Getting Started: Using the Plantronics Voyager 5200 UC

When I am on the go, and thus not at my home office with my normal recording setup (i.e., Blue Yeti microphone, webcam, etc.), I have found myself recording with my full headset...over top of my cowboy hat. An awkward fit, to say the least, but it worked. I recently got my hands on a Plantronics Voyager 5200 UC (earpiece), and this has made my mobile recording situation a lot more natural.

I created a brief video to serve as a "How to Get Started" tutorial for this device. Please note, this is not a Review at all. It is more of a walk-through of the product in the spirit of learning how to use the device. The video is below, and a link to the video is below the embedded video, in case you would rather view it at YouTube. I hope this helps!

https://youtu.be/eJKBX4oF4iM

Stay techy, my friends!

Skype for Business Server 2015 Support for Windows Server 2016

EDIT 06/30/2017 - With the recent release of CU5, and brief waiting period after its release, Skype for Business Server 2015 is now officially supported on Windows Server 2016. Check it out, and happy installing: https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4015888/how-to-install-skype-for-business-server-2015-on-windows-server-2016.


While Windows Server 2016 has not been a supported operating system for Skype for Business Server 2015, there have been no shortage of people testing out Skype for Business installs on Windows Server 2016. After all, Windows Server 2016 has been out for quite some time now, and many admins are eager to get their shiny new Skype for Business environments up on something newer than an OS with "2012" in the label. 2012 was 5 years ago, after all!

There have been some recent developments in this area, though. While the developments are promising, I still see a bit of personal confusion as to whether or not Windows Server 2016 is actually a supported OS or not. Let's start with what the promising new developments are.

Note: The below paragraph previously reported that we were on CU7, but this was miscalculated, and current CU at the time of publishing this article is actually CU4.

The February 2017 CU, which is actually CU4 if you are counting, includes a very important fix that addresses silent install failures for Skype for Business Server on Windows Server 2016. Good news, right? Here is the link to the February CU for Skype for Business Server 2015:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3207506/february-2017-cumulative-update-6.0.9319.277-for-skype-for-business-server-2015,-front-end-server-and-edge-server

For the specific KB article (KB3209566) that addresses the above-mentioned fix, check out this link:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3209566/skype-for-business-server-2015-installer-may-fail-silently-in-windows-server-2016

Ok, great! Time to install on Windows Server 2016, right!? Well, that depends. If you are looking for an announcement from Microsoft that the specific issue with silent install fails has been addressed, then you need to look no further than the above KB. However, if you are looking for a giant green light from Microsoft stating that Windows Server 2016 is supported, that KB article and the associated CU article stop short of saying that.

So how do we find out for sure? Well, we goo look at the TechNet page for Requirements for Skype for Business Server 2015, or course, and drill down to Software Requirements:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn951388.aspx

Look at the table of supported operating systems, we see the below:

Clearly, Windows Server 2016 is not listed as a supported OS. Further, if you look closely at the text below the box, you see that we are told explicitly not to use an OS if is not listed in this box. However, in the very next box below this we see the following caveat'd Note: This adds a bit of confusion, doesn't it? It tells us that while Windows Server 2016 is not in the list right now, Microsoft is planning to add it as a supported option with CU 5. If you recall from above, we are currently at CU4, so even though we have a fix in the latest CU for install problems on Windows Server 2016, this has not quite prompted Microsoft to update their support matrix for OS's. Note: The above paragraph was modified to correct incorrect verbage about the current CU level of Skype for Business server. This begs the question: Is Windows Server 2016 actually supported for Skype for Business Server 2015 installs, and this TechNet article is just a case of Microsoft documentation not being updated with the most current info, or is the fact that the box is not updated a sign that Microsoft is not ready to give a fully "Green Light" on Windows Server 2016 yet? In either case, what is clear is that if you are in the group of people that really need that explicit Green Light of supportability before moving forward, it does not appear that Microsoft has signaled it yet. Stay tuned, and I will update this blog post as Microsoft's documentation changes to shed more light on this topic.

