2018

Posted on May 1, 2018 by Galappaththi

Along with the latest “Skype for Business capabilities to Microsoft Teams Roadmap” announcement on 30/04/2018, one of my customers requested a simple summary of the Microsoft Teams development to the date.

Hence, I extracted the full roadmap from the Office 365 Roadmap and filtered the list as below for easy reference.

Thought of sharing the same here in case someone else is looking for the same information.

Title	Status
Microsoft Teams – Message Retention Policies	Launched
Microsoft Teams – Skype for Business Interop with Persistent Chat	Launched
Microsoft Teams – Import Contacts from Skype for Business	Launched
Office 365 Groups: classification is available when creating or modifying a group across apps	Launched
Microsoft Teams – Outlook scheduling add-in	Launched
Microsoft Teams – Sharing chat history	Launched
Microsoft Teams – T-Bot user guidance	Launched
Assignments on mobile and tablet	Launched
New ways how to interact with	Launched
Planner: Access Microsoft Teams plans in Planner Hub	Launched
Microsoft Teams – Hide/Share/Mute chat	Launched
Microsoft Teams – Messaging Interop IT Policies	Launched
Microsoft Teams – Lobby Support	Launched
Microsoft Teams – Give and Take control in sharing	Launched
Microsoft Teams – Safe Transfer	Launched
Microsoft Teams – Share/Mute chat	Launched
Microsoft Teams – Anonymous Join	Launched
Microsoft Teams – Transfer to PSTN Call	Launched
“My Tasks” App in Microsoft Teams.	Launched
Microsoft Teams in India Datacenter	Launched
Microsoft Teams – WhoBot	Launched
Microsoft Teams – External access – guest in a team	Launched
Microsoft Teams & Skype for Business Admin Center	Rolling out
Microsoft Teams – Unified Presence	Rolling out
Microsoft Teams – Messaging Policies	Rolling out
Microsoft Teams – Contact Groups	Rolling out
StaffHub: Communicate across platforms with Teams Interop	Rolling out
SharePoint news – aggregation into Microsoft Teams chat	In development
Microsoft Teams- eDiscovery Enhancements (calling)	In development
Microsoft Teams – Enable Call Quality Analytics	In development
SharePoint pages in Microsoft Teams	In development
Microsoft Teams Availability for US Gov	In development
Microsoft Teams: Team Templates	In development
Microsoft Teams in Canada datacenter	In development
Microsoft Teams in Australia datacenter	In development
Microsoft Teams – Consultative Transfer	In development
Microsoft Stream: Recorded Microsoft Teams meeting automatically uploaded to Stream	In development
Microsoft Teams – eDiscovery Enhancements (Meetings)	In development
Microsoft Teams in Japan Datacenter	In development
Microsoft Teams – Support for existing certified SIP Phones	In development
Microsoft Teams – 1:1 to group call escalation with Teams, Skype for Business and PSTN participants	In development
Microsoft Teams – User-Level Meeting Policy	In development
Microsoft Teams – Trio One-Touch Teams Meetings Join	In development
Microsoft Teams – Enable VTC Interop Services	In development
Microsoft Teams – Surface Hub Support for Teams Meetings	In development
Microsoft Teams – Skype Room Systems Support for Teams Meetings	In development
Microsoft Teams – Federated Meetings	In development
Microsoft Teams – Outlook meeting schedule from other platforms (OWA, OLK mobile)	In development
Microsoft Teams – Lobby for PSTN callers	In development
Microsoft Teams – PSTN Fallback	In development
Microsoft Teams – Large Meeting Support (~250)	In development
Microsoft Teams – Cloud Recording	In development
Microsoft Teams – Broadcast Meetings	In development
Microsoft Teams – Escalate 1:1 Chat/Call to Multiparty (3 or more people)	In development
Microsoft Teams – Hybrid Connection to Teams	In development
Microsoft Teams – Support for features for USB Devices	In development
Microsoft Teams – Calling Support between Teams and Skype Consumer	In development
Microsoft Teams – Organizational Auto-Attendant	In development
Microsoft Teams – Forward to Group	In development
Microsoft Teams – Do not Disturb breakthrough	In development
Microsoft Teams – Distinctive Ring	In development
Microsoft Teams – Call Queues	In development
Microsoft Teams – Boss and Delegate Support	In development
Microsoft Teams – Out of Office Support	In development
Microsoft Teams – Whiteboard and Meeting notes	In development
Microsoft Teams – PowerPoint Load and Share	In development
Microsoft Teams – Shared Line Appearance	In development
Microsoft Teams – Location Based Routing	In development
Microsoft Teams – Group Call Pickup	In development
Office 365 Groups created from Microsoft Teams will be hidden from Outlook by default	In development
StaffHub: IT Admin Portal Reporting and Capabilities	In development
File viewers and Pickers in Teams	In development
Microsoft Planner for GCC	In development
Microsoft Teams – Federated Chat between Teams and Skype for Business	In development
Microsoft Planner: Guest User Access	In development
Microsoft Teams – Mute Other Participants	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – Audio Conferencing in over 90 countries	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – Translate user input to standard format phone number	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – Voicemail	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – Suggested Contacts	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – Speed dial	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – Simultaneous Ringing	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – Multi-call Handling	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – Hold	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – Extension Dialing	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – e911 Support	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – Caller ID masking	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – Call Forwarding	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – Call Blocking	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – Blind Transfer	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – Teams Interop Policies	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – SfB-Teams Calling	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – Client Support	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – TTY Support	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – Call Quality Diagnostic Portal	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – Interactive Troubleshooting	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – Enable Existing Calling Plan Support	Previously released
Microsoft Teams- Application Sharing	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – Edge, Chrome Browser Support for meetings	Previously released
Microsoft Teams in Office 365 Education updates to Assignments experience	Previously released
Microsoft Whiteboard Preview	Previously released
ATP For SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Teams	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – Support for larger teams	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – UK datacenter	Previously released
Usage reports update: new report for Microsoft Teams	Previously released
Audio Conferencing Preview in Microsoft Teams	Previously released
Microsoft Teams improvements for Class and Staff Notebook	Previously released
StaffHub: Benefit from Microsoft Flow Integration	Previously released
Microsoft Teams on iOS: Meeting join capabilities	Previously released
US Government: New capabilities in Firstline/Kiosk license	Previously released
Microsoft Teams – PowerShell configuration	Previously released

