SOF: Provision Skype Room Systems Accounts at Scale
With the launch of Skype Room Systems v2, we recently updated the Skype Operations Framework (SOF) with a new set of changes to provide guidance on Plan, Deliver and Operate this new rich collaboration solution. One of the most valuable assets of this release is about scripted provisioning of the user accounts for the Skype Room Systems v2 devices: https://www.skypeoperationsframework.com/Downloads?SelectedIDs=5_2_0_5 Skype Room System v2 devices are designed in a way that each device requires a unique user account. Each room account should be enabled for a Skype for Business meeting room, and associated Exchange room mailbox should be created and configured for each account for these fancy devices to function properly and deliver the best meeting experience. Depending on the number of meeting rooms and devices, as well as the range of deployment options available with Active Directory, Exchange, and Skype for Business services, the account provisioning process may be complex and time consuming. In addition to the existing script that we released to provision device accounts easily for Skype Room Systems solution, we are proud to announce an easier way of doing the same at scale, in an error-free fashion. This new script, provided as part of the Skype Operations Framework brings many enhancements like: Quickly enable 1s, 10s, 100s, or 1000s of meeting rooms Error free & consistent account enablement and configuration Online, On-Premises and Hybrid support New account creation or support for converting existing accounts License assignment for Online and Hybrid deployments Configure voice features Detailed reporting of the enablement and configuration activities The Skype Room Systems Provisioning script will: Create new user accounts or re-use existing on Active Directory Assign Office 365 licenses for Online and Hybrid deployments Create Exchange room mailbox Configure Exchange calendar processing for automatically accepting meeting requests Configure Exchange Mail Tips so that users can be informed proactively about the new experience when scheduling meetings Configure Skype Meeting Room All you have to do is to create an input file with the account details, and let the script configure all the accounts for you. We strongly recommend you download the Skype Room Systems Account Provisioning asset and start enabling your rooms. Resources To learn more about the Skype Room Systems, please check the provided resources below. Skype Room Systems Account Provisioning Training: http://aka.ms/sof-srsv2-script Skype Room Systems v2 Technical Training: http://aka.ms/sa-srsv2 SOF Meeting Room Solutions Training: http://aka.ms/sof-srsv2 Device Rationalization Workshop: https://www.skypeoperationsframework.com/Downloads?SelectedIDs=4_4_0_13 Skype Room Systems Accounts Provisioning Scripts and Input Files (zip): https://www.skypeoperationsframework.com/Downloads?SelectedIDs=5_2_0_5 If you have any comments, questions or feedback, please let us know via the SOF Community and our feedback site.Skype Operations Framework July 2017 Update
We are excited to announce what's new in Skype Operations Framework (SOF), since our April 2017 release, to showcase customer success and how we've improved your SOF experience. Published additional stories of customer success with Skype for Business Online. Launched a new workbook to help customers / partners plan for success as a first step in their journey. Delivered a new Skype Academy experience. Simplified key Deliver and Operate assets, based on customer/partner feedback. Extended the coverage of SOF to cover 3 rd -party hardware/software/services. New Customer Success Stories SOF has helped customers not only deploy Skype for Business, but realize the many benefits by leveraging the SOF framework, including cost savings, infrastructure streamlining, and delighting employees. To showcase this success, we added new customer success stories of customers who have successfully deployed Skype for Business E5 workloads by leveraging the SOF framework. Planning for Customer Success Workbook Before delving into SOF, we've learned the importance for customers and partners to identify and understand critical considerations in the early Planning stages and created the Planning for Customer Success Workshop. To accompany this workshop, we've created the Planning for Customer Success Workbook to showcase business value and the benefits of Skype for Business within an organization, rather than focusing on technical implementation. New Skype Academy Experience When we started providing technical and SOF readiness training through Skype Academy, we only had a few Readiness sessions available. However, over the last year, our training materials grew substantially, so we decided to add a few new features to Skype Academy. Our goal is to give customers and partners a better learning experience, including personalized training plans, the ability to add/remove training assets to your plan, and the ability to track the progress of your learning path. To find out more, please visit the full launch blog here. SOF Simplification We strive to make it easier for customers and partners to leverage SOF. As part of this release, we consolidated several assets in the Deliver and Operate phases based on your feedback, and we continue to work on further simplification going forward. As part of this initiative, we have updated the Get Deployed