Forum Discussion
Teams and Skype for Business co-existence
Hi,
You could run your deskphones in 3PIP mode for TeamsOnly users. So even if moving a user to Teams Only you don't have to switch the deskphone to Teams native firmware.
If you keep your receptionists in Skype for Business you should have them in one of the Skype* Coexistence modes. It the receptionists answer a call they will be able to transfer them to TeamsOnly users.
You could also check out some of the attendant software available for Teams now when the APIs are available in preview. With this your receptionists could use their computers connecting calls instead of a deskphone.
Thanks for the quick reply....do you mean something like anywhere365.io? Issue is our receptionists prefer desk phones as when they are running around the office and need to answer a phone quickly, they can do it faster from a desk phone than by logging into their PC (if its locked) and then answering.
So, we have the T48S and T48G Yealink phones with the expansion modules which work well with SFB, so again, if we keep them on SFB and move everyone else to Teams, they will be able to communicate/call/transfer with each other? How about the receptionists themselves? Will they need to continue using SFB even on their PCs or can they use Teams on their PCs and SFB on their desk phones? How will chat work? Note that only the receptionists have desk phones, all other users mostly use the SFB PC client for now.
Thanks
reditguy Yes, something like them. Not sure if they are accepting POC customers currently but they use the same API as other vendors so I guess they will be there soon. Some of these products have a mobile client so that they can pickup calls on the move, or use a Surface computer when running around.
You can even move your receptionists to TeamsOnly and they will be able to connect with their Skype phones to Teams and receive calls and transfer them to other users. All 3PIP (Third Party Ip Phones) will work with Teams using the Skype interface in the phone. It is first when Skype Online is dead (july 2021) they will get limited functionality (not sure exactly what functions) and after that the 3PIP phones will work until July 2023. But by then I hope the Teams interface in deskphone will be better, but T48S and T48G will not work after 2023 with Teams.
Thanks guys...so to confirm, below is what I plan to do.
Move receptionists to Teams on their desktops and mobile apps, and leave desk phones on SFB (Islands Mode)
Move everyone else to Teams across all platform (Teams only)
In this method, receptionists can still transfer/conference calls with Teams users with internal users, and easily transfer calls from external users.
All users can still chat with each other.
Does this seem correct?
EDIT: Let me know about the above...but I did the below as a test.
Our coexistence mode is set to Islands
Our receptionist account/main number is set to Org-Wide, which I guess is Islands mode (but she is using SFB on her desktop and desk phone)
I set my account/number to Teams only
Test1: I called the main number and the receptionist was able to TRANSFER the call to me successfully, the call showed up on both my Teams desktop client and my SFB Yealink desk phone
Test2: I called the main number and receptionist was unable to successfully CONFERENCE the call....the conference call request came into my SFB desktop client (and not Teams) and my SFB Yealink desk phone (this part is OK), but any reason why the conference call came into my SFB desktop client and not Teams? I tried exiting SFB on the desktop but then the conference call request just came into my SFB desk phone.
Thoughts?
Thanks.
Hi,
what features are you missing on the Teams phones? Directory search?
I would expect that we hear some news around Ignite when we can see some improvement in this area.
As Linus pointed out you have two options if you want to keep your SfB/3PIP phones:
1. Move receptionists to TeamsOnly and use the gateway service MS provides for the 3PIP phones. There is a blog post showing what features are available in this scenario. And yes basic calling including transfer is possible. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Skype-for-Business-Blog/Skype-for-Business-Certified-IP-Phones-with-Microsoft-Teams/ba-p/286073
2. Leave the receptionists in an SfB* mode with their SfB phones. If you keep them in an SfB* coexistence mode they will have SfB for Calling and Chat on their PC. Depending on the mode they can use collaboration with teams and create Teams meetings. More can be found here https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/upgrade-and-coexistence-of-skypeforbusiness-and-teams
I would start with option 1 and test your scenarios and see if it fits your requirements.