Note: This information is valid for the time of writing this post and may require further updates.

Microsoft Teams – Architecture Overview…

Posted on April 11, 2018 by Galappaththi

teams

I told a customer “Microsoft Teams is NOT a Skype for Business replacement, the next version or upgraded skin for it” and he asked “Then what it is?”…my reply was “It is the next generation Intelligent Communications platform” and now I’m writing this blog based on that 🙂

This is such times I see customers increasingly overwhelmed and trying to digest the Microsoft Teams move given the Roadmap is well published and transparent to all.

Specially, the current Skype for Business On-prem and Hybrid customers are struggling in “fit in” to the bandwagon since the perception of the “Cloud” has not been accepted as a matured service platform in some corners of the world.

The bottom line is that the technology has been advanced to an ultimate level we face “evolve or die” situation where Unified Communication has no exemption.

It is very important to be convinced that the Teams is not yet another product from Microsoft which we install and run on our computers and devices. It has been completely changing the way we communicate and will be the immediate future of a single pane of glass.

From the architecture point of view Microsoft Teams is a complete ground-up platform constructed based on cloud centric Microservices service model while Skype for Business was built on Monolithic model.

The best advantage I see in this new architecture is the intelligent Teams client which can operate on different platforms without signifying fundamental differences in each instance, which means Teams client can apply updates without platform boundaries.

The completeness of Teams is all about rich user experience of Azure AD, Office 365 Groups, SharePoint Online, OneNote, OneDrive, Exchange, PowerBI, Machine Learning and brand new Chat/Calling/meeting platform in one window.

So, I wouldn’t introduce Teams as a next SFBO, but the “next generation Intelligent Communications platform”…

Microsoft Teams Calling Application Preference

Posted on April 1, 2018 by Galappaththi

–————————————–Please see the most updated post here-————————————–

I’ve been recently working with a customer to enable PSTN calling for Skype for Business Online for a group of pilot users and realised that the customer had assumed that Microsoft Teams should be automatically function just like the SfB client but it wasn’t the case.

It raised an important flag of importance to follow Microsoft Official Guidelines for transitioning from SFBO to Microsoft Teams with the controller in the hand.