Tenant Dial Plans: Custom / Extension Dialing in Cloud PBX (Office 365): A Preview

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Update: Microsoft "graduated" Tenant Dial Plans from Preview to General Availability (GA) on April 20, 2017. The blog post making this announcement (as well as providing the updated training links) can be found here:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Skype-Operations-Framework-Skype/Tenant-Dial-Plans-General-Availability-training/ba-p/63604

As the post states, pretty much everything is the same at GA as it was in Preview, so no real news to announce. The one change that they called out was that External Access Prefix is not supported at the time of GA launch. Best of luck on creating your custom Cloud PBX Dial Plans, but be careful!

***

For those of you that have been eagerly awaiting the arrival of custom dial plans in Skype for Business Online, your waiting days are narrowing significantly! Tenant Dial Plans have been introduced into Preview, and Microsoft is accepting applications to the preview program from customers that are under NDA and have a Skype for Business Online tenant in Office 365. First, a brief word on Why this is a big deal and what the desired functionality is that is being achieved.

What's the Deal with Tenant Dial Plans

Almost as soon as customers were able to start using Cloud PBX for placing PSTN phone calls in Skype for Business Online, the topic of customizing the Dial Plan was brought up and echoed across the landscape of users. The issue is that the ability to implement Custom Dial Plans in Skype for Business Online Cloud PBX is not a currently available function. This means that users cannot do extension dialing, or any other custom dialing scenario, outside of the default dialing scenarios that were defined by Microsoft by default. This default dialing behavior is pretty much restricted to dialing a full 10 digits (for the U.S.), or dialing in E.164.

With the ability to customize dial plans and normalization rules built deeply into Enterprise Voice in Skype for Business on-prem, why did Microsoft launch Cloud PBX without this ability from the start. Honestly, I believe the biggest reason is that Microsoft has been trying to change the narrative on how a user should dial their colleagues. With a strengthened unified communications tool homed in the Cloud, Microsoft wants users to start interacting with each by name. For example, when you lookup a user for a chat, or to see their presence, you either go to their contact object in the Skype for Business Contact List, or you start typing their name into the search bar:

Once you see the user you want, you can double-click the user to start a chat, right-click to see their Contact Card, add them to a list, and more. Microsoft wants you to take this a step further. They want organizations to embrace calling a user by "dialing" to be outdated; "so yesterday"; archaic. Get the point? Instead, they wanted organizations to get in the habit of "dialing" by looking up the user clicking to call. See below:

If I am being perfectly honest, Microsoft is pushing us in the right direction. This is a much simpler way to manage contacts and interact with them. A single approach to all forms of communication. However, this proved to simply be WAY too much change for end users in many organizations. End users want to keep working the way they always have; change tends to throw them for a loop, and it is often resisted. (It would appear that clicking to call a user is such a massive shift in thinking, that it will need to be phased into most organizations in a slower, gentler, more phased approach.)

"End users Want to keep working the way they always have; change tends to throw them for a loop, and it is often resisted." 

This reason is exactly why Microsoft started working on Tenant Dial Plans. The response and feedback on this one area was so great that it became clear that this functionality must follow Skype for Business into Office 365.

Tenant Dial Plans delivers on this need. It allows organizations to create tenant-based Dial Plans, with customized sets of normalization rules, to properly meet the granular dialing needs (wants) of the organizations that have begun adoption of Cloud PBX. In fact, many organizations have held off on adoption, or even exploration, of Cloud PBX due to this feature requirement alone. If an organization needs to have 4-digit-dialing, or 6-digit-dialing, or whatever, they can now achieve that in Office 365 by using Tenant Dial Plans.

Sign Me Up!

