Microsoft Adds Skype for Business To Office 365

Good news for those enterprises that use Microsoft's Skype for Business. Microsoft announces to add Skype for Business to Office 365. It will make the messaging and calling product more useful. The company has also intergrated PowerShell for Office 365.

According to Office Blogs, the new voice and meetings capabilities in Office 365 will enhance the existing Skype for Business experience. Last November, Microsoft announced the rebranding of Lync Corporate Communications platform as "Skype for Business." This allowed businesses to create large-scale meetings and better assimilation of Skype for Business with conventional phone lines.

Office 365 for enterprise will also get access to the technical preview of Skype for Business. According to Computerworld, Office 365 enterprise customers can register for the following previews:

Skype Meeting Broadcast

It is designed to organize large meetings over the internet. With this version the meeting organizers can broadcast a video feed of their meeting procedure form Skype for Business to up to 10,000 other participants. The speaker can respond to feedback in real time. For this the system also integrates with Yammer and Bing Pulse. The non-speakers can watch the video feed from most of the web browsers without using a plugin. Prior to this launch meeting were restricted to 250 participants only. The high-tech communication service is based on Azure's media streaming technology. Skype Meeting broadcast service can be used by users worldwide.

PSTN Conferencing

This feature allows people to call into Skype for Business meetings using a traditional telephone. People who are in those meetings will be able to dial out to phone users as well.

Cloud PBX with PSTN Calling

This feature will allow users to make and receive traditional phone calls inside Skype for Business. Users will be able to hold, resume, forward and transfer their calls from the app. The Cloud PBX and PSTN Conferencing features are currently only available to users in the U.S.

Later this year, organizations that plan to avail the service or mainly depend on Skype for Business will be able to use Azure ExpressRoute for Office 365. This will enable users to establish to get direct connection from their business to Microsoft’s servers with an additional cost.

Microsoft also added PowerShell for Office 365. This brings a CLE (command line environment) to system administrators who want to access capabilities not present in Office 365 Admin Center. Additionally, there will be a library containing scripts which will enable administrators to be faster. Microsoft has even put up a PowerShell website complete with a Yammer-based community.

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