Senior Specialist Unified Communications at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

Jul 23, 2017

RDS, Conferencing, VoIP and IM are the most valuable features

What is most valuable?

RDS, Conferencing, VoIP and IM are the most valuable features.

The Remote Desktop Sharing (RDS): It allows the users to share the desktop during a collaboration session. This feature gained popularity with our users whilst assisting others or working on a document together.

Conferencing: The ability to host conference calls with multiple users and bring in mobile users or other participants on the click of a button proved superior. All the users, now, have conferencing space which is readily available on a moments notice. Scheduled meetings which are tightly integrated with Microsoft Outlook means the users spend less time organizing meetings; where the users needed to call the support team to book boardrooms or book conferencing resources, this is all now integrated with Outlook. Anyone can now do this easily without engaging with support desks or engaging conferencing of the support teams.

VoIP: The ability to call any user without incurring any charges. Since introducing Microsoft Lync, our users can now call other Lync users in other organizations. Our system is equipped with PSTN calling, which has allowed the users to make calls to PSTN from anywhere in the world. It has introduced flexibility in the way we work. We, now, have our users working on the road all the time and they can call/be called on their Skype number anytime-anywhere.

How has it helped my organization?

We have used Microsoft products and this product is tightly integrated in the Microsoft ecosystem. Everyone in the company uses some aspect of this product.

What needs improvement?

Conferencing and interoperability need to be improved.

The biggest challenge has been seen in terms of interoperability with the other vendors. Microsoft chose standards which are freely available to minimize their costs. This decision means other vendors cannot integrate with Skype because they are using licensed technologies. Conferences on Microsoft cannot be joined to conferences from other vendors; no collaboration across technologies. That means gateways that allow Skype to communicate with other conferencing systems are required. These gateways usually come with limitations on what you can/can't do during a conference. Adding gateways means spending more money without a guarantee that everything will work as intended. It, also, complicates the solution to provide all services.

Luckily, there are vendors who have risen to fill this gap, vendors such as Pexip and Acano. Fortunately or unfortunately, Acano was acquired by Cisco. These gateways allow Microsoft Skype to communicate with any conferencing systems without losing any functionality.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this solution for eight years.

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Skype for Business

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It has been stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is good so far. We just added more servers to meet our needs.

How are customer service and support?

I would rate the technical support an eight out of 10.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was straightforward.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Business Enterprise Voice provides the most pain for pricing.

What other advice do I have?

QoS and ample bandwidth are a must. Virtualization can be a source of pain, i.e., if it is not implemented as per the requirements from Microsoft.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

reviewer1362285

Automation Systems Developer at a tech consulting company with 1-10 employees

Jul 12, 2020

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Easy video conferencing with a simple setup and capable of saving conversations

Pros and Cons

"I like the fact that it opens up your video conferencing, and, in many cases, the audio at the same time."

"The integration with Outlook could be improved."

What is our primary use case?

Recently, we all went remote, so we needed a way to implement virtual meetings on a large scale and we utilize Skype for Business for these purposes. It might have a lot to do with the response to COVID and getting more people connected for remote access.

What is most valuable?

The solution connects to meetings pretty well.

I like the fact that it opens up your video conferencing, and, in many cases, the audio at the same time.

It's very useful that the solution can save conversations.

What needs improvement?

The implementation could be improved.

In my case, I don't necessarily pick up audio, so I have to dial in. I have two connections. One is a visual and one is strictly for audio calls. Some other users aren't experiencing that issue. It's inconsistent and I'm not sure why. I also can't say with certainty that this is a Skype problem or if something else is causing the discrepancy.

There seems to be some sort of setting whereby it pretty much keeps instant messenger open all the time. I don't know what the settings are, or if this can be switched off. I believe there's an integration with that, where it assumes a certain status. I haven't had a chance to manually change it or to look into how to adjust it.

The integration with Outlook could be improved.

There could be more opportunities for setting up your current status.

The solution feels like it's pretty bare-bones. There could be some additional features added, perhaps on the statuses or something of that nature because as it stands now, it's pretty sparse. I have heard that they're going to be introducing some features pretty soon. I hope that's the case.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've personally used Skype itself for years. However, in terms of utilizing Skype for Business, I've only been using the solution for the last month, or, more accurately, about three weeks.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution seems to be pretty stable and is just as stable in the business version as the regular version. I haven't had any issues whatsoever with crashes or glitches. However, it does feel like it's pretty bare-bones.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is pretty scalable. You can use it across the company, and certainly within IT. Since everybody's working remotely now, with COVID-19, I think it scales quite well.

