Microsoft has issued a reminder to users of its Skype for Business Online platform that the service will be retired in six months.
The company originally announced back in 2019 that it would be discontinuing the online communications software as it was being superseded by Microsoft Teams.
In a blog post this week, it reiterated access to the platform will end on 31 July 2021. Skype for Business Online has been a critical communications tool for millions of organisations across the globe,” Microsoft stated.
“Once customers experience the way Teams brings together chat, calling, meetings and more, they realise the amazing potential to collaborate seamlessly and simplify work in a secure and compliant way,” it added.
Microsoft provided tips for those businesses which still needed to migrate to Teams.
The company said most Skype for Business Online customers have deployed Teams, either with Overlapping Capabilities or Select Capabilities, and are gradually moving users and workloads.
For those companies which had not started the upgrade planning process yet, it recommended the following resources:
Microsoft Teams admin documentation providing guidance for rolling out, managing, and preparing users for Teams.
Teams upgrade planning workshops offer a proven framework for planning and implementing your upgrade from Skype for Business to Teams.
Microsoft Chalk Talks workshops teach best practices and practical guidance around some of the most popular and compelling scenarios in Teams.
Certain Skype for Business Online customers will automatically be upgraded to Microsoft Teams.
“Customers scheduled for automated upgrades will receive notifications in both the Teams admin centre, as well as the Microsoft 365 Message Centre, at least three months before their upgrade date to allow time for technical and user readiness,” Microsoft stated.
Huge Teams uptake
Fuelled by widespread COVID-19 lockdowns which forced many employees to work from home, Microsoft’s Teams remote productivity suite saw impressive uptake in 2020.
While it had recorded a steady increase of 7 million daily active users between July and November 2019, numbers truly started to escalate around the start of the second quarter of 2020.
In March, Microsoft reported that it had 32 million daily active users – an increase of 12 million in four months. It added the same number of new users within a month to reach 44 million in April 2020.
One month after this, it had a further 26 million daily active users. By 28 October 2020, Microsoft said Teams had 115 million daily active users, representing an increase of 784% in 15 months.
According to VentureBeat, 500,000 organisations were using Teams in 2020, a tenfold increase from the 50,000 in 2017.
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