and Cloud Migration interactive guides and their associated downloads and navigation. We have updated the training here on Skype Academy with the new assets. Direct Links to Assets Deliver Phase Testing Guidance Delivery Guide User Enablement Delivery Guide Site Rollout/Migration Planning Delivery Guide Adoption Guide Operate Phase Basic Troubleshooting Guide Usage Measuring Guide CQD for Skype for Business Online-Delivery and Operations Guide Hybrid Management and Operations Guide Hybrid Environment Monitoring Guide SOF Aligned Partner Assets We are very proud to launch an exciting, new extension to SOF. We are publishing SOF-aligned guidance, created by our key partners, to help you integrate their hardware / software / service as part of an SOF project. This SOF practical guidance, provided by our key partners, builds on top of the SOF assets and gives you the project information you need, through the lens of Plan, Deliver, and Operate. We continue to iterate on SOF, and you should expect future updates to SOF-Aligned Partner Assets. AudioCodes is the first partner to provide this level of guidance with additional partner guidance to follow soon. Please visit the SOF Aligned Partner Assets page to download their first version of this asset. Feedback Please join the conversation in the SOF Community and share your thoughts and experiences, about our new updates and more, via our feedback site.Register now: “What’s new in SOF, July 2017” release webcast
Update: Thank you for your interest in the "What's new in SOF July 2017" session. We have received feedback that this clashes with Inspire so we have taken the decision to act on that feedback and cancel the webcast. Instead we will provide our update via our blog instead, please look out for this update in the week of July 10th. For those of you who are attending the Inspire conference in Washington DC we look forward to meeting you and discussing SOF at the Microsoft booth. The Skype Operations Framework (SOF) team is excited to announce that, in July 2017, we will release the latest update for Skype Operations Framework. In the webcast we will address the changes to SOF since our previous release - register on Skype Academy now! What's new in SOF, July 2017 edition 10 July 2017 from 08:00 AM-09:00 AM PSTSOF Aligned Partner Assets
SOF Aligned Partner Assets We are very proud to launch an exciting, new extension to the Skype Operations Framework (SOF). We are publishing SOF-aligned guidance, created by our key partners, that helps you integrate their hardware / software / service as part of an SOF project. This practical guidance provided by our key partners, builds on top of the SOF assets to give you the information you need in your project through the lens of Plan, Deliver, and Operate. We continue to iterate on SOF, and you should expect future updates to SOF Aligned Partner Guidance. AudioCodes is the first partner to provide this level of guidance with additional partner guidance to follow soon. Please visit the SOF Aligned Partner Assets page to download their first version of this asset. Overview of the AudioCodes SOF Aligned Workshop This workshop introduces AudioCode's solution offerings and where they fit within the overall SOF process, while planning and delivering Skype for Business to continually ensure quality and reliability, by driving adoption and user satisfaction. This SOF asset will give partners and customers the opportunity to leverage content and materials directly from AudioCodes when starting the journey to Skype for Business. The AudioCodes One Voice portfolio provides an extensive offering of voice enabling technology, including Cloud Connector Edition (CCE) Appliances, IP Phones and other connectivity requirements (including Analog Devices, Call Recording, Advanced Routing management, and much more). How does this workshop help me? In the AudioCodes SOF Aligned Asset, partners and customers can walk through the conversation of how the AudioCodes CCE Appliance can help empower them to simplify the overall deployment of CCE. This includes the overall introduction to the CCE Appliance models, common deployment scenarios, and checklists to ensure relevant information is collected to validate proper connectivity during deployment. As the workshop continues, next they can address more complex CCE environments that could require additional complexities including centralized CCE environments with advanced voice routing enforcement requirements to ensure calls are being routed to the appropriate PSTN sites behind the CCE. As a closing piece to the workshop, practical guidance for Analog devices in Cloud PBX scenarios are presented to ensure the appropriate design is created, while confirming all key factors (examples, cable lengths, device types, etc.) are taken into considerations. The above information combined with the overall SOF guidance, customers and partners are now able to plan and deliver their voice infrastructure with Cloud PBX. Resources The following are resources to consider at the start of your SOF Journey: AudioCodes SOF Workshop AudioCodes Training Options Call to action Download the latest SOF assets from skypeoperationsframework.com. Discuss with us in the SOF Community. Hardware / software / service partners can register interest in creating their own SOF-aligned guidance and have it published on the SOF site, by visiting the registration link here.The Secret for Success with Skype for Business? Focus on End User Experience and Satisfaction
