Why is Skype for Business installed with 365 Business

[Ian Osullivan]

We have a customer that have purchased licensing for Office 365 Business. To my knowledge this doesn't include access to Skype for Business. Despite this during the installation of Office 365 applications on a Windows PC, Skype for business is installed and configured to start up during log-on. Prompting users to try and log-in which doesn't work due to the level of service that they pay for.

To make matters even more confusing the error that is displayed after an unsuccessful login attempt complains about the DNS settings being incorrect. I know that the DNS settings are perfect and the Lync DNS connectivity tester passes without problem. I have also manually entered the Internal and External Servers as sipdir.online.lync.com:443 within the Skype for business 2016 login options (bypassing external DNS requirements) and it still doesn't work.

So does anyone know why Microsoft have put Skype 2016 in the installer for a product that doesn't allow access to Skype 2016? It's making life extra difficult having to explain this all to my users!

Thanks for reading and any help/suggestions are greatly received. 

[#2]

Hi Ian,

There are a number of ways that you can procure Skype for Business including On Premises and Online options. The purchase/subscription for access to the Office suite (through the Office 365 Business subcription, or through any other means) is separate to obtaining access to the Skype Server/Service.

As a practical example, your organisation might have a Skype for Business On Premises installation. You have a new staff member starting who requires the Office suite so you purchase the suite using the Office 365 Business subscription, which includes the Skype for Business client. Or another scenario could be that you use Skype for Business Online via the Skype Online Plan 1 or Plan 2 subscription, in which case you would also want access to the Skype client.

I don't believe there is any current way to automatically restrict which applications are installed by default through the Office 365 portal. There is a process to do this manually if you're interested:

https://technet.microsoft.com/library/dn745895.aspx

If your staff are trying to sign-in to Skype4B, perhaps there is a desire to use the application or a business driver and you might consider looking at the Skype for Business Online Plan 1 or Plan 2.

Regards,

Peter