Microsoft Teams now ready to replace Skype for Business, Microsoft says

Late last year, Microsoft revealed that it planned to make Microsoft Teams its primary communications platform for businesses, supplanting Skype for Business over time. However, before that could be done, Microsoft had to make sure Teams was up to snuff with all of the existing features that Skype for Business users take advantage of.

Today, the company announced that process is complete, and Teams is ready for business, so to speak.

Microsoft brought attention to a number of new features that it has brought to Teams in recent weeks, including unified presence, cloud-based meeting recording, direct routing, and many more. "Today, more than 200,000 organizations are using Teams, including nearly 70% of enterprise customers who use Skype for Business Online. We encourage your organization to join them and move to Teams today," Microsoft says.

For the time being, companies won't be forced from Skype for Business to Teams, but Microsoft is encouraging teams to make the move now. To ease the transition, the company has release self-serve guidance for upgrading to Teams, along with upgrade tools in the Microsoft Teams & Skype for Business Admin Center, which are expected to be rolled out to all Office 365 customers over the coming weeks and months. Further, Microsoft says it will offer automated upgrades to Teams for organizations that don't have the IT resources available to manage things themselves.