Five Essential Skype for Business Resources

Today Microsoft began rolling out Skype for Business to the world (the client became available today, with Skype for Business server due on May 1). And industry sources agree: It promises to be a game changer. Here are five online resources to help with the transition:

Skype for Business the #UCRevolution Has Begun

It’s official! The new #Skype4B client is here, rolling out in the April #Office update. http://t.co/8ITGQj8qNU
— Skype for Business (@SkypeBusiness) April 14, 2015

1. Online Webinars to Bring You Up to Speed

Microsoft's Channel 9 has released an online course that demonstrates the new ease of deployment and enhancements to enterprise Lync represented by Skype for Business. Topics include ideal network conditions, server management, core improvements, new meeting and video investments, and how to address network impairments.

2. Change Management and Adoption

Introducing a new UI to your users can be the cause of a whole lot of heartache if you don't prepare them for the change. Here's a series of Microsoft resources to ease the pain, including a communication plan for your users, training videos, a reference guide and online help and support documentation.

3. Toggle Between UIs

If your users aren't fully prepared: You have the ability to toggle back to the familiar Lync user interface. This video shows you how.

4. End User Webinars

Seeing is believing, so Microsoft is offering a series of webinars over the course of the next four weeks, all focused on end users so they can see for themselves the benefits of the new Skype for Business communication and collaboration functions.

5. Skype for Business 2015 Protocol Workloads Poster

Lync engineer Corey Goodchild says that having a workload poster was "priceless for understanding the traffic flows in Lync Server." Download this Skype for Business poster to better understand requirements of Skype for Business 2015 servers and clients under different levels of service complexity.

Catch up on all the Skype for Business developments from the Microsoft Ignite conference and bring home some technology toys at our May luncheon events, featuring Microsoft Voice Solutions specialist Christian Burke and Karan Mehta of Audiocodes.

Donald Wisdom

Don Wisdom is a channel industry veteran with a career spanning over 30 years. Mr. Wisdom has been responsible for leading Datalink Networks growth from the beginning of the internet era, through the dot.com boom, to Datalink Networks' modern comprehensive set of IT solutions today. Datalink Networks' track record of growth over decades is based on serving clients with high value managed solutions covering Infrastructure, Cloud, and Security. Datalink Networks will continue to act as a trusted partner to our clients, by providing high value Enterprise IT solutions and highly trained consultants and engineers that can meet the challenges of IT professionals everywhere.