However, the customers who have adopted Microsoft Teams alongside with SFBO should clearly understand the basis of client preference for fully featured calling experience. Technically, if they have both SFBO and Teams enabled and being used, the default user experience would be;

SfB client can make and receive PSTN calls
Teams client can make PSTN calls but not receiving an incoming call toast
It both clients running on the same device, SfB client receives the incoming PSTN calling toast
If the SfB client is not signed in but Teams client is running, the incoming call will be forwarded to the Voicemail
If the user has clients running on multiple devices (multiple point of presence), any SfB client or App will take the precedence of incoming call

How to change this behaviour?….pretty easy…

Microsoft added Microsoft Teams Inter-op policies last year by introducing some new Power-Shell commands to SFBO command list to control this behaviour during the transition. these policies can control both Chat and Calling Default client behaviour but we are focusing on Calling in our scenario.

The default Global policy is always applied to all users and set as below;

default

Here, CallingDefaultClient : Default is which means SfB client is preferred. (Default always means SfB Client/App)

To override default Global policy, administrator should assign a pre-defined custom policies (Tags) or create a new policy;

interop

we can choose 2 Tags out of 7 in our case as below;

Scenario 1 – if you need to change the Calling Application Preference without user intervention, use below tag which makes the Teams as the preferred client for all Incoming and outgoing PSTN calls.

allowed teams

Command : Grant-CsTeamsInteropPolicy -PolicyName Tag:DisallowOverrideCallingTeamsChatTeams -Identity UserA@fabrikam.com

Scenario 2 – if you need to keep the default configuration but allow users to change the Calling Application Preference by themselves, use below tag which enables a drop down box listing client options within Teams settings section.

Allowed true

Command : Grant-CsTeamsInteropPolicy -PolicyName Tag:AllowOverrideCallingDefaultChatDefault -Identity UserA@fabrikam.com

Once, this policy is applied users should exit and sign-in to Teams Client to make this effect. (If changes not visible, don’t be panic…its cloud and may take like 10 minutes…try again)

The new options will be displayed as below;

pref call

and test a call…you must see the incoming call toast on Teams client now…

call incoming

This configuration will be added as part of new SfB and Teams Admin console soon…no to Shell then 🙂

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-au/MicrosoftTeams/configuring-teams-calling-quickstartguide

Microsoft Teams & Skype for Business Admin Centre – UPDATE

Posted on March 25, 2018 by Galappaththi

As per the blog post from last September, Microsoft has been tracking according to the plan and currently transitioning admin centre experience in Tenant level. A note has been added to the https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/manage-teams-skypeforbusiness-admin-center

notice

Here is the summary of the features being added to the new Admin centre;

Microsoft Teams messaging policy: Create policy for user-level management of the Microsoft Teams client experience for Messaging scenarios.
Microsoft Teams interop policy: Configure the interoperability experience between Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams.
Microsoft Teams guest messaging settings: Control the messaging capabilities for guest accounts in Microsoft Teams.
Federation settings: Manage the federation between tenants for Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business.
User management: Assign policies and configure user accounts.
Audio conferencing: Configure dial-in numbers and settings for Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams.

It will exciting times when this process is complete and available…fingers crossed…

First Look – Telstra Calling for O365 on Microsoft Teams…

Posted on March 23, 2018 by Galappaththi

As per my previous blog, this service now announced in Australia and expect to be generally available in few months time.

The service description does not include Microsoft Teams yet but technically it does not prevent using PSTN services for Teams since the new number is automatically assigned to the same user enabled on SFBO (unless Teams is explicitly disabled).

Here is a screenshot of my first user enabled on Teams with a Western Australian phone number;

da07470e-55ac-415a-92aa-81a836b3230e-original

There is nothing new about the technology but I’m excited since it worked in the first place 🙂

The Australian Version of “Calling Plans” just revealed…

Posted on March 22, 2018 by Galappaththi

I was privileged to work with Telstra and Microsoft Australia during last 3 months (under NDA) on formulating a strategy for Australian customers to be able to own a phone number for Microsoft Teams or Skype for Business Online as a part of Office 365.

The official launch event held in Sydney on 19/03/2018 at the Telstra customer experience centre https://www.telstra.com.au/business-enterprise/solutions/collaboration-conferencing/cloud-collaboration/telstra-calling-365

Current service enabled countries;

countries

The new service is named as “Telstra Calling for O365 (TCO)” and now in preview with first 35 customers chosen by 7 Australian partners. Australia is the 11th country being added to the service but quite different from the other 10 countries’ model.

Microsoft solely acts as the PSTN provider in all other cases except the very first partnership model developed for Australia. Telstra, Australia’s premier communications provider will provide the PSTN capabilities directly via Microsoft datacentres in Sydney and Melbourne leaving Microsoft to provide the Office 365 front-end for customers.

The purchasing experience will be slightly different from the global model but the service enabling process is quite similar via same O365 control panel.

