Skype Room Systems v2: known perf issue for Surface Pro (2017)-based devices
Skype Room Systems v2 devices based on Surface Pro (2017) have been observed to exhibit performance issues under usage conditions where wired laptop sharing, dual displays, and multiple remote video streams are all present. This article explains repro conditions, possible workarounds, and steps being taken to resolve the issue.Enhancing Skype for Business Online Meetings for external participants
We heard you that joining online meetings for external participants was too complicated. We have worked hard to make improvements to this process, I am happy to share details on these improvements that will be live for all our Office 365 customers middle of April 2017: Simplified meeting join experience with single-click join experience for Internet Explorer Join audio conference via PSTN call back Always fresh client Optimized screen real-estate for content sharing and collaboration. This new experience has been released to our on-premises customers with the May 2017 update for Skype for Business Server 2015. See this article to learn how to enable this in your on-premises deployment. Let’s walk through a scenario to cover the entire meeting join experience and improvements end-to-end. Remember Garth from our training on Tenant Dial Plans? Garth is with Contoso, and he is scheduling a Skype meeting with his customer Alice. Garth schedules the meeting in his Outlook client and adds the Skype Meeting into the invite, and Alice accepts the meeting invite. However, Garth is now is wondering how Alice can join his meeting. Does Alice have Skype for Business? If not, how would she be able to join the meeting Can Alice download and install the Skype Web App on her PC? Does she have local administrator rights on her machine to do so? What about a headset, how will Alice be able to join with Audio into the Skype Meeting? Garth is wondering if is there a need to tell Alice what she needs to do to join the meeting? Let’s see what happens. Alice does not have Skype for Business installed on her PC, nor does she have local Administrative Rights on her machine. Alice clicks the Join Skype Meeting link in the invite and installs the Skype Web App. The installation requires no administrative rights on her machine and completes after a few seconds. After the installation, she clicks the Join the meeting button. The new Skype Web App starts, she enters her name, and is connected to the meeting. Garth already shared a PowerPoint deck, the Web App automatically selects the best layout for the shared content and they can start the meeting. The Skype Web App UI is optimized for screen real-estate for content sharing and collaboration. A yellow notification told her that she is using Skype for Business Audio and Video. She can also either dial-in or choose to use the call-me back function. This is useful in scenarios where external participants don't have an audio device like a headset available. Note: call-me back requires AllowAnonymousUsersToDialOut to be enabled by the IT Admin in the conferencing policy of the meeting organizer. The new Skype for Business Web App has several additional improvements: Experience a faster, reliable, and more efficient screen-sharing experience The new Web App supports video based screen sharing (VBSS) improving the overall user experience in the sharing session. Disabled controls Controls to share content are disabled for attendees. Once promoted to presenter, these controls will light up and they can start to share the screen or other content using the Skype for Business Web App. Save Settings When exiting the meeting, the Skype for Business Web App will ask to save the current settings like the display name and preferred audio join method (IP audio, dial-in or call-me when available) for the next meeting. Sign-In with Office 365 Account Instead of joining as a guest, you can also sign-in as an authenticated user using your Office 365 Account. Always Fresh Client The Web App will check for newer version when joining a meeting. If an update is available, it downloads in the background, and you will join the meeting. After the meeting has ended the Skype for Business Web App will update itself. Newer versions of the Web App are backward-compatible with earlier versions of the Web App, e.g., you don’t have to install an older version if you join a meeting that is hosted in an on-premises environment. Rate your meeting quality and help us improve A brief survey will be presented to users joining from a Windows computer through the new Skype for Business Web App experience; while you will not be able to access this data, Microsoft will use it to improve the experience further. Garth is happy again, Alice could join the meeting right away even as this was her very first meeting with Skype for Business.Skype for Salesforce is available in public Beta!
