Something Old, Something New, there are many things going on

 It's time for a new blog. The MVP Summit 2024 goes on and what comes there can't be discussed. So since I am not there and has started a new job also. Well, time to share something with you again.

Unlocking Seamless Communication

Microsoft Teams Telephony is a cloud-based phone system that integrates with M365 Copilot, a powerful AI assistant that helps you optimize your productivity and collaboration.

In this blogpost, we will explore how Teams Telephony and M365 Copilot work together to enhance your communication experience, streamline your workflows, and save you time and money.

Microsoft Teams Telephony and M365 Copilot

In today’s fast-paced business landscape, effective communication is the cornerstone of success. Whether you’re collaborating with colleagues across the globe or connecting with clients, having a reliable and integrated communication platform is essential. Enter Microsoft Teams Telephony and the innovative companion, M365 Copilot.

Whether you need to make or receive calls, schedule meetings, transcribe conversations, or automate tasks, Teams Telephony and M365 Copilot have you covered.

Picture is created by Copilot and ChatGPT-4.0

Copilot for all

 Finaly it happend for every one. The 300 seats are gone for M365 Copilot. You do not need an EA agreement.

Copilot news from Microsoft blog was out during yesterday. So what does this meens?

Goodbye 2023 and welcome 2024

 

The year of 2023 ended on a high note. MVP/RD/CEO Ståle Hansen was a guest on Norwegian Podcast. This was the three years anniversary episode. We talked about digital wellbeing and how to use the tools that is already in M365. During the 2023 the podcast TeamsCastAway delivered 16 episodes and hope you all liked it. The plan for 2024 will be around 10-15 episodes. Want to be a guest just contact me and we will figure out something.

What's new in Teams November 2023

 What is new in Teams November 2023?

Lets start with Teams Calling

- New Shortcut for Calls in Teams

- GA of the new Microsoft Teams app for virtual desktop (VDI)

Some Ignite 2023 News and a bit more

 Last nite Ignite 2023 Hybrid from Seatle kicked off. This year it's all about Copilot.

First Bing Search Enterprise and Bing Search is now known as CoPilot. This is a huge step. Frontline Workers who has F3 will now get "Bing Search Enterprise AKA CoPilot".

Copilot or just Teams Premium and some podcast news

 Yesterday at MVP-dagen 2023 in Oslo. MVP Knut Relbe-Moe and I had a great session in Norwegian where we talked about M365 Copilot and Teams Premium.

We also showed cool features regarding the stuff that comes in Power Virtual Agent, when you can combine features like:

- external webpages (max nuber of pages are 4)

- that you can add documents to the PVA 

- add Power Platform connectors.

This will be real cool when it comes to rest of the world and not just in North America. 

Then we also showed "fun with Bing" using Copilot in Bing with Edge. Works real good. :-)

Copilot and Teams Voice

 From my point of view I think Copilot will make a huge impact on Teams Calling and Teams Voice.

Companies who use only mobile and think that is what they need, well I think you are wrong.

MTR news

 What's new in Teams MTR

I have the last few months worked with serveral MTR's and here are some cool new stuff I want to tell you ahout.

QR Code

What's new in Teams and more

Something is about to happens

 Almost time for me to head of to Commsverse 2023 and get all the good information there. Starting next week (21-22 June).  Hope to see you there. This year for me there is all about networking and joint all the great speakers and presenters.

Dyn365 Marketing – TEAMS integrations

 In my search for integrations I have start to look into Dyn365 Marketing. I have read on Microsoft that this can be integrated with Teams.

How to make it work?

When starting Dyn356 Marketing and if you have Teams running

Cisco running MTR Teams now in BETA

Cisco goes to Microsoft Teams

Yesterday 25th may 2023, my co-worker Bent Arild Helstrup and I gpt our hands in the beta from Cisco.

The first we did was to connect to the Cisco portal/HUB. And claim the beta.

Then we installed the Cisco Mini and upgraded the system and run a factory reset.

Then we installed it and choose Microsoft Teams for the MTR. Here you can choose what you want to do.

Then we logged into this  and we got this

On this system we use the Standard license. 

Unboxing Jabra Speak2 75

 Yesterday I got my Jabra Speak2 75 and here is how I unboxed it.

It started like this

Shared channels does not working

 I have for several customers started to work with shared channels in Teams. We have been using the B2B Direct connect config.

One thing I saw and thanks to MVP Mårten Hellebro and MVP Luca Vitali for great advice to fix the issue.

