Teams ExpertsTeams works in conjunction with Office/Microsoft 365 and connects with third-party cloud services to deliver real-time communications and cooperation. Designed as the successor to Microsoft's Skype for Business Online, Teams provides a single platform to support chat, voice/video meetings with screen sharing, IP calling, cloud voicemail, group mailboxes, as well as document and app sharing. Microsoft Teams is tightly integrated with Microsoft 365 and depends on Microsoft Exchange Online and SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Azure Active Directory (AAD) for delivering its full set of capabilities. Your organization can run Microsoft Teams exclusively or you can configure a hybrid model that supports Teams alongside on-premises Skype for Business Server.

Progent's Teams specialists can provide online and onsite expertise to help organizations of all sizes to assess the business advantages of Microsoft Teams, plan and implement a cost effective migration to Teams from Skype for Business or Microsoft Lync Server, and optimize or troubleshoot a Teams deployment. Progent can assist your organization to configure and support a cloud-centric communications system powered by Microsoft Teams, and Progent's Skype for Business Server specialists can assist your company to integrate a hybrid deployment that combines Teams with your on-premises Skype for Business Server ecosystem. Progent's consultants can help your organization to integrate Microsoft Teams with Microsoft Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Microsoft 365 apps as well as with your on-premises PBX system, your PSTN connection. gateway, and in-room telephony equipment.

Progent's Cisco-certified network experts are available to assist you to plan and implement a robust network architecture for Microsoft Teams, and Progent's network security consultants can assist your business to define communications security policies and rules based on leading. Progent's experts can help you resolve stubborn IT road blocks or deliver end-to-end project management or co-management services to make sure that your Teams initiative is carried out on schedule and within budget.

Major Capabilities of Teams
Microsoft Teams combines messaging, conferencing, IP calling, document co-editing, app sharing, and file storage into a single client experience. Teams is regularly updated and has reached or surpassed feature equivalence with Skype for Business in all essential functions. Microsoft Teams also delivers significant improvements in scale, messaging, integration with Office/Microsoft 365, and other areas. Also, Microsoft Teams brings the concepts of Teams and Channels to make it simpler to work together on initiatives, have real-time chats, share files and apps, and stage conferences.

Teams and Channels
Teams and channels are key features of Teams for enabling cooperation and sharing knowledge. A team is a collection of people from inside and outside your organization who can interact with each other in a positive way through conferencing and by exchanging messages, documents, and applications. Teams can be based on departments, office locations, projects, mutual interests, or anything else that can take advantage of a modern collaboration environment. When you define a team you start a Office/Microsoft 365 group, a SharePoint Online site and document library, a Microsoft Exchange Online group mailbox/calendar, a OneNote notebook, and a persistent chat workspace. If you create a team from an existing Microsoft 365 group, that group's participants, SharePoint Online web site, shared mailbox, and OneNote team notebook are all brought into Teams. A team can be public or private and can have up to 10,000 participants.

Microsoft Teams Solution Expertise

Microsoft Teams is built around the concept of teams and channels

Channels are chat workspaces within a team. Each channel except the default General channel is concerned with a theme you define. All discussions, document sharing, and meetings for a given theme occur inside the appropriate channel. Channels can be open to all team members or restricted to a defined subset of the team. Permitted team participants can expand a channel by inserting apps that include tabs, connectors, and bots. Any files shared on a channel using the Files tab are located on SharePoint Online. Administrators can control policies to allow or block apps and services for a channel. Meetings held within a channel can feature shared whiteboards, notes, and chat. Integration with Microsoft Stream allows conferences to be recorded, stored, and replayed.

Microsoft Teams Channels Consultants

Channels provide shared workspaces inside a team

Integration with Microsoft 365 Services
The Microsoft Teams user interface works on top of Office/Microsoft 365 apps to provide a modern real-time collaboration ecosystem. Also, Teams connectors allow your organization to expand Microsoft Teams with outside apps such as Twitter, Google Analytics, Jira, and MailChimp.