There will be 3 calling plans instead of 2 plans elsewhere, below is a glimpse of the new calling plans;

and here are the special conditions to be considered;

I’m helping few preview customers as I write this article and hope to provide further updates during the preview period. Stay tuned…

What is Direct Routing in Microsoft Teams?

Posted on March 13, 2018 by Galappaththi

Microsoft recently unveiled the latest options for enabling voice in Microsoft Teams using a new method “Direct Routing”, previously tagged as “bring your own trunk (BYOT).

medium

Why this is more attractive is there will be no requirement of maintaining any kind of on-premises service components that SfB used such as an on-prem SfB pool or a Cloud Connector Edition as the minimum.

This capability will allow customers to choose a certified Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams (subject to availability in countries) which could be preferred Sip provider of a customer or use a certified Session Border Controller (SBC) from a vendor such as Audiocodes or Ribbon Communications.

The first method simply provides the flexibility of choosing a preferred Sip provider opposed to the default Microsoft PSTN offering.

But, in reality, it will be difficult and challenging to transform on-prem telephony to a direct route over night due to the technical limitations and specific customer telephony requirements being built-up over the time.

So, using a certified SBC would be the best options for established businesses to transform their telephony with peace of mind.

large

The SBCs may be the ideal option if you have;

a significant investment on a contact center solution which needs to be intact but not to be excluded (inter-op)
specific anloag services such as Fax, boom gates, fire alarms, doors etc.
an existing SfB/Lync enterprise voice environment with multiple number ranges
established Auto Attendant and Response Group based services to be available during the transformation
specific number presentation/manipulation requirements

The bottom line is SBCs are relatively cheap appliances and has been in the market ever since Sip services’ existence, so it is proved tech we can leverage in many ways.

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Microsoft-Teams-Blog/Direct-Routing-enables-new-enterprise-voice-options-in-Microsoft/ba-p/170450

Note: Microsoft Teams is rapidly evolving as I write this post and we expect to see the feature parity gap is closing by the time of General Availability of the service.

New Microsoft Teams and Skype admin centre…

Posted on September 30, 2017 by Galappaththi

As per the last Microsoft Ignite announcement, we will see a new single pane of glass Admin centre for both Skype for Business online and Microsoft Teams.

The current O365 Admin Centre has no Microsoft Teams dedicated admin space other than the settings section.

ad4

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The new admin centre is one more step closer to the overall Teams “look & feel” re-confirming the future of SFBO.

Manage Microsoft Teams and Skype in a single admin experience

Image captured from official blog https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Blog/What-s-new-in-Office-365-Administration-Ignite-Edition/ba-p/110337

OCS R2 Cumulative Update 6 issue…

Posted on August 26, 2010 by Galappaththi

Microsoft Released OCS R2 CU 6 (kb 983472) in end of July , 2010 on the same day I applied the updates running a test ending up with an issue. A well operated OCS R2 server was stopped with failed Front end services just after the CU6 application.

The CU6 applied 13 major updates bundled in a single installer listing below

The update KB983472 causing this problem and front end services started up once uninstalled this update selectively.

Microsoft immediately released a workaround as to install OCS2009-DBUpgrade.msi (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2032834) and reinstall KB983472 to rectify the problem.

Immediately next day Microsoft removed kb 983472 and re-released http://support.microsoft.com/kb/968802/en-us article which includes the solution in the order of installation.

This release is tested and works fine…ready to go… Smile

OCS R2 Standard to Enterprise upgrade

Posted on August 26, 2010 by Galappaththi

If anyone suppose to upgrade an OCS R2 Standard server to OCS R2 Enterprise on Windows Server 2008 R2 platform using same hardware by following uninstall and reinstall option, these points might useful in before hand.

OCS R2 does not provide in place upgrade to Enterprise from Standard resulting some additional steps as below,

Create new OCS R2 enterprise pool and add a new OCR R2 enterprise server to Pool (preferably in VM environment if additional physical server is not present)
Move all SIP users accounts to new Enterprise Pool
The new Enterprise server is used for uninterrupted services while the transition
Uninstall OCS R2 standard server on physical server
Install OCS R2 Ent on the same server so that we’ll get 2 enterprise servers running in same Pool
Uninstall temp (VM) Enterprise server from the pool and the Swap operation is done.

Issue

If you try to install OCS R2 Enterprise on the same server which was prepared by decommissioning previous OCS R2 Standard server (unformatted), there will be an unexpected problem of starting up below 04 services in first place.