Yealink BH76 - New Teams headset

 Yealink BH-76 

Finaly, after ISE 2023 in Barcelona, I got my Yealink BH76.  So what's with it?

What’s new in Teams Calling, Meetings and Devices, January 2023

 There are aways  lot's of new things that happens in TEAMS. In this blog I will focus on whats new in TEAMS Calling, Meetings and Devices.

New Teams Phone Mobile Calling

 During the weekend I just saw a post in the flash on LinkedIN. If I'm not wrong the post was from Tom Arbuthnot @tomtalks.

So what is about? Well There are now two more operators in Teams Mobile.

Earlier we had in Sweden (Telia) and in Canada (Rogers Business)

Wakeup for MRT - Enter Powersavings

 First of all, thanks to Kim Dahl at Logitech Norway for this tip.

This tip has helped some of my customers using Logitech Rally and screens that does not fall into sleep.

Review of Becoming a Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing Functional Consultant

 I was so lucky to get this book early and has read it. Here is my review of it.

Let me start to say as they say in the movie The Matrix "I now know Dyn365 Marketing" :-)

The book starts with the basic of Dyn365 Marketing. There are lot's of good knowlede shared by MVP and CEO Malin Martnes.

#dyn365 Sales - Teams integrations with Voice - How to Guide

Dyn365 Sales - Teams how to

Earlier in april 2022 I wrote this blog.....dyn365sales-teams-telephony.

Want to know how I did it?

MVP-dagen Roadshow and MVP-Dagen Oslo

 MVP-Dagen Roadshow!

Did you know that MVP-Dagen Roadshow are on the move. Next stop on the 27th.September we will be in Tromsø. 

We I say, here you will meet:

AudioCodes med Jasper Filon

Lasse Wedø

Roberth Strand 

Kai Stenberg

Sign up here for a free ticket: https://events.eventzilla.net/e/mvp-dagen-2022-roadshow--troms-2138575251

The show starts around 12:00 and we are done 3:30pm and it takes place at Kaigata 6 in Tromsø

3PIP comes to an end

 It has now come to the time where 3PIP is about to die. This is the message in M365 to look for.

So what are your options?

Option 1. SIP Gateway

Microsoft has a SIP Gateway that can be used. This is some job and firewall that has to be done before you can start using the service. Read about it here: Configure SIP Gateway - Microsoft

When this is done you can use the phones for more times. 

Option 2. Buy Teams phones

Another option and what some of my customer are thinking about, is to get new Teams phones. They are already planning for this option. And yes it cost money, but it still cost money to have old phones running. And since some of them are EOL (End of Life) and EOS (End Of Support) well. If you are on Teams and plan to use phones. Well do it correct and get Teams phones.

List of certified Teams Phones can be found here. 

Multilanguage Teams meeting invite

 Today I saw someone post on LinkedIN that you now can have multilanguage in the Teams invite.

What I did on our Tenant was this command in Teams Powershell

Set-csteamsmeetingpolicy -identity global -meetinginviteLangunages «nb-no,en-us”

Then I just waited on some backendsync and now my teams meeting invite looks like this:

Norwegian

and English-US

Summer 2022 comes to an end

Summer moved on and here are some cool stuff that has come lately

The summer holiday is going to an end. And what a summer it has been. So let’s wrap up some news Teams and other communities.

 

Powershell version for Teams

Here much has happened the last 4-5 weeks. The new version are now 4.5.0 in GA and not in preview, you find it here:

https://www.powershellgallery.com/packages/MicrosoftTeams/4.5.0

Read the release notes to see all the changes

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/MicrosoftTeams/teams-powershell-release-notes

Dyn365Sales - Teams Telephony

 Some times things just happes and then it result in a blogpost. This post is one of this.What just happened?

Dynamics365 Sales - Teams Telephony

I have worked and did some investigation on Dyn365Sales and how to get this working together with Teams and Telephony in Teams.

Teams got Cast

Teams client got CAST for MAC and Windows

One feature that I saw yesterday was CAST. From the three ... you will now get the 

Commsverse 2022 Mercedes Benz World UK

 Did you know that in June, from the 29-30th there is a hybrid event named Commsverse 2022. 

You find the link here. And what a lineup with speakers. 

New headset on the market. Welcome Yealink BH72

 Finaly, when I got back to the office today, I have got my new toy. As many of you know out there I just love new gadgets. This time I got the Yealink BH72 with charging stand for Teams.

First of all, this is a Teams Certfied Headset.

Teams Powershell module 4.0.0

 Today we got a new version of the Teams Powershell module. 

This is the new current version. You can download it here.