Even when you add people, it's still easy to manage many multiples people in a single meeting

I don't know how many people in our company are actually on it at this point. I imagine it's quite a few, however, I'm not sure of which departments that are using it, or if it's been deployed across the board.

How are customer service and technical support?

I've logged into technical support a few times on the Microsoft store. They used to actually go through edX at one point. They may have their own portal now. I've looked at it for various products such as SQL, Visual Source Code, etc. and not just for Skype, so I can navigate it pretty well. I've been helped there. They do have paths to different types of certifications and stuff. I have not gone through any of that myself, however.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. It's not complex at all.

What other advice do I have?

We're just a customer.

I'd advise other organizations that the implementation is pretty smooth as far as installations go, so they shouldn't be afraid to give it a try. Using it is very straightforward, and it just sits on your desktop as an icon, so it's easy to access when you need it.

Overall, I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

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it_user3483

Senior Consultant at Unify Square

Dec 11, 2017

Lync 2013 High Availability

High availability is something that companies do not take for granted, they take it as given (especially when we talk about telephony). While Lync 2010 did a good work on this critical aspect there were still some weak points on the architecture when there was the need for a really continuous service. For example the mechanism behind the “backup registrar” implementation was really a limit and, for the Enterprise Front End deployments, the need for a clustered SQL server Back End was a restriction and did not match with the requirements related (also) to some kind of disaster recovery plan.

Front End Pairing and new rules on licensing

Lync 2013 makes a step forward, building on what was valid in the previous logics and using whole new solutions were they are necessary. The first huge improvement is related to the so called “Front End pairing”. I have created a presentation about this solution some time ago (http://bit.ly/XKCBzd) anyway what you need to know is that now your Standard Edition Front Ends (or your Enterprise Edition pools) can be tied and you are able to failover and failback users completely from one Front End to the other one with a simple Shell command. Some limits apply (pairing is supported only on similar Front Ends, so Enterprise Edition and Standard Edition mixes are not supported) but the result is really what you wish you had some years ago. The licensing has changed accordingly so that now there is no difference in the costs of a Standard or Enterprise edition of Lync. Obviously we are not talking about a “free lunch” because an Enterprise Edition deployment has a suggested minimum of three servers and you have to add the cost of at least one SQL server license to the amount. Talking about the Lync databases, we have another hot topic

Back End mirroring

The Lync Back End server (basically a SQL database hosting some of the Lync configurations and data) is really less important than it was in the past (and that’s why we are able to pair the Front Ends) but it is still mandatory for an Enterprise configuration of Lync. The high availability for Lync 2013 Back End supports:

SQL database mirroring
SQL database clustering (starting with the August 2013 update

Mirroring is interesting because it allows for geographically dispersed deployments and requiring no shared storage between the different SQL “nodes”.

There is no support fo SQL AlwaysOn, at the moment.

Pools

As I said, solutions used in Lync 2010 that were effective have been used also in Lync 2013. This is the case of the Lync roles “pools” that are still used to grant the availability of features such as Lync Edge, Mediation and Director (the last one being now more optional than ever). However something has changed also in Lync pools implementation. Monitoring and Archiving are no longer independent roles but are collocated with the Front Ends, so you do not need to create dedicated pools. Persistent Chat Server (a new role, interesting in scenarios where you need to create persistent “rooms” for users IM conversations) must be pooled too if you want to grant its continuous accessibility.

Mediation Server Supporting Multiple Trunk and Inter-Trunk Routing

This last topic is not strictly related to the high availability but the aforementioned features (multiple trunks and inter-trunk routing) add a series of possibilities when planning an Enterprise Voice solution and the additional elasticity can be turned in a resiliency instrument. For example multiple trunks can be defined between a Mediation Server and a voice gateway or multiple Mediation Servers can route calls to the same gateway. Applying the right voice routing policies you will be able to create a series of solutions to use existing connections to the PSTN network or SIP trunks for continuity. Inter-Trunk routing enables the interconnection of two or more IP-PBX systems and this could be used as a way to add voice resiliency too.