Great companies recognize their employees are their most valued asset. They invest in a vast myriad of ways to develop, motivate, and enable them to do their best work and drive the company’s mission. In today’s highly connected and fast-paced world, there can be no doubt that making sharing and collaboration easier, eliminating common workplace frustrations and barriers to productivity, can be highly motivating. Given this, it’s something of a mystery that many of these same companies choose to implement collaboration and productivity solutions with little to no focus on end user experiences or the adoption journey. They invest in technologies with huge transformational potential and then jeopardize their ROI by neglecting proven business axioms like the importance of understanding target audiences, driving effective awareness and readiness, and enabling senior and frontline managers to both drive and support changes that impact their people. At Microsoft, we’re committed to providing products and services that help customers build more business value faster. Foundational to our definition of customer success is the concept of individuals and organizations achieving more, whatever that means to them. With the powers of calling, conferencing, video and sharing all in a single cloud platform with rich Office 365 integration, Skype for Business can accelerate and boost customer success in a way that no other collaboration solution can today. We’re confident in the enterprise class service delivered by Skype for Business. We proudly work alongside customers, supporting and witnessing their successes. We also recognize that end user experiences are heavily influenced by factors related to the intersection of the Skype service and each customer’s organization. A few examples articulate the point: During implementation planning, is there a robust sponsorship coalition (i.e. executive sponsors who set the vision and key LOB managers accountable for execution) to ensure tight alignment across expected business outcomes and related technical requirements for the project? As the benefits of decommissioning old telephony systems are celebrated, is there a solid plan to ensure users have the right devices for high quality calls and meetings with their internal colleagues and external customers? As costly audio conferencing contracts are scheduled for termination, has a transition plan been fully communicated to end users, including new or different functionality, with sufficient awareness and the right readiness resources to help them prepare? Inarguably, an over-pivot on tangible, short term benefits happens in most projects. Defining technical deployment success criteria that are disconnected from the business that the solution aims to serve is all too common. Unfortunately, the longer-term cost of these common missteps is high, putting ROI at risk. Here’s the simple truth – users who perceive their needs and experiences are well understood and prioritized as part of a technology rollout (by senior leadership, their IT department, and their direct manager) are far more likely to adopt. It’s only through this successful end user adoption that tangible benefits and sustained business value for the organization are realized. This critical understanding of the connection between reliable, quality experiences, delighted users and customers achieving their business outcomes (and ROI!) is the reason we created the Planning for Customer Success Workshop as part of the Skype Operations Framework. The Planning for Customer Success Workshop and companion Customer Success Plan Workbook share valuable insights and facilitate self-assessment against 6 critical success factors for Skype for Business: Sponsorship, FastTrack & Partners, User Satisfaction & Adoption, Endpoints, Network, and Operations. By surfacing these 6 critical success factors early in the planning process, customers are enabled to more accurately assess their organizational readiness, that’s technical and user readiness, ensuring success with Skype for Business. Fully informed, prioritized decisions and investments can be identified, ensuring great user experiences and optimized business outcomes. Ready to learn more about the 6 critical factors for delighted users and huge success with Skype for Business? We’re ready to help! Call to action Check out the Planning for Customer Success Workshop and accompanying Customer Success Plan Workbook. View the training for Planning for Customer Success Workshop. Check out the O365 Adoption Guide for valuable guidance on driving user readiness, adoption and effective organizational change Discuss with us in the SOF CommunitySOF Quality User Experience published recordings
On January 16th, 2017, the Skype Operations Framework (SOF) team published the SOF Quality User Experience release. Please view our announcement here: SOF Quality User Experience release If you missed our live trainings, delivered from January 17 to January 19, or want to watch them again, you can find the recordings here: What's new in SOF, January 2017 edition by LesterHewett Managing a high quality and reliable service delivery by Brandon Bernier Roles and Responsibilities beyond Skype for Business operations by MartinRinas More trainings can be found via the Skype Academy. If you have any comments, questions or feedback, please let us know via the SOF Community and our feedback site.