Are you running other versions or preview, please use the -Force element to upgrade

SIP devices in Teams, Tendfor Certified for Teams using API

 Hi readers. Great to be out here again with some news. After 10 days with Covid-19 and other issues. Now it's time to bring som great news to you readers.

More changes to Teams Powershell

 Teams Powershell changes

As you for sure might have see in the M365 admin center, you might have got this message

Dyn365 Customer Service Omnichannel Voice - How we did it

Introduction

This blog would not have been written if there has not been for the great people and skill of the following personal:

Thomas Sandsør from PointTaken AS 

Tricia Sinclair from Avanade (UK)

Kai Stenberg from blinQ AS

How to get Voice in Dynamics365 CS

When starting to plan for Dynamics365 Customer Service Omnichannel Voice, well be aware that one of your options will be to use Direct Routing.

Direct Routing in Azure Communication Service (ACS) are still in preview.

So how did we do it?

Changes in Set-CSUser in Teams Powershell

 For a customer I helped them enable a user for Voice in Teams. Now there are changes comming, so you need to update your scripts. Ran this

Set-CsUser -Identity "sip:fornavn.etternavn@kunde.no" -EnterpriseVoiceEnabled $true -HostedVoiceMail $false -OnPremLineURI tel:+47xxxxxx

Then I get this as a warning

WARNING: OnPremLineURI will be deprecated. Please use LineURI to update user's phone number.

The syntax did work, but for future use you will need to update your scrips to this

Set-CsUser -Identity "sip:fornavn.etternavn@kunde.no" -EnterpriseVoiceEnabled $true -HostedVoiceMail $false -LineURI tel:+47xxxxxx

Use Teams on moblie as a Walkie Talkie

Walkie Talkie for mobile users

 This is a feature some of my customers has start to investigate to use. I have tested it out and this is pretty cool,  when you need to send out a short message to your Team.

It's almost time to wrapup 2021

 2021 is almost gone

It's time to wrapup 2021, and what a Year. We have been in a lockdown most of the year. Work from home are the new standard or even more hybrid working.

Here are some tips and tricks to end 2021. 

SIP devices in TAC (Teams Admin Center)

 SIP Devices in TAC

Have you noticed this in Teams Admin Center?

Teams Direct Routing, Dyn365 Customer Service Omnichannel Voice

 There has been a little while since I lasted blogged here. But the one who is waiting for some are gonna get something good.

Some history

Omnichannel meens that there are several media who can be queued into your contact center. It can be SMS, email, chat, Facebook, WhatApp, LinkedIN and more. So this is not something new that Microsoft has created. I started in around 2005 to deliver this. So it's quite old but very usefull.

Yealink MP54 and MP56 Teams Deskphone

 Finaly back in the office. Here there was two phones waiting for me.

Thank you Yealink for the new firmware

 As for a long time I have been using Yealink WH66. Last week we got a new firmware. And what a change.

It's not perfect, but way much better than before. So here comes the highlights of the new firmware:

New Operator Connect - From 11 to 22

 So, for now the Operator Connect i TAC (Teams Admin Center) has got from 11 to 22. And the service now are in GA.

Cool nice little feature

 This I now will write about is a cool thing I found this morning 😊

I was in the search field looking for a conversation

Switchboard - the time is now

 Switchboard - Teams - API

There are many out there who runs operator based switchboard in Teams. Back in the days you might had a Lync/Skype based switchboard or attendant. Since the has been some "delay" for Teams, you might end up with a operator solution.

This can be good but also a issure. You need to use your mobile to answer, and sometimes we see lack of integrations with Teams.

There can't be transferd or dial to a sipaddress based address. You need to transfer to a phonenumber.

Why not get a solution where the operator/agent can transfer to:

• - phonenumber
• - sipaddress for the person
• - to another queue

Then ofcourse you might also get AOUTH calendar integration, Teams presence, Mobile presence also if you need this and the Telco has this API. 

For a few day's ago I got this in my LinkedIN feed. "Varberg kommun has done this." 

I see for customers that are based in several countries with different telco operators, then you need one solutions for all countries. Then  a third party hosted from Azure will be your path to get a switchboard - Attendant or a Contact Center solutions.

My advice is that when you run Teams with "Enterprise Voice", you are in the cloud, well then  your Switchboard - Attendant should be in the cloud.

Want to know more, please take contact.

Poly VVX and 3PIP

 Poly VVX 201,301 and 401 running 3PIP

After migrate one of my customer from Skype for Business server 2015 and hybrid, with Enterprise voice we started to plan for the VVX together with 3PIP.