Drawing a conclusion

The new features and possibilities we have seen here have a deep impact on the design of a Lync solution and on the perception of Lync as an enterprise ready solution. With the right design (and investment) every piece of the deployment can be made highly available and affordable, with a logic that is no more bound to a single site but can include also branch offices, disaster recovery sites and Cloud features too (hybrid deployments are part of the game now). You can stay assured that people will look with a growing interest to Lync now that the aforementioned possibilities are no longer only in the wish list.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user3483Senior Consultant at Unify Square

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Sep 4, 2014

Hi Alin.
As you easily understand, I can not answer because the information I have are under a NDA.
However things move always so fast that you will not have to wait too much for an official answer on this topic from Microsoft :-)

See all 2 comments

it_user3483

Senior Consultant at Unify Square

Jul 4, 2016

Why Lync Server 2013 is Interesting

Disclaimer - Time flies, and I received a message from IT Central Station to update my past reviews, including the one I wrote some months ago about Lync Server 2013. Honestly, it would have been easy to just update a few lines here and there and keeping the contents (that were still good) online. However, I have tried to use wisely the aforementioned period of time and my knowledge of Lync and of his potential is now deeper. So, I decided to throw away the previous review (including a good number of views it had) and to write a completely new post.

What is Lync Server 2013

Lync is a Unified Communications (U.C.) product. It means that in a single product you have a native integration between many different communication tools (IM, conferencing, telephony, e-mail). Lync adds to the standard U.C. capabilities the integration with other Microsoft solutions (SharePoint, Exchange and Active Directory). The aforementioned integration uses information already available in your corporate software to give a better and more complete communication experience to the users. A remarkable example of the aforementioned capability, that I often use as an example, is the so called Skill Search. Skill search is a feature included in the user search of the Lync client that enables the use of working skills information coming from SharePoint as a filter.

Why Lync is Interesting

Lync Server 2013, from a certain point of view, is like two different solutions in a single product (also if a strong point of Lync is that you can move seamlessly inside the different available features). I will try to explain my point of view:

First “aspect” of Lync is the part dedicated to communication tools like IM and conferencing. From this point of view you could find similarities (and important dissimilarities) with other U.C. products. Lync is able to federate different companies and (also) external networks like Skype adds a flexibility that gives value for Lync enabled companies. User experience is really good, with great clients/apps available for almost any existing platform and device. Again, integration with other Microsoft services, adds communication tools, like scheduling a Lync meeting from the Outlook calendar or seeing presence and launching a Lync IM from the Exchange Outlook Web Access (OWA) interface.
Second “aspect” of Lync is the Enterprise Voice, a modern VOIP system that is able to replace the existing Private Branch Exchange (PBX) telephony and to overtake it with many additional features.
Lync has many mechanisms dedicated to grant high availability (see my Lync 2013 High Availability post here on IT Central Station, http://www.itcentralstation.com/product_reviews/lync-server-review-by-fabrizio-volpe) so that your telephony system will never let you down.
The client is really easy to use and it is powerful, giving users access to features like Call Via Work (enabling outgoing calls from any Lync client, including the apps for mobile devices, always showing your work phone number and not the real one) or Call Parking (put a call on hold from one telephone and then retrieve the call later, also from another phone, dialing an internal number).
Last (but not least) there are many voice routing mechanisms inside Lync, so that you are able to select the path that has the lower cost for a call or the one that is compliant with your company policy with a lot of flexibility

Both the aforementioned points are different faces of the same product, but also looking at them as separate solutions, we have a Lync is great competitor in the U.C. field.

Weak Points of Lync Server 2013

Lync on-premises is costly (you have to pay both user and server licenses).
A deployment of Lync is never trivial and, if we include the Enterprise Voice features, it requires real experts to obtain the best results.
The Office 365 version of Lync (Lync Online), less costly and complex than the on-premises solution, at the moment is not a viable solution, if you require telephony features.
Lync hybrid (on-premises and Cloud mixing) is constrained by the aforementioned limits in Lync Online
Large meetings on-premises require an infrastructure sizing that many companies could not be able to deploy

What Will Change for Lync in the Future

If you look at the list of the weak points, you can easily imagine that a solution for the pain points in the list is something that Microsoft is working on. The new “Mobile-First, Cloud-First” strategy that Microsoft has embraced involves all its products and it will have for sure an impact on VNext, the temporary name experts use for the forthcoming release of Lync.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

it_user639537Works

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Apr 2, 2017

spot on

reviewer2057283

Software architect at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jan 7, 2023

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Easy to use , with nice integration, and very scalable

Pros and Cons

"The integration with Microsoft Outlook for creating and scheduling meetings is nice."

