As Johan posted earlier, Microsoft is renaming and rebranding Lync as Skype for Business (also abbreviated as S4B). They released the upgrade as part of the April 14 Updates which are available to everyone.
At Community IT we are piloting the new software and are exploring the additional changes and features that are in this update. For our clients we’ll likely allow the update in a month after we have a chance to uncover the unexpected kinks and benefits and as organizations have a chance to review some of the training and change management resources.
Microsoft has provided some training and change management resources to help ease the transition from Lync to Skype for Business:
– What’s new https://aka.ms/Skype4Bwhatsnew
– Step by Step Guide https://aka.ms/Skype4Bsteps
– Skype for Business Intro https://aka.ms/Skype4Bintro
Overall the update is a rather minor refresh of the user interface. I think that Microsoft is trying to capitalize on the success of Skype and provide some additional telephony features into the enterprise. I’ll be attending several sessions on Skype for Business at the upcoming Microsoft Ignite conference in May and will have a follow up post on what I learn about the roadmap for Skype for Business (S4B).
It’s important to note that this update will be installed if you run Windows Update manually – so if you’ve been using Lync don’t be surprised to find Skype for Business after your next update. The user guides above should help you adjust.