For some time we saw that the VVX phones where working fine, but some started to logout for some reason after 48-72 hours. And the we was not able to login to them again.

New headset and speaker, wow I'm impressed

 On friday last week I got the text message from postal service that my package from Poly Norway has arrived. Since I just love headset and gadgets, I just ran over to the store to get it.

The package was a bit heavy and it did contains:

3 pcs of Poly chocolate that looked like Poly Sync-20

1 pcs of Poly Focus-2

1 pcs of Poly Sync-20

I did the unwrapping in a hurry and was so excited to start testing this. 

Teams Powershell 2.3.1 update

 Last week I wrote about the new Teams Powershell module. 2.3.0 and at that time my advice was that do not install it  It's kind of looked that Microsoft "killed" direct Routing.

Yesterday, they came out with a new version. The 2.3.1 and they listened.

According to this link: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/microsoft-release-fix-microsoftteams-module-v231-elazar-ohayon/?trackingId=noNU3nzxRRKk%2BrpWym%2BqIQ%3D%3D

and I have tested it my self, and now we are back on track.

#ThanksMicroSoft

Powershell 2.3.0 or Powershell 2.0.0 and more

 Well it's been a while. Today I plan do record a new Podcast from Teams Cast Away.  My guest today is Thorbjørn Værp an MVP from PointTaken. So you better check out where you listen to podcast.

Powershell 2.3.0 or 2.0.0 that is the question

M365virtualMarathon, Sharepoint Saturday Virtual Cologne 2021 and more

 Whooo hooo, what a week. First two sessions on #M365VM, one went down because Teams in EU and Asia was down :-( 

Then the second session "Direct Routing VS Calling Plans" went real good. 

And this morning I woke up to the cool Email. Your Session at SharePoint Saturday Cologne 2021 (virtual) 29th may has been accecpted. #Prowd

Yealink WH66/67 new firmware out! 

Some days ago Yealink come out with a new firmware. This is some of the feature that has come in the new frimware. You find all here: 

https://support.yealink.com/documentFront/forwardToDocumentDetailPage?documentId=386

Teams meeting settings in Outlook and more

 Hello Readers, there are lot's of new stuff happening today.

Teams Powershell 2.0 - Lifehack - Podcast #6

Teams Powershell 2.0.0 

Yesterday I installed Teams powershell module 2.0.0 from this localtion.

Today the fun begin when I was planning to run some connection to my tenant.

Yealink WH66 and Podcast

 Another week is knocking on our door. Just before the weekend entered I got a new toy to test.

I got the Yealink WH66 delivered. And here my first notes on this one.

Podcast, Scottish Summit, Virtual Ignite and more

 On wednesday this week I have a great visitor at my Norwegian podcast. MVP Malin Martnes was there where we spent about 30 minutes talking about CRM and Teams.

You find the podcast here or where you listen to podcasts. Did you know that all my guests get a few stickers for they computers. 

This is the Sticker you get!!

Tomorrow I will have a session and work at the Scottish Summit Virtual 2021.  Hope you got at ticket and that you will join my session at 11:00 AM CET or 10:00 AM GMT. The sessionen is named Direct Routing vs CallingPlan.

Scottish Summit Virtual 2021 and more

 Another week and it's been a few weeks since last time. So what's new?

Scottish Summit Virtual 2021

I will speak at this virtual event. What I bring to the table is 45 minutes where I explain the difference between Direct Routing vs Calling Plan. Why, how and when. And some nice Lifehacks as well.

So on february 27th at 11AM (10AM GMT) I will do this.

Want Tickets? Go here

I will also do voluntary work this day also for the Scottish Summit. Hope you will have the time to join this show tons of good stuff.

Something else

One of the things I noticed is that you now can have multiple popout in Teams. 

Read more about it here. Just look for this 

Well that's all for today. More later to come.

Preview - Podcast and some great feature

 New month and here comes some news stuff. If you is like me who loves new features in Teams well, why not try out the preview of Teams features?

Tendfor - Teams- PSTN Calling

Well folks, I have known this for a while but now it's out. PSTN Calling for switchboard using Graph API is here. First out is ofcourse Tendfor. If you click on the link you will find all about in LinkedIN where they published it.

Cool new stuff for Teams

YeaLink new products

Yesterday I was on pre-recorded webinar with Yealink. This was about the new products that are just around the corner.

This was some of the tools they showed at 

Based on what I saw there, this is pretty cool. You can answer a Teams call and place this on hold when you get a mobile call. Then merge all those into a conference call. 

