Microsoft FastTrack is available to help eligible customers onboard and drive user adoption of Skype for Business Online. With FastTrack, you get remote expert guidance and online resources from Microsoft that can help you achieve success in every phase of your journey, so you can get the most from your Skype for Business Online investment.
We started FastTrack for Office 365 more than two years ago to help organizations worldwide move to the cloud with confidence and realize business value faster. As we learned from experience and refined and expanded our offerings, we added additional adoption services and provided more extensive and in-depth resources - from user scenarios and communication templates to best practices and training materials.
Today, FastTrack for Office 365 serves more than 4,000 new customers every month, and we also work with thousands of partners worldwide to help plan successful rollouts, enable new services, and improve time to value. In addition to the online resources we provide, more than 800 FastTrack engineers and managers offer expert guidance remotely, in 12 languages, to customers and partners in all markets. Since its beginning in September 2014, FastTrack has assisted more than 40,000 customers, and customer satisfaction with the Office onboarding experience has improved more than 66 percent.
FastTrack provides assistance for Skype for Business by working with customers and their partners
When you or your Microsoft certified partner request our guidance for onboarding and user adoption of Skype for Business Online, you're adding our remote experts, methodologies and resources, and tools and insights to your team. We can work directly with you, with your partner, or both. Your responsibilities, or those your partner assumes on your behalf, include such things as developing and implementing a success plan, identifying and engaging internal stakeholders, and managing resources appropriately. And in addition to providing detailed resources and step-by-step guidance for every phase of the onboarding process, FastTrack responsibilities include assisting you with success planning; providing feedback on key areas as needed; working with you to assess your existing infrastructure; and providing a remediation plan that brings your source environment up to the minimum requirements for successful onboarding. (Check Microsoft TechNet for a detailed explanation of the FastTrack process and a complete list of both customer/partner and FastTrack responsibilities.)
Depending on your specific needs and what you outline in your Success Plan, FastTrack provides Skype for Business Online guidance to help you:
- Configure your Domain Name Server (DNS) and firewall
- Set up user provisioning (including licensing)
- Set up Skype for Business to enable IM and presence
- Deploy a supported Skype for Business Online client
Where applicable and as needed, FastTrack can also offer guidance you need to configure:
- Room system devices
- Hybrid and split domain servers
- PSTN conferencing
- Cloud PBX with PSTN calling
- Skype Meeting Broadcast
For your Cloud Voice implementation, your FastTrack team will provide an overview of the Skype Operations Framework (SOF), the proven Microsoft methodology and toolset for implementing Skype for Business. From there we will share guidance and recommendations based on SOF, enabling you to:
- capture your business requirements
- define the architecture and approach
- assess your technical readiness for the services
- complete remediation activities
- implement a successful user-adoption strategy
Should your organization want assistance in executing these tasks, or require custom development work, FastTrack can work in alliance with your Microsoft Communications Certified partner, forming a three-way partnership between you, Microsoft and the partner to help accelerate your business results.
Learn more about FastTrack services for Skype for Business Online, and check your eligibility to find out whether you qualify for specific benefits. You can also visit the Microsoft FastTrack web site to explore product-specific resources and, when you're ready to get started, request our assistance.
