Why Skype for Business Migration to Microsoft Teams?

Skype for Business Vs Microsoft Teams

Skype and Skype for business have been the leading platforms for personal and professional communication alike for the longest duration of time. Be it online chatting, voice calls, video calls or conference calls, it covered all and to the extent that it became a rage among the organizations in every sector. It became the sole synonym to any kind of professional communication, providing the most convenient and secure pathway to connect and collaborate.

But with time, requirements change. So, when Skype for Business was already ruling almost 90% of the market, Microsoft decided to launch something that could surpass the best of the expectations that Skype was popularly known for. It came up with its new collaboration software- Microsoft Teams.

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Different between Skype for business vs Microsoft teams

Microsoft Teams: A better alternative to Skype for Business
Microsoft had designed Teams while keeping the exponentially increasing popularity of Remote work in mind. It aimed at forming a hub for teamwork in the most effective way possible. It was designed to unleash the power of teams, be it 10 people or 1000 and so does its name suggest.

Apart from the basic features of Skype, Teams allowed large scale collaborations by enabling Intra and Inter-organizational audio and video conferences as well as allowing Live events, thus bringing the whole world at a single click. Moving on the same path, Teams combines one to one messaging, group messaging, voice calling, video conferencing and document collaboration into a single integrated application to enable exciting new ways of working together.

Benefits of Microsoft Teams

• For Businesses:
• Faster decision making
• Reduced number of real-life meetings
• Enhanced information-sharing
• Easily scaled mobility and productivity
• For End-users:
• Time-efficient
• Inline translation
• Recordability and replayability of meetings
• Real-time co-authoring
• For IT teams:
• End-to-end Security
• Admin controls
• Less downtime
• Improved performance
• Easy bot integration

Why Skype for Business Migration to Microsoft Teams?

Skype for Business vs Microsoft Teams has been a matter of debate since quite a time now. For long, Skype for Business has been the most popular communication and collaboration platform satisfying various needs of the organizations for so long, but everything has a shelf life and the shelf life of Skype is nearing its end.

On the other hand, Microsoft Teams is a much advanced and modern option that can let us experience the latest technologies to achieve bottom-line benefits and productivity. It’s the future of organizational communication.

Skype of Business End Of Life

Skype for Business, though widely used across organizations, has reached its saturation point where no further updates can help it match the current business requirements. Therefore, July 31, 2021, has been slated to be the date of its retirement. After this date, Skype for Business Online will no longer be accessible or supported.

Thus, the overall communication of the organizations using it as their sole communication and collaboration channel will suddenly experience a crisis. To bypass this scarcity then, it is recommended that these organizations slowly move from it to its better counterpart- Teams, so that the change is slow enough for the employees to adapt to it.

Taking up the decision to move to teams now itself will ensure proper time for upgrade and deployment. Taking up this early migration decision can also provide you ample time to go for a pilot test with a selected group of users and understand all the pros and cons that might crop up when the real Skype for business migration to teams is executed.

All we need to remember is that technology might be quite good, but it is underproductive unless the users get acquainted with it. So, early decision to go for Migration from Skype for Business Online to Teams will play a vital role in accessing user willingness for this upgrade and will allow us to plan any training program in advance if required.

Adoptive and Adaptive Measures

The most important aspect involved in this change is the question of adoptability-be it organizational adaptivity or user adaptivity. Since this movement from Skype to Teams will change a lot about the way the organization functions, it is very important to throw a light upon the strategies that will ensure that Teams get to fit in the work culture that has been habituated of using Skype for years.

We can start with flexible options such as using Teams and Skype for Business parallelly or go for adoption strategies like community engagement programs and contextual training to highlight the team’s advantages quickly for users.

• Deployment plan to be undertaken
• Start with the internal users
• Start with coexisting teams and skype approach
• Go for the pilot test
• Assess the user’s readiness to migrate
• Assess user acceptance and put efforts to make them aware of the advantages of this platform shift
• Go for a slow, optimized change
• Coexistence plan

As an existing Skype for Business customer, a complete transition to Teams might be somewhat tricky and time taking. However, we can start early by letting the users experience Teams alongside Skype for Business and let them realize themselves how it is better than Skype. Gradually introducing it will ensure least user resent and better adaptability which will further allow them to embrace Teams as their sole communication and collaboration channel in future.

Microsoft provides Teams and Skype for Business coexistence and interoperability options to aid in this process of adaptation. By this method, a user after migrating to Teams no longer needs to use a Skype for the Business client except to join a meeting hosted on Skype for Business. All incoming chats and calls are automatically directed to the user’s Teams client, regardless of whether the sender uses Teams or Skype for Business.

Along with that, any kind of events or meetings organized by the upgraded users is automatically scheduled as Teams meetings. If the user attempts to use the Skype for Business client, initiation of chats and calls gets blocked. However, Skype for Business clients is still used to join meetings they are invited to.

