on 19th November 2020

Last week, a customer contacted us about an issue they were receiving persistent, unsolicited calls in Microsoft Teams from a phone number. The customer needed a way to block incoming calls from that number and we figured that this was one worth sharing for all to see.

Block incoming calls features in Microsoft Teams

One of the more hidden features in Microsoft Teams is the ability to block incoming calls from a number or a range of numbers at the organisation level. This isn’t something that’s visible or available in the Microsoft Teams Admin Center and requires the use of PowerShell.

Audio Conferencing with Microsoft Teams

Richard Green on 29th October 2020

As the usage of Microsoft Teams continues to grow across organisations around the world, our reliance on PCs and digital devices grow. Under normal circumstances, that’s all well and good but what if you’re internet goes down? Microsoft Teams isn’t all about the app and that’s why dial-in Audio Conferencing with Microsoft Teams is an important and often overlooked facet of the service.

Whether your Internet is down, you live in an area with poor mobile data coverage which means you can’t use a mobile device with the Teams app, or whether you need a screen break but still want to participate, Audio Conferencing could be your ticket.

Free Calling Plan for Microsoft 365 E5 Customers

Richard Green on 17th July 2020

Until this announcement, Microsoft 365 E5, the gives you everything plan for Microsoft 365 excluded one critical piece: a Calling Plan. The Microsoft 365 E5 license included the Phone System license and the Audio Conferencing license. This mean you had the licenses to use PSTN Audio Conferencing and to receive incoming calls but you would either need standalone Calling Plans for Microsoft 365 or pay Communication Credits for calls.

With the news of a Calling Plan for Microsoft 365 E5 customers, you will be able to, at no extra charge, get a 120-minute Domestic Calling Plan for each of your licensed E5 users.

Microsoft 365 Enterprise Voice Plans and Pricing

Richard Green on 17th July 2020

People talk. Whether it be one-to-one or many-to-many, people talk. If you want to be able to give users the ability to make and take phone calls to non-Teams users then you need to enable voice elements of the service. Without these voice elements, Microsoft Teams users are only able to perform Teams-to-Teams calls. If you’ve come from a Skype for Business background, this is the same as the choice between PC-to-PC calling and Enterprise Voice. Microsoft 365 Enterprise Voice Plans are here to simplify things and hopefully make them cheaper too.

Using Microsoft Teams Calendar with Exchange Server On-premises

Richard Green on 29th June 2020

Microsoft Teams is a cloud only service. There is no on-premises version of Microsoft Teams like there was with Skype for Business Server. If you are using Microsoft Teams but your mailboxes are still on-premises because your organisation isn’t ready to move to Exchange Online, what happens to the Microsoft Teams calendar with Exchange Server on-premises?

When using Microsoft Teams with Exchange Online, we get a Calendar app to allow us to view our calendars directly in Microsoft Teams, however, if your mailbox is in Exchange Server on-premises then you may not see get that functionality today. In this post, we’ll look at what you can do to enable the Microsoft Teams calendar with Exchange Server on-premises.

Setting the Default Presenter Permission in Microsoft Teams

Richard Green on 22nd May 2020

Last week, we posted the second of our Microsoft Teams Tips videos on our YouTube channel where we discussed setting the presenter permission for your meetings. If you haven’t seen this then please, take a look and let us know what you’d like to see us discussing.

Since we posted that video, Microsoft has now, silently as far as we can tell from the blog and tweet spheres, made a change in Microsoft Teams that allows you to configure the default presenter permission for your organisation.

Understand the People in my Organisation Group in Microsoft Teams

Richard Green on 1st May 2020

In Microsoft Teams there are a number of pre-defined permission groups that are offered for us to use. The People in my organisation setting is one that you may be immediately drawn to when you are looking to, for example, restrict who is a presenter in a meeting by setting the user roles, however, this group includes more people than you realise.