Skype for Salesforce is available in public Beta for all customers with both Skype for Business Online and Salesforce Enterprise or Unlimited Edition, as announced in the Office blog "Boost seller productivity with Skype for Business and Salesforce" published on 9/29/2016. Skype for Salesforce is a multi-tenant JavaScript based web application built utilizing Skype Web SDK. This Beta supports Single-Sign-On with your Skype for Business Online account once across different machines and browsers. We need your help to pilot this application, and get your feedback and comments to improve it. This post describes the available features and shares additional setup and usage information to get you started for piloting. Please do not hesitate to contact us by leaving a comment here, if you need additional assistance in setup and usage. Your feedback is highly appreciated. As mentioned in the Office blog post, this integration requires Lightning Experience. The following features are embedded in Salesforce Lightning as Public Beta, along with supported Browsers and version requirement: Skype for Business Presence, outbound Chat - Edge (38.xxxx +) - Safari (8.x on Mac OS X) - Firefox (most recent stable versions) - Chrome (most recent stable versions) - Outbound Audio and Video call - Edge (38.xxxx +) - Safari (8.x on Mac OS X) To prepare for piloting requires a one-time setup consisting of 3 steps, to be performed by your Office 365 tenant administrator, and by your System Administrator for Salesforce Organization. Step 1: Enable the Skype for Salesforce application for your Office 365 tenant Logging to your Salesforce organization with System Administrator credential, go to “Setup Home”, type in “Skype for Salesforce” in the “Quick Find” box, clicking “Skype for Salesforce”, you will see the following: Move the toggle to enable Skype Presence and Chat (Beta). Note that the user who performs this operation requires “Customize Application” permission. Step 2: Allow the Skype for Salesforce application to have access to Skype for Business on user’s behalf On the same page from Step 1, you will also see the following. This is to go through administrator consent flow for this application to access Skype for Business Online. Click “Authorize Skype for Salesforce”; this lands you to Azure Active Directory login page as follows: Enter your Office 365 tenant administrator credential to sign in. This brings up the Administrator Consent page as following. Review and click the “Accept” button to complete the setup. Step 3: Create a Permission Set with “Skype Conversation” permission, and assigning the permission set to all the Salesforce users you want to be able to utilize the Skype for Salesforce application Logging to your Salesforce organization with System Administrator credential, go to “Setup Home”, type in “Permission Sets” in the “Quick Find” box, clicking “Permission Sets”. Click “New” to create a new Permission Set. Provide a label and accept the default API name, ensure the License field remains “None” as default, and then click “Save”. Click “System Permissions” at the bottom of the page, click “Edit” on the page for the new Permission Set, check “Skype Conversation” permission and “Customize Application” permission checkbox, and then click Save button on the same page. On the resultant page for the new permission set, click “Manage Assignments” button, and then click “Add Assignment”, check the Salesforce user name you want to enable utilizing the Skype for Salesforce application and then click “Assign” to complete this step. Now, all users in the Salesforce organization with the permission assigned, and the corresponding Office 365 users in the Office 365 tenant are now able to utilize the Skype for Salesforce application inside Lightning Experience. The following 3 steps describe the 1st run experience, i.e. the first time that you use your Office 365 account in your Lightning Experience: 1. To start, you will first log in to your Salesforce organization, on the top of the Lightning Experience page, you will see following: 2. Click on "Connect My Office 365 Account", you will the see a sign-in banner like following: 3. Click the "Sign in" button to the log in to Office 365, this redirects your browser to Azure Active Directory sign in page. Enter your Office 365 account credential to proceed. Upon successful login, you will see a connection status banner similar as following: From hereafter, you will no longer need to enter your Office 365 account credential, even if when you switch to a different machine and/or use different browser to continue using this application. In other words, cross-platform SSO is enabled for your Office 365 account. The following steps describe how to view embedded Presence and have outbound Chat, Audio/Video conversations. You can hover over a contact in Salesforce Lightning experience to see the presence of other Office 365 users in your tenant, as shown below: The above assumes that you have already added other Office 365 users in your sales “Opportunities” or “Leads”, or added other Office 365 users via Salesforce "Chatter" feed. Of course, you can view Presence status for users from “People” tab as well. Click on “Message” pops up a Skype Conversation Control window for you to start chatting with the other user. On Chrome or Firefox, the Skype Conversation Control does not show audio and video call buttons, these are only available if you are using either Edge or Safari browser. Feel free to start either chat or make audio and/or video call, schedule and start meeting with your colleagues, from any of your machines and browsers, and please give us your feedback or comment, here!