Ok, you are convinced. You have been waiting for this, and now want to start testing this out with some pilot users (because you should not be deploying a Preview toolset into Production!). How can you go about getting signed up. To be considered for the Preview, your organization must have a tenant that is currently using Skype for Business Online with Cloud PBX and be under NDA with Microsoft. First go to the Skype Preview website, click on Organization (this is not available to Individuals, check the box next to Tenant Dial Plans, and lastly click Sign Up. You can figure the rest out from there, I think.

Important Points to Remember

There are several important things to remember about using Tenant Dial Plans. I will cover a list of them here in Q/A format, and will also provide a look to a good Skype Academy video in which this information is covered and demoed.

Q: So, how many Normalization Rules can I add to a Dial Plan?
A: Good question! You can add up 25 normalization rules per Dial Plan?

Q: If I create a new "Tenant Dial Plan", will it apply to all of my Cloud PBX users?

A: A Tenant Dial Plan can either be scoped at the Global level, where it will apply to all of your Cloud PBX users, or it can be scoped and assigned at the User level. The below screenshot is from Scott Stubberfield's Skype Academy video demoing Tenant Dial Plans, and lays out the difference between the scopes and types of dial plans nicely:

Q: What about my Cloud PBX users that are in a Hybrid configuration? Do these Tenant Dial Plans apply only to PSTN Calling users, or also to On-Premise PSTN Connectivity and Cloud Connector Edition users?

A: Tenant Dial Plans apply to ALL Cloud PBX users. Regardless of the direction the user's PSTN calls go (Online through Microsoft services, or on-prem through CCE or existing telephony infrastructure), their dialing habits can be supported by Tenant Dial Plans.

Q: Yeah, so I assume that I will be able to manage these Dial Plans and normalization rules in a shiny new GUI, like with Skype for Business Server 2015?
A: Currently, the Preview only provides the ability to create and manage dial plans and normalization rules via remote PowerShell cmdlets; there is no sign of any of this in the Skype for Business Admin Center. Scott Stubberfield mentions a possible distant GUI companion to these cmdlets in the works "down the line" via his tutorial video, but no solid dates or commitments around that at this time.

Q: Do the Dial Plans in Cloud PBX work the same way as they do On-Prem, with the most granularly-scoped Dial Plan taking effect for a user?
A: Actually, no, and this is a good thing. If this were the case, and you assigned a Tenant Dial plan rather than leaving the existing default Service Dial Plan in place, you would have to create normalization rules for all of your user's dialing scenarios. Instead of the most granular dial plan taking effect, Cloud PBX merges the rules for the default Service Dial Plan for the user's location with the rules for any Tenant Dial Plans have been assigned to the user. The benefit to this is that all the normal dialing rules that already apply to Cloud PBX users do not have to be re-created in the new Tenant Dial Plans; instead, the normalization rules in the Tenant Dial Plans can be limited only to the additional dialing scenarios that you want to account for. Brilliant, right?! Below is another screenshot from Scott Stubberfield's demo Skype Academy video shows this concept in a clear and concise format:

Summary

In this blog post I have given a brief introduction to what Tenant Dial Plans is, what it currently looks like in Preview, and why it is freakin' awesome. I hope many of you that have been exploring and testing with Cloud PBX are as excited about this as I am! In the next post, we will go over some of the cmdlets that were introduced for the purposes of managing these new Tenant Dial Plans. In the meantime, if you want to learn more about Tenant Dial Plans, check out the Skype Operations Framework training via the Skype Academy:

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Skype-Operations-Framework-Skype/Tenant-Dial-Plans-Preview-training/ba-p/43521

Stay techy, my friends!