Looking forward to get my hands on the YeaLink WH66. And from what I have heard it will come after the Chinese New Year and the price is real good.

Channel calendar - New feature

 The new year just start with a new feature in Teams. Here comes the Channel Calendar.

This is great new feature for Teams. 

Important about the channel calendar!!!!

I have tested this out and found that this feature is not a part of the "private" channel. You can use is in a open channel, but not in private. It's important to be aware of this!!!

And one more thing, it's just 199 days until Skype Online is switched off.

New Year and lot's happens

 First of all happy new year. Let's hope 2021 will be better than 2020. But things happens around the world and here some news.

Podcast

I started at the end of this year a new podcast. It's in Norwegian and is called Teams Cast Away and you find here on Spotify. Soon Episode #2 will be out. 

Retirement of Skype online connector

 Now will Micrsoft retire the skype online connector. I got this mail now.

We will be retiring the Skype for Business Online Connector on February 15, 2021 for all Skype for Business Online or Teams customers. This will simplify the admin experience by moving to a single PowerShell module for managing Skype for Business Online and Teams. Moving forward use the Teams PowerShell module, which is where we will continue to invest.

[Key Points:]

• Major: Retirement
• Timing: February 15, 2021
• Action: Review and assess the impact for your organization.

[How this will affect your organization:]

Administrators will no longer be able to download and use the Skype for Business Online Connector to manage online organizations and users after this change is implemented.

[What you need to do to prepare:]

Instead of using the Skype for Business Online Connector, we require using latest release of Teams PowerShell module.

Resources:

• Install Microsoft Teams PowerShell - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Docs
• Move from Skype for Business Online Connector to the Teams PowerShell module - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Docs

Last full week before Christmas, here are some news

 As mentioned earlier, the clock is ticking. And please read this blogpost so that you are not confused on what service Microsoft takes down and what has still support and can be running.

This is importantent to know about. 

And here are some news for us who have Telephony in Teams.

The one marked yellow is now show both mobile and teams numer if you have this is your AD. Real nice feature.

Then we got the new meeting join experience. This is real nice I think. 

This I think is a real nice feature for all of us out here, and I like the preview on video first.

Real soon we also get the new 1:1 recording feature. I have earlier written about it and read more about it here.

This is all for today, and I will be back soon with another blog 

Teams, it's time for some rules and pointer to get Teams to work

 As many has started to use Microsoft Teams, well it's time to stop and take a breath on the ground. 

We has been working from home the last 9 months. We have got the #WFH tag and many companies sees this as the new normal.

But this is not what I want to write to you today. What I want to talk to you about is Teams and some of the pitfalls.

Breakoutrooms are here

 Yesterday I saw on LinkedIN and on Twitter. Breakout rooms are here.

Read more about it here.

#StaySafe

SBA is out in Public Preview for Teams

 As many out there has their SBC running in their datacenter and not by an servicepartner or Telco who has the SBC as a service. 

For you there is a important new stuff that has come in public preview, and that is the SBA (Survivable Branch Appliance) for direct routing.

You need to talk to your vendor and mostly upgrade your SBC to have this support. 

So why should you add on a SBA? If you have an internet outage this can be usefull to remain telephony in Teams. 

Wooo Webinar for KEMP done

 What end for a great day. Now just finished with a webinar for KEMP. The preperation has been done together with great people like Frank Yu, Hugo Faria, Andrew Casey and Noemi Toth. We all in different contries, parts of the world. And let's don't forget Mikael Lange who had this idea for me to come and speak.

Here are some short info about it:

• TMG Forefront is dead (RIP)
• Why Always on VPN and not Direct Access or Classic VPN.
• KEMP ESP pay for it and get the good stuff
• How to migrate from Lync/Skype to Teams and SBCaaS or onprem SBC, you call.
• You as a customer is the "commander in chief"

The webinar was recorded and you will be able to watch it here . 

What's hot in Teams November 2020 edition

 Here we go, soon Christmas is comming up. WFH is the standard at the present time.

Here are the  News Teams November 2020. 

 

New stuff like personal recording and more

 Today it's just 240 days left before Microsoft shutdown Skype Online. As mentioned last week it's now time to act and start the trip to Teams Only.

So I heard the news today, here comes the news on what's comes and what's hot in Teams

35 weeks and counting

 Well now its 248 days for the Skype Online shutdown today, are you ready? Well it's time to get ready.

