Microsoft-certified Consulting

Microsoft Teams operates on top of Microsoft 365 and integrates with third-party cloud applications to deliver real-time conversation and cooperation. Developed as the replacement for Microsoft's Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams offers a single platform to support messaging, audio/video meetings with shared screens and white boards, calling, cloud-hosted voicemail, group email, as well as document and app sharing. Microsoft Teams is tightly integrated with Office/Microsoft 365 and depends on Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (formerly Azure AAD) for delivering its complete set of capabilities. Your company can run Teams exclusively or you can deploy a hybrid network architecture that supports Microsoft Teams alongside self-hosted Microsoft Skype for Business Server.

Progent's Microsoft Teams experts can provide remote and on-premises expertise to help companies of any size to evaluate the business benefits of Teams, design and implement an efficient migration to Teams from Skype for Business or Microsoft Lync, and tune or debug a Microsoft Teams environment. Progent can help your organization to configure and support a cloud-centric communications ecosystem based on Teams, and Progent's Skype for Business Server experts can help you to integrate a hybrid deployment that combines Teams with your self-hosted Skype for Business Server ecosystem. Progent can help your organization to integrate Teams with Microsoft 365 Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, and Office/Microsoft 365 applications as well as with your in-house PBX system, your PSTN connection. gateway, and in-room telephony products.

Progent's Cisco-certified network experts are available to assist your company to plan and implement a robust network topology for Microsoft Teams, and Progent's information security and compliance consultants can assist your company to create communications security policies following leading. Progent's specialists can troubleshoot occasional technical bottlenecks or provide comprehensive project management or co-management support to make sure that your Microsoft Teams initiative is carried out on schedule and within budget.

Key Capabilities of Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams combines real-time chat chat, conferencing, IP calling, document collaboration, app sharing, and file storage into one user interface. Microsoft Teams is regularly updated and has achieved feature parity with Skype for Business in all key capabilities. Microsoft Teams also delivers significant improvements in scale, chat, integration with Office/Microsoft 365, and other areas. Also, Microsoft Teams introduces the concepts of Teams and Channels to make it easier to work together on initiatives, have group conversations, share files and apps, and stage meetings.

Teams and Channels
Teams and channels are key concepts in Microsoft Teams for enabling collaboration and organizing knowledge. A team is a group of users from inside and outside your organization who can collaborate with one another in a positive way through conferencing and by exchanging messages, files, and apps. Teams can be based on business divisions, offices, projects, mutual enthusiasms, or any unifying theme that can take advantage of an advanced collaboration ecosystem. When you define a team you create a Office/Microsoft 365 group, a SharePoint Online web site and document library, a Microsoft Exchange Online group mailbox/calendar, a OneNote team notebook, and a persistent chat-based workspace. If you make a team from an existing Office/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 restricted and can have as many as 10,000 participants.

Channels are chat workspaces within a team. Every channel other than the default General channel is dedicated to a theme you specify. All conversations, file sharing, and conferences for a theme occur inside the appropriate channel. Channels can be available to all team members or restricted to a subset of the team. Authorized team members can enhance a channel by inserting apps that include tabs, connectors, and bots. Any files shared on a channel via the Files tab are located on SharePoint Online. Administrators can control policies to allow or reject apps for a channel. Meetings occurring in a channel can feature shared whiteboards, notes, and chat. Integration with Microsoft Stream allows conferences to be recorded, stored, and played back.

Compatibility with Office/Microsoft 365 Services
The Teams client interface works on top of Microsoft 365 productivity apps and services to deliver a cohesive collaboration solution. In addition, Microsoft Teams connectors make it possible for your organization to expand Teams with third-party apps such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google Analytics, Trello, and UPS Bot.

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

• Exchange Online and Outlook provide email and calendar services. You can schedule and participate in meetings through either Outlook or Microsoft Teams. Chat and channel messages are held in Exchange for solid information security. You can also set up advanced security and data loss protection (DLP) for in-transit email and file attachments.
• SharePoint Online support allows you to build communication and news sites. A wide range of options for managing permissions allow secure file sharing in the cloud.
• Microsoft OneDrive for Business supports secure cloud storage of personal documents or files shared in Microsoft Teams chat, synchronizes document updates performed while unconnected to the Internet, and allows concurrent edits. Additional file storage services you can append to Microsoft Teams channels include Dropbox, ShareFile and Google Drive.
• Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory (ADD)) is used by Microsoft Teams to allow Single Sign On with Office/Microsoft 365 services, MFA for enhanced data security, and conditional access governed by group membership, geographic location, and endpoint status.

Ways Progent Can Assist Your Business to Migrate to Microsoft Teams from Skype for Business or Lync
Microsoft Teams supplants Skype for Business Online as Microsoft's flagship cloud-based service for real-time collaboration. Companies now running Microsoft Skype for Business or Lync Server should prepare for the upgrade to Microsoft Teams.

Progent can provide on-demand expertise in the broad array of IT disciplines needed to optimize the business value of your Microsoft Teams deployment. Progent can provide the assistance of Skype for Business Online consulting experts and Microsoft Lync Server consulting experts to help you to stage your legacy collaboration environment for upgrading to Teams. Progent's Exchange experts, SharePoint specialists, and Office 365 consultants can assist you to integrate Teams with familiar productivity apps. Progent's phone system integration experts can help your business to connect your phone environment to Microsoft Teams.

Progent can provide online or onsite expertise to assist your organization to resolve occasional technical obstacles or Progent can deliver comprehensive project management outsourcing and co-sourcing services to your organization to design and carry out your Teams migration.

Progent's expert services for helping your organization to upgrade to Teams include:

• Help you to define your goals for your Microsoft Teams environment
• Review your existing resources and identify any new requirements for rolling out Teams
• Check that all users have correct licenses for Microsoft 365 services
• Provide guidance for selecting a collaboration solution that uses Microsoft Teams only or a hybrid deployment that combines Teams with self-hosted Skype for Business Server
• Set up a compatible SBC with SIP trunking and PSTN lines to integrate your existing phone infrastructure with Teams
• Check and update existing Dial Plans for running with Teams
• Establish secure access and efficient workflows for at-home workers and mobile users
• Establish a policy strategy that complies with your company standards as well as regulatory requirements
• Design and test a cost-effective, phased upgrade process
• Set up an intermediate or permanent hybrid deployment that supports concurrency between Microsoft Teams and on-premises Skype for Business Server
• Configure Microsoft Entra sync (formerly Azure Active Directory sync), SharePoint and Exchange Online, and OneDrive for Business
• Upload data from a self-hosted SharePoint deployment
• Configure Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) Premium P1 and Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS)
• Set up Microsoft Entra Connect (formerly Azure Active Directory Connect) with writeback for hybrid Exchange Server environments
• Configure, deploy, and administer Microsoft 365 services
• Deal with DNS and certificate issues
• Provide BYOD integration by offering iOS management and Google Android phone and tablet integration services
• Set up management utilities such as Teams Admin Center, Microsoft Entra (formerly AAD) Admin Center, and Office/Microsoft 365 Security and Compliance Center
• Integrate the Teams Premium add-on to extend the feature set of Microsoft Teams
• Provide group and individual webinar training
• Deliver ongoing guidance, programming, and debugging services

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