"I would like to see an updated user interface and layout even though no functionality is missing."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is for meetings, online meetings, internal meetings, and with vendors.

How has it helped my organization?

The integration with Microsoft Outlook for creating and scheduling meetings is nice. I believe that this software is very much like the others, for example, Microsoft teams.

What needs improvement?

I would like to see an updated user interface and layout even though no functionality is missing.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Skype for Business for the past two months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is very good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

There is excellent scalability and we have five hundred users currently.

What other advice do I have?

I would highly recommend Skype for Business and give it a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

Lenka Kunecova

Senior Channel Sales Executive at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees

May 14, 2022

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Intuitive, user-friendly, and reliable

Pros and Cons

"What is most valuable about Skype for Business is that almost everyone knows about it and almost everyone has it. You will be able to reach a large number of people."

"I am not familiar with all of the features or whether they can hold conferences because we use Zoom for that. But, in my opinion, if they can do something similar to what Zoom is doing, it will be a complete solution."

What is our primary use case?

Skype For Business is primarily used for meetings, video meetings, and instant chats.

I use it for one-on-one meetings, not for conference meetings where you have been personally invited.

What is most valuable?

What is most valuable about Skype for Business is that almost everyone knows about it and almost everyone has it. You will be able to reach a large number of people.

It fulfills all requirements.

What needs improvement?

I am not familiar with all of the features or whether they can hold conferences because we use Zoom for that. But, in my opinion, if they can do something similar to what Zoom is doing, it will be a complete solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Skype for Business for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Skype for Business is a stable product.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

If I include the clients for the various events, there are a few hundred users.

How are customer service and support?

I have never contacted technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, I did not use another solution.

How was the initial setup?

It was easy to install.

The installation was complete in a few minutes.

What about the implementation team?

I completed the installation myself.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

There are no licensing fees, but you must use a Microsoft account.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Skype for Business a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

F. Can AKTAN

IT Systems Administrator at Gama Türkerler Ortaklığı

Apr 4, 2022

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High availability, scalable, and but difficult user interface

Pros and Cons

"I have found Skype for Business to be stable."

"Skype for Business could improve the interface. It could be easier to use. Additionally, it's hard to find the people or add people you want to communicate with."

What is our primary use case?

We are using Skype for Business mostly for meetings.

What needs improvement?

Skype for Business could improve the interface. It could be easier to use. Additionally, it's hard to find the people or add people you want to communicate with.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Skype for Business for approximately four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have found Skype for Business to be stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Skype for Business is a scalable solution.

We have approximately 350 people are using this solution. All departments are using it.

How are customer service and support?

The support for Skype for Business is good.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup of Skype for Business was simple.

What about the implementation team?

We did the deployment of Skype for Business in-house.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We are using the subscription-based version of Skype for Business. There is a free version of the solution.

What other advice do I have?

We are in the process of moving to Microsoft Teams and it is integrated into Microsoft Office.

I rate Skype for Business a six out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

PunitThakkar

CEO at Shivaami Cloud Services Pvt. Ltd.

Dec 13, 2018

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It is a user-friendly solution that enables us to manage international meetings with ease.

Pros and Cons

"We chose Skype for Business after other colleagues suggested that we give it a try. It has served us well."
"We really like the screen sharing tool. The user experience is smooth, and user-friendly."

"I venture to say that 30% of the people using this solution at our company have had issues with stability, due to the volatility and crashes."
"Sometimes the connection crashes, which is understandable if you are traveling. But, it would be nice if this could be stabilized somehow."

What is our primary use case?

My primary use case for this solution is for internal meetings and meetings with customers.

What is most valuable?

I find the international dialing is the best feature.

What needs improvement?

Skype for Business needs to improve their support for Android cellphones. Sometimes the connection crashes, which is understandable if you are traveling. But, it would be nice if this could be stabilized somehow.

Additionally, I think there is a need to improve the chat-for-groups feature. It is not perfected yet.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I venture to say that 30% of the people using this solution at our company have had issues with stability, due to the volatility and crashes.

How are customer service and technical support?

I do not have experience with tech support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used to use G Suite Hangout as a similar solution. But, prior to that, we were not using anything else in this domain. We chose Skype for Business after other colleagues suggested that we give it a try. It has served us well.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It may be considered costly for certain markets, such as in India.

What other advice do I have?

We really like the screen sharing tool. The user experience is smooth, and user-friendly.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.