During the last week many of you have been into my guest apperance on the podcast of "bluescreen brothers". Great :-) 

This week has been so fare brilliant. Moving users from Skype On-prem to Teams. Planning for about 5-700 users this week. All with telephony in Teams.

Time to move on - Podcast & more

 The clock is running fast for the switch off for Skype Online. At present time (18.november 2020) there is 37 weeks left. Are you still thinking about moving to Teams, well now is the time start this project. 

What's new in Teams October 2020 edition

 New months, and here is a wrapup on what's new in Teams October 2020. 

According to this blog here is what's new.

Breakout rooms allow meeting organizers to split main meetings into smaller sessions for focused discussions

 This morning I got long waited email for a new feature that has been written page up and page down on. It will now be rolled out in November according to the mail.

So, what is all about?

Added Knowledge during Covid-19 and filled up with MS-700 and assigment

 Since the middle of March I have mostly worked form home. I guess that I can count on my hands the days I have been to working at the corp office.

Lots of customers has been going to Teams, and migrating them from Skype for business server 2015 and move to Teams with telephony.

But up in all that I have also documented my skills regarding to Teams.

Teams and HELP function

 Ignite has gone online and was the end of last month (22-24 september 2020), TeamsFest October 2020 is finished (7th october 20202). MVP-dagen in Norway is today (8th October 2020) and is an online event.  Teamsdagen Studio in Sweden will come online soon.

Lot's happens in the Teams communites now. 

Today I will talk about the new HELP button in Teams 

Small change but important for many - tip of the day

 This morning I was testing some CMD's in Powershell and made a discovery.

I started up my powershell and logged in with my account for this.

SAFE transfer of calls in Teams

 Today I woked up to some great news. The new big thing in Teams is SAFE transfer. 

The first I saw on Twitter this morning was from @pl_lange (Paul Lange) who had something about it. Thanks Paul.

So here is the functions and how it works.

Whats New in Teams and Addons - Switchboards - Recording

New month and time for a blog again. First of all, as every frist of month is that Microsoft is presenting a wrapup on what's new in Teams the last month.

Read about it here.

Kemp, Exchange 2010 and Teams, lot's to talk about

 From KEMP I got the latest blog. It's about Exchange. First I'm not an Exchange expert. I know a lot about KEMP, Skype and Teams. 

The blog contains information about Exchange 2010 support ends and it's now time do upgrade. Read what MVP Jaap Wesselius think about it. If your customers still runs Exchange 2010, well now its time to do some action.

Just love popout in calls and meetings

 During the last month there has come some new fuctions. After 4 weeks off work, I have now been trying this function for about 2 weeks.

The function I talk about  is Popout meeting and calls.

So what does the call window looks like when it has out. Well like this

When working on two monitors this is something I have been waiting for a long time.

Have a great day out there #StaySafe

Less than a year to Skype online switch off!

When I got to work this morning something hit me.

It is now less than a year until Microsoft has told the world that they will do a switch off on Skype Online. 

Well folks it's now time to start your travel and migration to Microsoft Teams. 

If you are running Skype for Business onprem, well you as still safe and can  do so for the next few years.

Want to follow the countdown, just go here: Countdown

Teams, Outlook contacts

I have got quite lot's of questions about outlook and teams contacs. This need futher investigation to figure this out.

Frist I came over this post in the tech communities Add company name

Then I read and added this and they showed up. 

But I could not figure out why all contacts needed company name, so I posted this question.

My post to Tech Comm

Then someone start to push me to do some more testing. And here is my conclusion.

1. If you add a new contact you don't need company name or email, just name and phonenumber. The phonenumber does not need to be on E164 can be strait forward.  Restart the teams client and it shows up under Calls - Contacts.

2. If you have an old contacts that does not show, just do a change on it and it will show up.

This has been tested on a clean Exchange online (no-hybrid). 

This will be the last blog in some time due to that I am going on 4 weeks vacation next week. Have a great summer and #StaySafe

S4b to Teams

For my norwegian readers I had last week a webinar talking about the road from Skype for Business Onprem til Teams with Telephony.

This is the webinar in a nutshell. Happy reading

WFH, service needed, uptime is more important then ever

Hi again. There has been some time since I wrote about Loadbalancing. So here we go.

The world has changed due to Covid-19 situation. Most of us who are working, well we work from home, here by shorted as #WFH, or just WFH.

This gives IT operations lot's of things to think about. Services need to be up and running all the time. There are lot's on employees that is working from home use VPN services, and out this way on companies internet connections.