These were the immediate measures that can be undertaken to initiate the journey from Skype for Business to Teams. Let your workplace be acquainted with Teams and then, Plan for a complete SharePoint migration to it.

The next generation SharePoint Migration Tool

SEATTLE - Aug. 1, 2016 - Saketa, premier programs, and solutions supplier in SharePoint Migration Tools, world, admits now that they are going to launch a new amazing product -- Saketa SharePoint Migrator and the beta version of the item is launching on 15 August 2016.

 

Since SharePoint Online Migration Tool continues to thrive among lots of the world's largest organizations in offering a secure and trustworthy content management platform, a growing number of organizations are seeking to transfer the content from their previous legacy content management platform to the most updated version of SharePoint Migration.

 

The organization needs the right tool to migrate effectively and mitigates risk with higher fidelity. The solution that guarantees the organization that the migration is completed in time, on a budget, and easily.

 

Saketa SharePoint Migrator is just what the business need so as to conduct a successful migration. Saketa Migrator can migrate business processes quickly, hassle-free and cost-effectively. It supports migration into both internet and on-premise variants of SharePoint, a part of Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft's cloud-based office suite, file server, local hard drives and is completely compatible with Microsoft SharePoint APIs and methodologies.

 

The Principal objective of this Item is to offer high-speed data migration solution to SharePoint clients and creating migration an effortless process

 

Saketa is a SharePoint Migration Productivity Suite that offers alternatives for an efficient collaborative digital workplace. Our solutions help enterprises quickly start and grow their SharePoint environment. Our offering includes Saketa Migrator (SharePoint Migration Tool to aid with O365 transfer ), Saketa Intranet Suite (Ready-to-use SPFx established Intranet/digital office application productivity widgets) and Saketa Business Apps (Ready to work with SharePoint Apps), using its utility across Small, Medium and Large Enterprises across Industry vertical.

 

Saketa's Programs are built on a solid frame, that is easy to maintain, update and personalize. It's compatible across O365, on-premise and hybrid setup. Our solutions help enterprises leverage SharePoint and encourage company collaboration and productivity.

 

We are HQ in Seattle, WA. Contact us at (425) 2074603 to reserve a personalized demo or write to us at sales@saketa.com

Migrate SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint Online

Microsoft SharePoint 2010 is one of the most used SharePoint versions. But soon, it is slated to see the end of its life.

SharePoint Migration Tool

Why Migrate SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint Online

Being the go-to platform of many organizations, it can become quite difficult to replace it after it reached its end. Therefore, it is essential to have a contingency plan in hand and start executing it ASAP as the clock is ticking away. The best solution for this is to opt for migrating from the On-Premise SharePoint 2010 version to Office 365 or other newer versions of SharePoint.

When you choose to migrate from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint Online, a lot of factors are to be examined beforehand. The two main factors would be- Choosing the best migration approach and finalizing the best tool for SharePoint Migration. The best option is to opt for O365, as it is emerging to be the most popular choice and the most widely used platform around the world and can be a good alternative to the only On-Premise SharePoint 2010.

A downside of SharePoint 2010 On-Premise is that it uses an Active Directory for its users and authenticating or granting permissions can turn out to be troublesome while migrating. Further, all the data that will be destroyed as soon as the 2010 version meets its doom can be quite catastrophic for the organizations using it and measures must be taken by them to migrate to other SharePoint versions before it’s too late.

So, what exactly does SharePoint 2010 End of Life mean?

Microsoft had stopped the SharePoint 2010 mainstream support way back in 2015. The final date to stop the extended support is slated to be October 13, 2020. Meaning, SharePoint 2010 is very close to its official end date.

Even though the platform won’t become non-functional, the lack of support will make sustaining in it very risky as from then on, no more updates or security patches will be released for it. Users need to make sure that they take the appropriate steps before this extended support expires.

Many organizations that are still using the SharePoint 2010 platform might land themselves up in severe business functional crisis. They might face some serious security breaches if they don’t migrate to other SharePoint versions soon.

Not just the above-mentioned factors, but there are some other factors that might stir trouble in your organization-

• Your SharePoint version is SharePoint 2010 or older

• You don’t have SharePoint yet but wish to upgrade your on-premise data to it

• Your existing depository or environment is not SharePoint

• You have a total overhaul unstable environment.

• Content is distributed improperly, and folder structures are shallow.

• Performance issues are high, and you want to improve your content database performance.

• You require a modern portal and have a good amount of time in hand.

• Leverage Your Transformation Journey

By now, we can safely say that SharePoint 2010 migration is a necessity and migrating to a newer version of SharePoint is the best, safe and only strategy to get you out of this problem. Now, here lies the million-dollar question- which version of SharePoint to choose? No doubt, the new On-Prem versions are just as good as any and choosing them would be a viable option. But the smarter option here is to choose Office 365. Because, the cloud version of SharePoint has proven to be robust, secure, user-friendly and can integrate many new tools that enhance collaboration, communication and productivity.

