It reached feature parity with Skype for Business Online some time ago and has now surpassed the functionality which Skype can deliver, with a feature-rich roadmap published by Microsoft. Microsoft Teams was released in February 2017 and since that time has proven to be the fastest growing business application released by Microsoft, with over 500k organisations, more than 91% of the Fortune 500 and recently surpassing Slack with more than 13 million active daily users. Transforming Teamwork at the City of London Corporation At Agilisys, we have extensive experience of deploying Microsoft Teams - click here to read about our experience at the City of London, and how Teams is transforming ways of working within the organisation. If you are at the start of your Microsoft 365 transformation and planning to roll out Skype for Business Online, we recommend you rethink your approach and consider rolling out Microsoft Teams instead to avoid having to migrate your user base again within the next two years.Planning your Teams deployment now will give you time to get your governance defined and configured ahead of widespread deployment.We would recommend that you start to plan your move to Teams-only now - this will allow plenty of time to effectively manage the business change and drive successful end-user adoption.This means for existing Skype for Business Online customers, it will continue to be business as usual for the time being.You don't need to panic - you effectively have 24 months to plan your move to Microsoft Teams.From September 1st this year all new customers will be directly onboarded to Microsoft Teams, with no access to Skype for Business Online.

Organisations with hybrid server and online Skype for Business configurations will need to transition online users to Microsoft Teams to maintain cloud-based access and functionality.Consumer Skype and Skype for Business Server are unaffected by this announcement.

After 31st July 2021 all access to and support for Skype for Business Online will end.

This gives you two years to plan and execute your move from Skype for Business Online to Teams-only. Yesterday Microsoft announced the end date for Skype for Business Online, which will be officially retired on the 31st of July 2021.

Skype online end of life