Skype for Business Online gets huge Enterprise Feature overhaul

Skype for Business Online gets huge Enterprise Feature overhaul

Updates, Key Features and More Geo Expansion

On Monday, at Enterprise Connect in Orlando, Microsoft made two huge new features “Generally available” for all users in all Office 365 regions for Skype for Business Online – Auto Attendant and Call Queues.

  • Auto Attendant provides an automated system to answer and route inbound calls using dial pad inputs and speech recognition. This is available in over 90 countries (basically wherever “service numbers” are available) and supports a magnitude of languages and locales.
  • Call Queues (think hunt groups) enables incoming calls to be routed to the next available live attendant in the order they are received. This is like a mini contact centre functionality and one of the most anticipated / requested features.

These new key features continue the rapid product development made in Skype for Business over the past six months which, as a recap, include the following;

  • iOS CallKit integration
  • Skype for Business client for Mac
  • Expanding PSTN Conferencing to over 90 countries with dial-out to 180 countries
  • Extending PSTN Calling services to France, Spain and the UK, with preview currently available in Netherlands and Ireland. This is part of an aggressive EU expansion.
  • Skype for Business Server Cloud Connector edition to connect on-premises telephony assets to the Office 365 cloud voice solution

Here at Cisilion, we are seeing a huge amount of renewed interest in Skype for Business as our customers (especially those already using or considering other Office 365 services) look to replace their legacy and expensive conferencing, meeting and phone systems.

Skype for Business allows our client’s to enable their employees to make and join online meetings, as well as to make, receive and manage calls right within Office 365 across any office,  across any device. The greatest benefit of moving their communications to Skype for Business is the ability to consolidate all their meeting and calling systems into a single solution and streamline provisioning and administration. Skype for Business Cloud PBX also provides central management capability within the Office 365 admin console, making it seamless for IT to manage communications alongside email, content and collaboration.

Microsoft have also announced a “preview” of their new Skype for Business Online Call Analytics – a new dashboard in the Office 365 admin console that will provide IT with far greater visibility into call and network quality to help identify and address user call issues caused by the network, device and even down to headset/handset problems.

Get Started now with Cisilion

It’s easy to get started with Skype for Business – our simple, Pilot programmes cover everything you need to get informed, ensure your network is ready and get started with Skype for Business Online.

For more information please get in touch.

Rob Quickenden, Chief Strategy Officer at Cisilion