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Using Microsoft Teams Team Members as Call Agents for a Skype for Business Call Queue


With Skype for Business Cloud PBX, members of a Microsoft Team can be used as the Call Agents in a Call Queue (Preview at this time). This means if a Microsoft Team contains the members you want as Call Agents in a Call Queue, just assign the Microsoft Team as the "Call Agents" in a Call Queue and you are done! Talk about integration. Talk about setting up groups one time and reusing them! I'm impressed.

How is this configured? Just setup a Microsoft Team as usual  and add the members. (In a hybrid scenario these members can be in the cloud or on premises).

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Okay, now we have some members setup in our Team.

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(Note that we might need to wait a bit for this Team to show up in Skype for Business Admin portal)

Now let’s navigate to the Skype for Business Admin Center in Office 365. (Skype for Business admin center | call routing | call queues | add new/edit). Let’s go to the “Call Agents” field. Note that you don’t enter individual Skype for Business users here, instead Exchange Distribution Lists are entered. Since a Microsoft Team is an Exchange DL behind the scenes you can search for a Microsoft Team just like an Exchange DL. Let’s search for our “Marketing” Team. Sure enough, there it is and we’ll select it.

Note, you can select more than one Exchange DL/Microsoft Team. Nice!

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Now we need to wait a bit till the Microsoft Team contacts are sync’d into the Call Queue. You will get a notification message indicating this. (show below) This notification will go away momentarily, but doesn’t mean its finished quite yet, keep an eye on the Call Queue “status”.

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Watch the Call Queue until the “Status” no longer indicates “Synchronizing your agent list…”

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When syncing is complete you can make a test call to the Call Queue and all the members of the Microsoft Team (that are Skype for Business enabled, presumably!) will ring. I say: “Very Nice!”


Other Related Items:

Configuring Office 365 Cloud PBX Call Queue's In Receptionist Scenarios
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX5aCJS6irM

To see more Microsoft Teams User Tips:
http://windowspbx.blogspot.com/search/label/MicrosoftTeamsUserTip

[Video] Learn Microsoft Teams in 5 Minutes:
http://windowspbx.blogspot.com/2016/11/learning-microsoft-teams-in-5-minutes.html

Office 365 Skype for Business Admin Center Appears to be Moving to New Skype for Business Colors

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Cloud PBX Auto Attendant Business Hours functionality is now in Preview for those in the Preview program and it seems new functionality coming into the “Skype for Business Admin Center” is getting the new Skype for Business color scheme that has been already delivered in the Skype for Business client. (below)

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In November 2016 the Skype for Business client got some significant user interface changes which included new colors. One interesting thing to note with new functionality appearing in the Dec Auto Attendant Preview is that it appears the “Skype for Business Admin Center” may be moving to the new colors as well. The old Skype for Business color is shown on the left & new on the right. (below)

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New Skype for Business client user interface:
http://windowspbx.blogspot.com/2016/11/skype-for-business-november-2016-user.html

Auto Attendant Preview New Features:
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Skype-Operations-Framework-Skype/New-Call-Queues-Preview-and-updated-Auto-Attendant-Preview/ba-p/35787?attachment-id=904

“Chat-Based” Solutions Seem Fond of Video: Microsoft Teams Included Video at Preview Release & Slack Announces They Are Adding Video

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Microsoft released their Microsoft Teams chat-based workspace with several differentiators from Slack, a key one of them being video. On 12/12/2016 Slack announced it was adding video as well.

How is Slack video different that Microsoft Teams video?

  • 1 to 1 Video is included in Slack’s free product but not group video. (Parity)
  • Group Video (up to 15 people) is only available on one of Slack’s paid plans. ( -1)
  • Slack has “Emoji Response” which appears to be analogous to Periscopes “Heart” feature that allows users to give feedback in real-time that floats up alongside the video (+1)
  • Slack doesn’t mention scheduled video meetings which is a current feature of Teams. (-1)
  • Slack doesn’t include Screen sharing (-1) which is a current feature of Teams.

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At the moment neither Microsoft Teams nor Slack store a recorded version of video meetings which could be quite interesting and tie in nicely with “chat-based” collaboration that is searchable, especially if they would include a “speech to text” translation with the recording.

Read More:
https://slackhq.com/slack-calls-now-with-100-more-video-50bf365a0d98#.3vldiw644