SOF Plan and Deliver Updates for Meeting Migration Service and Regionally Hosted Meetings
We recently released an update to the Skype Operations Framework (SOF) in December 2016, with a new set of changes to the Plan and Deliver phases. In this post, we would like to talk specifically about the SOF updates for the Meeting Migration Service (MMS) and Regionally Hosted Meetings (RHM). For SOF training about MMS and RHM, review the following resource: here For technical training on MMS, please check out the following resources. RHM technical trainings will be released once we are closer to General Availability of the feature. MMS Training: https://aka.ms/sa-mms Blog: https://aka.ms/sa-mms-blog What was updated for MMS? The following Stages, that are part of the Plan and Deliver phases, were updated for SOF. Plan – Envision We added content in the Envision stage, to help start the conversation around Scheduled Meeting Migrations. The key outcome, is simply to introduce the workshop audience to the available options for Scheduled Meeting Migrations. Asset Updated Envisioning Architecture Workshop Plan – Design For the Design stage, we modified two architecture workshops, with additional content to cover the key concepts of MMS. We will start by re-introducing MMS, as the audience may be different than the Envisioning Architecture workshop. Then, we discuss Service Prerequisites and Limitations before moving on to Impact Planning and User Experience. We end the conversation, with a few MMS best practices, and talk briefly about the Meeting Migration Tool (MMT) and manually scheduling meetings. The key outcomes for the architecture workshop include: Are you not able to use MMS and why? Does your migration strategy require the use of MMT? Do you need to disable MMS? Assets Updated Cloud PBX Architecture Workshop Cloud PBX Architectural Document Cloud PBX Architecture, Coexistence and Migration Workshop Cloud PBX Architecture, Coexistence and Migration Design Document Also, included in the Design stage, the Client Migration workshop has a minor update to the Scheduled Meeting Migration topic reminding the audience what steps are necessary if using MMT or MMS. Asset Updated Client Migration Workshop Client Migration Design Template Deliver – Deploy For the Deploy stage, we updated the following assets, to capture and prepare for the pending deployment, based upon the key outcomes from the Design stage. Assets Updated Deployment Guidance Checklist: New task for Cloud PSTN Conferencing to prepare for meeting migration. Testing Matrix: Update to hybrid testing to verify successful meeting migration. Site Rollout and Migration Planning Playbook: Update to user enablement for user based tasks. What was updated for RHM? The Stage updates were updated for RHM to be implemented during the Plan and Deliver phases. Plan – Envision In the Envision stage, the Discovery Questionnaire is updated to capture several key indications for RHM (based on user distribution across the globe) and the readiness of the network infrastructure to support an RHM implementation. There is also a question whether the organization that you are working with intends to implement RHM. These indicators are captured early to better prepare you for delivering workshops in the subsequent stages and phases of the engagement. The result is, you can receive an early indication that RHM is not applicable to the engagement, and therefore allows you to skip the RHM conversation entirely in the subsequent stages and phases. To support RHM-related discussions in the Envisioning Architecture and Execution Planning workshops, we updated the decks and documentation templates to incorporate RHM where applicable. This helps you guide the organization that you are working with, to best decide how RHM will be implemented and to determine the timeline of the project, based on the level of changes required in the network infrastructure to support RHM. Assets Updated Discovery Questionnaire Envisioning Architecture Workshop Execution Planning Workshop Envisioning Workshop Wrap up Vision and Scope Plan – Design For the Design stage, like MMS, the two architecture workshops were modified with new slides to cover the key concepts of RHM. We’ll start by re-introducing RHM as the audience may be different than the Envisioning Architecture workshop. We then move into discussions on Prerequisites for RHM implementation such