Teams Architecture Consultants

Teams integrates with SharePoint and Exchange Online and Stream

Examples of the integration of Microsoft Teams with Microsoft 365 apps include:

  • Exchange Online and Outlook provide group email and calendar services. You can schedule and participate in meetings through either Outlook or Microsoft Teams. Chat and channel messages are stored in Exchange for solid security. You can also set up enterprise-class security and data loss protection for en-route email and file attachments.
  • SharePoint Online support enables you to build discussion and news web sites. A wide range of choices for managing permissions enable secure document sharing in the Azure cloud.
  • OneDrive for Business allows cloud storage of personal files or files shared in Teams chat, synchronizes file edits performed while unconnected to the Internet, and supports simultaneous editing. Additional storage services you can manage in Microsoft Teams channels include Dropbox, Box, ShareFile and Google Drive.
  • Azure Active Directory (ADD) is used by Microsoft Teams to provide Single Sign On (SSO) with Office/Microsoft 365, multi-factor authentication for advanced data security, and conditional access based on group, geolocation, and endpoint state.
Ways Progent Can Help Your Business to Upgrade to Microsoft Teams from Skype for Business or Lync
Microsoft Teams replaces Skype for Business Online as Microsoft's flagship cloud platform for unified collaboration. Organizations now relying on Skype for Business or Lync should prepare for the upgrade to Microsoft Teams.

Progent can provide as-needed support for the broad range of technologies required to optimize the ROI of your Microsoft Teams deployment. Progent offers the assistance of Skype for Business consultants and Microsoft Lync Server experts to assist your organization to stage your current system for upgrading to Teams. Progent's Exchange Online experts, SharePoint Online experts, and Office/Microsoft 365 experts can assist your business to combine Microsoft Teams with familiar productivity apps. Progent's phone system infrastructure consultants can help your organization to integrate your phone environment to Microsoft Teams.

Progent offers online or on-premises consulting support to assist your organization to resolve occasional IT obstacles or Progent can deliver comprehensive project management outsourcing services to you to design and carry out your upgrade to Microsoft Teams

Progent's consulting support for assisting your business to upgrade to Teams include:

  • Assist you to determine your objectives for your Microsoft Teams deployment
  • Review your current resources and identify any additional requirements for rolling out Microsoft Teams
  • Check that all users have correct licenses for Office/Microsoft 365 services
  • Provide advice for selecting a collaboration architecture that uses Teams exclusively or a hybrid deployment that combines Teams with on-premises Skype for Business Server
  • Set up a compatible session border controller with SIP trunking and PSTN lines to connect your current telephony environment with Microsoft Teams
  • Review and revise existing Dial Plans for running with Microsoft Teams
  • Establish secure access and efficient workflows for at-home workers and mobile users
  • Create a security strategy that complies with your internal standards and regulatory requirements
  • Design and validate an efficient, phased upgrade procedure
  • Set up a temporary or permanent hybrid deployment that supports concurrency between Teams and on-premises Skype for Business Server
  • Configure Azure AD sync, SharePoint and Exchange Online, and OneDrive
  • Migrate content from a self-hosted SharePoint deployment
  • Configure Azure AD Premium P1 and Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS)
  • Configure Azure AD Connect with writeback for hybrid Exchange deployments
  • Set up, deploy, and administer Microsoft 365 services
  • Deal with DNS and certificate issues
  • Provide BYOD support by offering iOS integration and Google Android phone and tablet integration services
  • Deploy management utilities such as Teams Admin Center, AAD Admin Center, and Microsoft 365 Security and Compliance Center
  • Deliver group and one-on-one remote education
  • Deliver ongoing consulting, programming, and troubleshooting support
Progent's Cisco CCIE network specialists can assist your organization to configure your network infrastructure to deliver the capacity and resilience required for your Microsoft Teams environment. Progent also offers Cisco Unified Communications integration services to connect Microsoft Teams with Cisco IP voice/video conferencing systems. Progent's certified network security and compliance consultants can assist your business to create policies for your Microsoft Teams environment following industry best practices. Progent's disaster recovery specialists can assist your business to build resilience into your telephony system.

Call or Email Progent for Microsoft Teams Consulting
To find out more about Progent's migration services for Teams, call 1-800-993-9400 or see Contact Progent.