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I have a new customer that is looking to user Skype for Business with their Office 365 subscription as their phone system. Is there a good resource out there that can help me guide them on what needs to be done, what can be migrated, etc? I've searched on Google and the most I can get is how to upgrade from Lync to Skype for Business. I look forward to any guidance the community can provide!

Thanks!

msindle
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  • I'm looking for a 'guide' myself. We're switching over to SfB from an internal messenger/collab app. So far, it's been a bit painful here and there, mainly with screen/app sharing and shared presentation rights. – George Erhard Mar 24 '17 at 15:07
  • What kind of phone system do you currently have in place? Also, which country are you in? – Massimo Mar 24 '17 at 15:36
  • We are located in the USA. Right now they have next to nothing. They are all using mobile phones and want to have a "Business Solution" and eventually move into a full unified communication solution. – msindle Mar 24 '17 at 16:50

1 Answers1

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I'm currently doing the same on my organization.

The first thing to know is that there is two ways to use Skype for Business as the phone system:

  • Using PBX Connector to join existing On Premises telephony system.
  • Using Cloud PBX and a PSTN Calling Plan.

We were using sip lines hosted directly on our provider by the past, so as we never had on premises equipments regarding the Telephony system we decided to switch on the Cloud PBX solution.

  • Everything is hosted on Azure, and is managed directly from Skype for Business admin portal or Office 365 Powershell cmdlets.
  • It costs a lot, but enables us to have a work number from everywhere, without having to add extra costs for mobile telephony solutions.

For the pricing, this is simple, if you want to enable calling on skype for business you will need to buy two extra licences:

  • Skype for Business Cloud PBX - 6.70€/month/user (french prices here)
  • PSTN calling Plan: 10,10€/month/user for the National calling Plan, 20.20€/month/user for the International plan. The two plans are including 1000 minutes of communications.

Now, if you have Office 365 E5 Subscriptions CloudPBX is included into the Subscription, and you'll only have to take the calling plan. (And you'll have the PSTN Conferencing options which is nice too)

You can as well transfer old numbers into Skype for Business, but it take 2 weeks approx.

Kind Regards,

Jérôme Schmitt
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    Caveat: this is currently only available in very few countries. If you don't live in one of them, you'll need to keep your on-premises phone system (assuming it supports SIP trunking, otherwise you'll have to upgrade/replace it). – Massimo Mar 24 '17 at 15:38