Microsoft Office 365 is quite useful, and many organizations are preferring it over On-Prem versions. This is because, O365, the cloud version of SharePoint is not just a platform for document sharing, but also a platform that supports all the new applications that are quickly gaining momentum such as Yammer, Delve, Teams etc.,

This is the right time to give your digital infrastructure an upgrade that boosts your business growth to a new level and increases your employee efficiency substantially. Leverage this opportunity to modernize all your data and promote Digital Transformation in your organization.

Planning a good SharePoint Migration Strategy

Without proper planning, migrating all your data can be prone to a series of errors and the result will be quite disappointing. To achieve successful migration and to avoid unnecessary errors and rework, it is imperative that we have a good, foolproof plan in place and the plan needs to be executed with perfection.

Keep the following points in mind before planning your strategy-

• While making the inventory, one thing to be taken care of from your side is to segregate the contents that are worth keeping, the ones that are to be relocated and the ones that are no longer needed

• Plan the perfect time for carrying out the migration so that it can be carried out during the downtime of your business

• Keep backup plans handy so that none of your business processes gets effected drastically in case the migration takes longer than expected

• Opt to migrate in phases

• Plan the mapping of orphan users

• Prepare a list of deprecated features of SharePoint 2010 and plan how to handle their absence

• If you are opting for O365, make sure you have proper licensing

The last, but not the least,

• Choose the appropriate migration tool

Once you are ready with your migration plan, do a thorough market research about it and find the best suited tool for you. Choose the best time for your migration and let the tool do all the work.

Pre-Migration

Knowing what you have in SharePoint and managing the inventory, is crucial in the process of upgrading your SharePoint to a newer version. Relevant information such as list of custom contents, site maps, content edited web parts, third party tools involved etc., needs to be taken care of.

We would recommend Saketa SharePoint Migrator, which has a dedicated Pre-Migration check feature that records all data before migration, keeps a record of them and warns the user about all the potential risks associated with the migration.

You can also utilize the PowerShell feature of our tool that allow you to script your migrations and can precisely make the inventory report of only the required parts of the SharePoint. Thus, if you have a good knowledge of PowerShell, using it for inventory will be a great option.

Migrate

The next and arguably the most important step is the actual process of Migration. With our tool, migrating your data is a piece of cake.

Just follow these steps to migrate-

• Select the required Migration Type

• Select the Source and destination of Migration

• Perform the User Mappings if required

• Set your Migration Settings

• Start your SharePoint Migration

Post- Migration

After you’re done with SharePoint 2010 Migration, you must run the post-migration check to validate that all the data have been migrated properly. Once the check displays that there are no errors, you will have achieved a successful migration of all your data and are now ready to use the latest version.

Conclusion

No matter the size of your organization, an appropriate digital platform is always recommended and with the trend of Digital Transformation, it has become a necessity. Sticking to SharePoint 2010, whose end is near can result in unnecessary last moment hassle.

Migrating from SharePoint 2010 is a complex process and be can be quite tedious, but now it is the only solution to salvage all your data. Investing in Digital Transformation today can ensure an uninterrupted growth in the future.

So, think about the big picture, be smart and choose wisely!

External Sharing With SharePoint Online

External Sharing With SharePoint Online

External Sharing with SharePoint Online 

At any given point in time, every organization needs to share its content with end-users, clients or partners, who are not a part of the organization.

So, What is External Sharing?

The External Sharing is a feature of SharePoint Online, through which users in your organization share content with users outside the organization such as partners, vendors, clients, or customers.  

Different Options to share content in SharePoint Online

Before configuring External Sharing settings first, you need to know the different options that are provided by SharePoint Online. You can choose any one of them, depending on your need and requirement.

1. Anyone

Through this option, you can share content using anonymous links that don’t require sign-in. Anyone who has the link can access the content i.e. view, edit and share with others. It’s recommended to not share any sensitive information with anonymous users because you don’t have a proper tracking of who is accessing what.  

2. New and Existing Guests

This options allows to share content with existing external users and, you can also share it with new external users. But they must sign in or provide verification code to access the content. Whenever you share content with them, they will receive an email invitation that contains a link where they need to sign in. Then, they’ll be added to your organization’s Azure Active Directory as a guest. If they don’t have work or school account, then they need to enter verification code every time and are not added to your Azure AD. 

3. Existing Guests

With this option, sharing content with new external users is not allowed. But the external users who already exist in your Azure AD by accepting sharing invitations can access the content. 

4. Only People In Your Organization

You cannot share content with external users with this option. If external users already have access to your content, then they will lose access to it. Only users within your organization have access to your data. To prevent external sharing completely, prefer this option. 

5. Configure External Sharing Settings

Choose this option to share content externally in SharePoint Online and One Drive for Business. You need to select one option from above and, along with it, you also need to configure some External Sharing settings at below levels so that your content is more secure. The levels are as follows-  

1. Organization level 
2. Individual Site level 
3. File or folder or item level 

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