New CU for Skype for Business server 2015

It has been a while since the last update from Microsoft. In August 2019 we got CU-10. And for a some days ago we got the CU-11. Microsoft made it public the 13th May 2020.
You will find it here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=47690

I have not tested it yet since most of my customers has moved to Teams with telephony.

April 2020 update - May first edition

Well, it's been some time ago since the last blog here. But here we go again.

Security in Teams 

There has been a lot of news regarding security for the UC platform. In 2018 Cisco got some issues regarding GIF. This has been fixed.

Then Zoom got the same issue and even more issues. Read about it here and I suspect that it will be fixed soon.

Major changes for the SMB - You got Direct Routing if you want

There has been today major changes to functionally regarding to where the customers who has Office 365 Business Essentials, Office 365 Business or Business premium.
They can now buy Microsoft 365 Business Voice (without calling plan). They will now get Phone-system and AudioConferencing included.

February 2020 summmary

The second month is gone in hurrycane. Corona is here. And why not just work from home and use Teams? With enterprise voice in Teams, and you are good to go. Use it for meetings, teamwork and phonecalls. This is how I can use my Teams client.

But what a month this has been and here comes a summary of the news that has happend in Teams.

Youtube video - Tendfor, Office App and Commsverse

Since there a great numbers of you who reads this blog, here is a new one.

Youtube Teams på Norsk, is my YouTube channel. Last week I created a new video. Watch it her: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OE-rkWLWtQ&t=29s

This contains information on Tendfor switchboard and how to create emergency messages and how to use them.

Graph-API give you presence in switchboard Tenant

One of the product I have worked with the last 3-4 months and where I do have customer running live since Graph-API was in beta. Yes you read right. These customers was the first in the world to go live on Teams Graph-API.

Zoom, MS-700 Certification and more

There are lot's going on in the Teams world at the present time.
During this weekend I have together with my co-workers just move a customer from Skype Onprem to Teams with telephony for 300+ users. One of the cool stuff we did was to add SIP-registrar on Poly TRIO 8800 and on Poly VVX-311 also. For the TRIO 8800 we also added the new feature named USB PassThrough since they have Visual + in those rooms. And it's cool to report that everything works just as it should. Want to know more please contact us on Teams at blinQ.

Use Teams in Chrome new feature

Today I saw someone on LinkedIN say that you can call from Teams using Google Chrome.
Cool this I need to test:

And it works. Before you could only use Edge to do this now its coming to a browser near you. Soon I think it will be possible to use Firefox also.
To get this working you need:
1. SBC
2. Direct Routing
3. Phone system
4. Knowledge or someone who knows how to deliver your SBC or a provider who can deliver SBCaaS. Want to know more please contact me her: Teams blinQ

Find numbers in Teams, AA and CQ, used and unused

One of my best friends and ex-COWorker has made an script where we can find what numbers are used and what is free.
This has been something several people has done for Skype for Business. Well this one is the first I have seen for Teams.
You will find it here: Find Free phonenumbers

If you use it give him som credit for it :-)

New settings in CQ and AA

CQ and AA? What? well CallQueues and AutoAttendant. Lots of new changes there.
On Friday I started to look into this. And there are some major changes:
First it has been moved from the legacy portal to Teams portal (huge step).
It now looks like this:

Then you need a Resource account who is defined under Org-Wide-Settings. When this is made you need to if you shall use this with Direct Routing, it need an licence. Then you can use E1,E3 or E5 and you need to add phonesystem aswell.
When that is done you can just follow this guide: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/manage-resource-accounts

Now you can start to build your CQ and AA.

Teams new features in the call sections and more news

As many who has Phone system to have Microsoft Teams as your telephony solution, you might have noticed this changes.

You can now add more groups here, and if you have turned on the Call Park feature in the admin you can pick them up here as well. Lot's of new stuff is happening. The application is still under development and new features comes all the time.
More news and information futher down here:

Teams admin portal update

As many of you know already the Skype/Teams portal has changed name to

nothing new here to report.

Teams - Integration - Learing like a pro

Been a short break here but I'm back. There been plenty going on lately. As some of you have noticed I have published an post on LinkedIN. This has started to get viral
My post on LinkedIN and I hit a nerv here.

Teams - Personal Status - As in Skype4B

This is a nice feature that we who has used Skype for Business for a while remember

As we can see under your normal status you can now type in your personal status or let Outlook Out of Office be a part of it.
Press the pen and edit it for your time period

Nice feature and great that you can have it for a time period.

Want to know more about Teams, and Telephony in Teams (aka TiT) contact me and we will show you how it works.

