IT Support for Small Organizations

Teams operates on top of Microsoft 365 and integrates with a variety of cloud services to provide real-time communications and collaboration. Developed as the replacement for Skype for Business Online, Teams provides a single interface to support messaging, voice/video meetings with screen sharing, IP calling, cloud-hosted voicemail, group email, plus document and app sharing. Teams is seamlessly integrated with Office/Microsoft 365 and depends on Microsoft Exchange Online and SharePoint Online, OneDrive for Business, and Microsoft Entra (formerly Azure Active Directory (AAD)) for delivering its complete set of capabilities. Your organization can run Teams only or you can deploy a hybrid architecture that combines Microsoft Teams in conjunction with on-premises Microsoft Skype for Business Server.

Progent's Microsoft Teams experts can deliver remote and on-premises expertise to assist organizations of all sizes to understand the strategic benefits of Teams, design and implement an efficient upgrade to Microsoft Teams from Microsoft Skype for Business or Lync, and optimize or troubleshoot a Teams environment. Progent can help you to install and manage a cloud-centric communications ecosystem powered by Teams, and Progent's Skype for Business Server consulting experts can assist your organization to integrate a hybrid deployment that combines Teams with your self-hosted Skype for Business Server ecosystem. Progent's consultants can help you to integrate Microsoft Teams with Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Office/Microsoft 365 apps and also with your in-house PBX system, your PSTN connection. gateway, and in-room telephony equipment.

Progent's Cisco-certified network infrastructure consultants are available to help your organization to design and configure a robust network architecture for Microsoft Teams, and Progent's certified information security specialists can assist your business to create enterprise-wide communications security policies based on industry best practices. Progent's specialists can troubleshoot stubborn technical road blocks or provide comprehensive project management or co-management services to ensure that your Teams initiative is successfully carried out on schedule and on budget.

Key Features of Microsoft Teams
Teams includes chat, meetings, IP calling, document co-editing, app sharing, and file storage into a unified client interface. Teams is regularly updated and has achieved or surpassed feature parity with Microsoft Skype for Business in all essential functions. Teams also offers significant improvements in scale, chat, integration with Microsoft 365, and other areas. In addition, Teams introduces the concepts of Teams and Channels to make it simpler to collaborate on initiatives, have group chats, share files and apps, and conduct conferences.

Teams and Channels
Teams and channels are defining structures in Teams for enabling collaboration and sharing knowledge. A team is a collection of users from within and outside your company who can collaborate with one another in a positive way through conferencing and by exchanging discussions, files, and apps. Teams can be based on business divisions, offices, company initiatives, mutual enthusiasms, or anything else that can take advantage of an advanced collaboration solution. When you define a team you start a Office/Microsoft 365 group, a SharePoint Online web site and document collection, an Exchange Online group mailbox and calendar, a OneNote team notebook, and a persistent chat workspace. If you create a team using an existing Microsoft 365 group, that group's participants, SharePoint Online site, shared mailbox, and OneNote team notebook are all brought into Microsoft Teams. A team can be public or restricted and can have up to 10,000 members.

Channels are chat-based workspaces within a team. Each channel except the default General channel is concerned with a topic you specify. All discussions, file sharing, and meetings for a given theme take place within the appropriate channel. Channels can be available to all team participants 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 within a channel via the Files tab are located on SharePoint Online. Managers can control policies to permit or reject apps for a channel. Conferences occurring in a channel can include digital whiteboards, notes, and chat. Incorporation of Microsoft Stream makes it possible for meetings to be recorded, stored, and replayed.

Compatibility with Office/Microsoft 365
The Microsoft Teams user interface operates in conjunction with Microsoft 365 productivity apps and services to deliver an extensible collaboration solution. In addition, connectors make it possible for your organization to integrate Teams with outside apps such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google Analytics, Trello, and MailChimp.

Examples of the integration of Microsoft Teams with Office/Microsoft 365 include:

• Exchange Online and Microsoft Outlook provide email and calendar services. You can set up and attend meetings through either Outlook or Microsoft Teams. Chat and channel messages are stored in Exchange for strong information security. You can also configure enterprise-class security and data loss protection for en-route email and file attachments.
• SharePoint Online support allows you to build discussion and news sites. A wide range of options for managing permissions enable highly secure file sharing in the cloud.
• Microsoft OneDrive for Business supports secure cloud storage of private files or documents shared in Microsoft Teams chat, synchronizes file updates made while unconnected to the Internet, and supports co-editing. Other storage providers you can add to Teams channels include Dropbox, Box, and Google Drive.
• Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory (ADD)) is leveraged by Teams to provide Single Sign On (SSO) with Microsoft 365 apps, multi-factor authentication for increased security, and conditional access rights based on group membership, location, and endpoint status.

Ways Progent Can Help Your Business to Upgrade to Teams from Skype for Business or Lync
Teams supplants Skype for Business Online as Microsoft's flagship cloud service for real-time collaboration. Companies currently running Microsoft Skype for Business or Lync Server should plan for the upgrade to Teams.

Progent offers on-demand support for the wide range of technologies required to maximize the business value of your Teams investment. Progent offers the support of Skype for Business experts and Microsoft Lync consultants to help you to stage your current system for upgrading to Microsoft Teams. Progent's Exchange Online consultants, SharePoint Online experts, and Office/Microsoft 365 specialists can assist your organization to combine Microsoft Teams with familiar cloud apps. Progent's phone system infrastructure consultants can assist your business to integrate your phone system to Teams.

Progent offers online or on-premises expertise to help your business to resolve stubborn IT obstacles or Progent can deliver comprehensive project management outsourcing and co-sourcing services to your organization to plan and implement a smooth Teams migration.

Progent's expert support for assisting your organization to migrate to Teams include:

• Assist you to define your goals for your Microsoft Teams deployment
• Inventory your existing IT assets and identify any additional requirements for rolling out Teams
• Verify that all users have correct licenses for Office/Microsoft 365 apps
• Provide advice for selecting a collaboration solution that includes Microsoft Teams exclusively or a hybrid model that combines Microsoft Teams with on-premises Skype for Business Server
• Configure a supported session border controller for SIP trunking and PSTN lines to integrate your current phone environment with Microsoft Teams
• Review and update current Dial Plans for running with Teams
• Establish connectivity and efficient workflows for telecommuters and mobile users
• Create a security plan that meets your internal standards as well as regulatory requirements
• Plan and validate a cost-effective, non-disruptive migration process
• Set up an intermediate or long-term hybrid deployment that allows concurrency between Teams and self-hosted Skype for Business Server
• Configure Microsoft Entra sync (formerly Azure AD sync), SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, and OneDrive
• Upload data from a on-premises SharePoint implementation
• Configure Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) Premium P1 and Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS)
• Set up Microsoft Entra Connect (formerly AAD Connect) with writeback for hybrid Exchange environments
• Set up, deploy, and manage Microsoft 365 services
• Deal with DNS and certificate issues
• Provide mobile computing integration by offering Apple iPhone and iPad integration and Google Android smartphone integration services
• Deploy management tools including Teams Admin Center, Microsoft Entra (formerly AAD) Admin Center, and Microsoft 365 Security and Compliance Center
• Integrate the Teams Premium product to extend the feature set of Microsoft 365 Teams
• Provide group and one-on-one remote education
• Deliver as needed consulting, development, and troubleshooting support

Call or Email Progent for Microsoft Teams Consulting Services
To learn more about Progent's upgrade support for Teams, phone 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.