Simplifying Microsoft Teams Upgrade ‘Coexistence’ modes

Migrating or upgrading from one platform to another is a tough decision and requires a lot of homework by the stakeholders including Sponsors, Project Managers, IT Pros, Marketing, Security and the Trainers depending on the procedure followed by organization. When an organization decides to upgrade from a solution which had been in use since decades for communication and file sharing purposes, employees might say “Why would they do that?”. That is when the whole team handling the upgrade needs to deliver proper communication to the employees and make them feel that everything will be done seamlessly.

Microsoft announced in 2014 that Skype for Business shall be a new face for Lync and in 2017, Skype for Business was called-off in favor of Teams — a new collaboration and communication product. Since then, Microsoft has been pushing organizations to move their existing Skype for Business implementations to Teams. In today’s blog, i will share some upgrade modes which organizations can consider upon during the planning stage of upgrade from Skype for Business to Teams.

Island Mode

In this mode, Skype for Business and Teams run side-by-side with full capacity. Both shall have overlapping capabilities but meetings will only happen from the tool users by meeting originator. For example, a Skype for Business meeting shall only be joined by Skype for Business and same goes for Teams.

Teams Only

If you are guessing that there shall be only Teams, then yes, your guess is right. Teams will be used for calling, chatting, meeting and collaboration — file share, assignments, project management — features. Organizations in this mode shall experience “Interoperability” as users will be able to connect with non-upgraded users i.e. Skype for Business users.

Skype for Business Only

Organizations on this mode shall use Skype for Business for calls, meetings, and chatting although the users can create teams and channels in Teams but that can be prevented from App Permission policy in Teams Admin Center.

Skype for Business with Teams Collaboration

To make users familiar with Teams collaboration features i.e. file sharing, group calls, transcriptions, project management etc. organizations can use this mode to let calls and meetings be handled from Skype for Business while collaboration part can be taken care from Teams.

Meetings First

This approach uses Teams collaboration capabilities in addition with meetings so that users shall have chance to experience the Teams meetings features. The 1:1 chat or calls shall remain over Skype for Business.

To sum up the upgrade modes, Microsoft introduced these upgrade modes aka Coexistence modes in order to upgrade to Teams in smooth manner so no business impact might occur and user experience shall remain intact. One interesting thing which can be done is to appoint “Teams Champions” in your organization who shall be having sufficient knowledge of using Teams and they will help other employees in moving from Skype for Business to Teams. They should take surveys and feedback from employees and listen to their experiences during any of the above upgrade modes.

Thank you.