KEMP Loadmaster on Nutanix

One customer of mine has start to migrate from VMware to Nutanix. This meens we had to move the KEMP VLM they had as a reverse proxy.
The first we did was to see that the old KEMP was in the right version for a move.
Then I took a backup of it including the certs and all the config.
Then we downloaded the file from KEMP support and began.
First we unzipped the file and moved the tar.gz to a linux server. Then my customer did some magic and we imported the image to the Nutanix plattform.
Then we created the new server, remember to choose IDE disk and not SCSI. If you choose SCSI the VM will come up but then terminate.
Then restore the old config and cert and then reboot.

Thanks to the Einar at the customer for find out about the IDE vs SCSI and that we did this real fast.

Teams on the move

There are lot's happening around me during these days. Have been real busy talking to different companies that want to build a POC around Telephony in Teams, or as I call it TiT.
Since we start to work hard on the the customers just want it.  They see the advantages that have everything in the cloud, and not on a internal datacenter.

Another interesting thing is that SBC in Azure from AudioCodes has been certified for Azure, and that the image from Azure is now working as it should.

There are also lot's of new feature sets comming to Teams, and more is still to come. One interesting thing is that we look forward on what will happens on the API futher forward. When vendors like Competella and other will get their hands on this API and be ready to make a full blown switchboard and ContactCenter solutions with good statistics and more.

Then we can start to fade out Skype for business onprem and move everyone to Microsoft Teams with TiT.

I also read something the other day that Teams and the numbers of users will double this year and next year after that.

So GO TEAMS.

Teams - Powershell

This week started off with a bang...new version of Powershell.
Powershell Teams v.0.9.6

If you is like me and has the 0.9.3 who was the old one just run the command
Install-Module -Name MicrosoftTeams -Force
to get it installed and you will get noticed that you have to either answer yes or A [yes to all].

As some of you have noticed we also got new Icons who will be installed soon. Just to wait and it will be there.

There are a lot going on in the Teams world now. Voice in on client works, customers are moving to Teams with telephony, and this is great.

Microsoft Teams - Statistics - AA and CQ

First of all. Under one month to Christmas. It's been a long time since my last blog out here. Been occupied in the name of Microsoft Teams.
One of the things I sees who are missing is when it comes to Statistics on the PhoneSystem. This has to do with AA and CQ.
AA you think, What is this? AA = Auto Attendant, where you handle opening hours, IVR functionality and so. Basic routing of calls to Microsoft Teams.
CQ what is that, its the second part of AA, CQ= Call Queues, where we route trafic to spesific Groups like we do in AA. but to build next level of this.
 This can't be so that when you call an AA or CQ you see talk time, phonenumer to who has called and what number the person has called into, and when it arrived. But you can't find out how has answered it.
This is real bad. I have spoke to Microsoft about this and there will come something new about this, but we don't know yet.
To get help we need people like you who read some of this to go here and vote.
https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/20168716-reporting-capabilitie...
and for this one as well
https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/35920921-basic-reports-and-cal...

I'm sure that something will change about this, when you look what happens to API in Microsoft Graph.

Have a great week out there where ever you are.

Moved from S4B Online to Ms-Teams, and some news also

Since i will do this breakfast meeting the 11th. October. I did last week a switch to MS-Teams Updated with this Powershell command:
Grant-CsTeamsUpgradePolicy -PolicyName UpgradeToTeams -Identity first.lastname@contoso.com

And from Skype for Business I now get this one :-)

This is great I think. I have my voice functionality in Teams. Did not have this in Skype for Business. But as many have seen, there are still some missing points out here.
1. Outlook need to show presence. Is not ready yet.
2. one to one share desktop like we did in Skype for Business without to set up a call, direct from IM/CHAT.

But there is lot's of things happening that is real nice.
1. Integration with Video Interop, with PexIP, Polycom that is nice.
2. Blur video call

Based on just running Teams so far, I think it's alsmost ready to move over. But if you have complex contactcenter or switchboard, you should run Teams in Island mode together with Skype for Business and make your users ready to learn how it works.

And there will come lost of new features soon also.
From Ignite this is what they told there

Session on voice in MS-Teams

As many have noticed so have I worked together with some coworkers a solution about voice in Microsoft Teams.
This is a product that we are ready to marked with. It's for partners, end customers. It's placed in Azure, and it's multi-trunk, multi-tennant, and placed in different datacenters.

The 11th Oktober shall blinQ AS together have a session in Norwegian at Microsoft Norway regarding this subject.
Read all about this here:
forkostseminar tale i teams

Hope to see you there.