Dear colleagues,
For the past few months, the UITS Communications Planning and Implementation team has been updating IU’s telephony system, moving from Microsoft Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams Calls. This change was necessary due to Microsoft Skype for Business’s impending end-of-life date of January 2024.
By moving to Microsoft Teams Calls, we expect to reduce the number of physical phones that are plugged into the IU network, lowering costs, and increasing efficiency. With Teams becoming part of the suite of applications supported by UITS, a whole new set of productivity tools are now available for the IU community.
As of this week, most accounts—85 percent—have moved to Microsoft Teams Calls. The goal is to complete the remaining migrations by the June 30, 2023, target date. In addition, UITS has converted all campus UITS Support Centers and Contact Centers. The remaining users to migrate are primarily those who have IP phones or those who use more complex phone features (response groups).
We have also embarked on an equipment “roadshow” to give departments an opportunity to try different hardware options. These in-person, hands-on meetings are designed to help IU units refine their answering points by discussing new options and functionality with the Microsoft Teams ecosystem.
In the coming months, UITS will continue meeting with departments to convert the advance calling features from Skype for Business to Teams. We are on track to have this completed by June 30, 2023.
The UITS IT Training staff has created a suite of videos to help the IU community with the transition to Microsoft Teams Calls as well. These short videos (about one minute or less) show how to make, answer, transfer, and forward calls; set up and listen to voicemail; put calls on hold; or call someone using their phone number or username. (For more, see About Microsoft Teams Calls at IU.)
We know that change is difficult, but our UITS team has dedicated itself to making the transition from Microsoft Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams Calls as smooth as possible. Your patience has been much appreciated during this telephony transition.
Aaron Neal
Deputy CIO