as network configurations, tenant-level configuration to enable support for RHM, available data locations (ADLs), and preferred data locations (PDLs). A new asset is introduced here to support detailed planning for RHM, the Regionally Hosted Meetings playbook. The playbook is intended to capture site-level details of user distribution and plan the PDLs to be assigned throughout the organization. The RHM playbook serves as reference document when you complete the Site Rollout and Site Questionnaire document, and provides you with the complete view of data locations that must be associated with the organization (in form of list of ADLs to be used when enabling the tenant to support RHM). Aside from updating the workshop decks for, the we also updated the document templates to include RHM sections. Assets Updated/Added Cloud PBX Architecture Workshop Cloud PBX Architectural Document Cloud PBX Architecture, Coexistence and Migration Workshop Cloud PBX Architecture, Coexistence and Migration Design Document Regionally Hosted Meetings Playbook (new) Deliver – Deploy For the Deploy stage, we made some minor updates to the following assets to capture and prepare the deployment regarding the decisions made during the Design stage for RHM implementations. Assets Updated Deployment Guidance Checklist: New task for the enablement of RHM support at the tenant level. Site Rollout – Site Questionnaire: Additional columns to include PDL information of the site and PDL assignment per user. Site Rollout and Migration Planning Playbook: Add the task to verify tenant level configuration to support RHM has been performed, and verify that the user enablement script input file has been created to include the correct PDL data. Site Rollout Tracking: Minor update to reflect PDL of a site. Deliver – Enable In this update, we incorporate RHM enablement in the Enable-SkypeBusinessVoiceUsers.ps1 script that you can use to bulk-enable or migrate users to Skype for Business Online. The update to the enablement script will take advantage of the updated CSV file generated by the Site Rollout – Site Questionnaire workbook that includes the assigned PDL for each user. The script’s documentation was also updated, to provide some additional guidance for the enablement script. Assets Updated Enable-SkypeforBusinessVoiceUsers.ps1 User Enablement Scripts DocumentationRegister now: SOF Operations release trainings
The SOF team is excited to announce that in January 2017 we will release a number of assets to help customers and partners to operate Skype for Business. Together with the release of our new assets, we will host three live trainings – register on Skype Academy now! What's new in SOF, January 2017 edition 17 Jan 2017 from 08:00 AM-09:00 AM PST Speaker: LesterHewett This session introduces you to the Skype Operations Framework (SOF) Operate Release, which covers what’s new in SOF since September 2016. This session covers updates to existing assets in the interim and new features that we have added to the SOF web site to make it easier to consume and use SOF. Audience: CTOs, Architects, partner portfolio leads Level: 200 Customer Journey: Get Deployed, Cloud Migration Managing a high quality and reliable service delivery 18 Jan 2017 from 08:00 AM-09:00 AM PST Speaker: Brandon Bernier This session helps you to find answers for “How do I run a Skype for Business Online deployment to deliver great experience to my end users and value to the business?”. What’s involved in user experience, what is delivered by Microsoft and where are you responsible? This session helps you to be prepared for ongoing operations and decide on an operations model. Audience: Collaboration Lead/Architect, Service Owner, IT Admins Level: 300 Customer Journey: Get Deployed, Cloud Migration Roles and Responsibilities beyond Skype for Business operations 19 Jan 2017 from 08:00 AM-09:00 AM PST Speaker: MartinRinas Which teams are involved in running a Skype for Business Online deployment, what tasks need to be performed? This session helps you to identify the operational roles and map them to teams delivering these operational roles/functions. This allows you to align for operations early and make sure that all teams are ready to engage as soon as the pilot starts. Audience: Collaboration Lead/Architect, Service Owner, IT Admins Level: 300 Customer Journey: Get Deployed, Cloud Migration Register on Skype Academy now!