#Skype4BRecap - 02/03/2017 - MVP Changes, PSTN Calling in Spain, Tenant Dial Plans (Preview) Training

Two weeks in a row, the #Skype4BRecap has been published on time! Now I just need to keep up the momentum. This week was a big week for Skype for Business and other Microsoft UC community news, so please pardon the fast-speaking; I had a lot of good content to get out in a short period of time! Bigger topics include some major changes to the MVP Award program, General Availability (GA) of PSTN Calling in Spain, and some new video-based training of Tenant Dial Plans (Preview), but you can check out the full list of topics below. Enjoy the episode:

Topics

• MVP Award Program Changes Some unexpected changes to the MVP Award Program came down the pipe this week, including an announcement that New awards will be announced on a monthly basis, and re-awards will only happen once each year for everyone. This was good news for some happy new MVPs on February 1st! Check out all the details of the changes here: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/stevengu/2017/02/01/continuing-the-evolution-of-the-mvp-award/
• Tenant Dial Plans (Preview) Training The arrival of Tenant Dial Plans, in Preview, was announced a couple weeks back, but more content is starting to trickle out to the public, as is entry for some tenants into the Preview. Here is the latest training video on Skype for Business Online Cloud PBX Tenant Dial Plans: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Skype-Operations-Framework-Skype/Tenant-Dial-Plans-Preview-training/ba-p/43521
• PSTN Calling in Spain, GA PSTN Calling Preview was announced for Spain back at Microsoft Ignite in September of 2016, and it has finally been release to General Availability, following France. There are a number of cities with their local area codes available for PSTN Calling. Tom Arbuthnot put together a great blog post covering this release, along with the available cities, here: http://tomtalks.uk/2017/02/microsoft-pstn-calling-spain-carrier-services-generally-available-skype-business-online-cloud-pbx/
• WhoBot, in Teams Microsoft gave an update on the state of Microsoft Teams this last week, and in the process they announced a new Bot that will be making its way into the GA release of Teams: WhoBot. MVP Tom Morgan wrote a great post hypothesizing a bit about this new Bot: https://blog.thoughtstuff.co.uk/2017/01/microsoft-announced-they-will-launch-whobot-for-microsoft-teams-your-new-company-assistant/?utm_content=buffer5df9b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer. Also be sure to check out Microsoft's post about the state of Microsoft Teams as it inches closer to GA: https://blogs.office.com/2017/01/30/microsoft-teams-gains-steam/
• S4B Online CQD - Upload Building Info Template The ability to upload your Building information (subnets, descriptions, etc.) for advanced analytics in Skype for Business Online Call Quality Dashboard is pretty awesome, but doing so requires a specifically-formatted CSV file. Apparently the proper formatting can be a bit annoying to come by, so Martim Boam did us a favor and provided a free template for download from the TechNet Gallery: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/lync/Skype-for-Business-Online-f28c57f7. You might also want to check out his blog post on using the template: https://ucmart.uk/2017/01/31/call-quality-dashboard-online-cqd-upload-building-information/
• New Skype Academy Training The team has been very busy with generating training for all the incredible changes that have been coming our way in the Skype for Business and Office 365 world. This last week they published a bunch of new training resources on a number of very relevant topics. Get your Learn On here: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Skype-Operations-Framework-Skype/Training-extravaganza-New-training-sessions-about-E5-workloads/ba-p/42682

If you would rather watch the episode at my YouTube channel instead of in the window above, check it out here: https://youtu.be/5lXp9iFnBfE

Stay Techy, My Friends!

#Skype4BRecap - 01/27/2017 - AudioCodes S4BO Certification, S4BSwitcher, Consultative Transfer

Finally, an episode that was published on time! The blog post may have been posted the following Monday, but at least the episode was published Friday morning for the first time in...months! It was quite a busy week to cover, and there were some really good things to take note of. Check out the Topics section below for a complete list of everything talking about:

Topics

• three65.live Rebranding If you are familiar with what used to be called "The Skype Show" in 2016, the host, Mark Vale, has rebranded the show to "three65.live" He will be shifting gears from a Microsoft UC focus to all areas within the Office 365 ecosystem, including Microsoft UC. First episode to come in March: http://www.three65.live/
• S4B Broadcast: Advanced Analytics Every two weeks the Skype for Business Product team graces us with another 30ish minute episode of their Skype for Business Broadcast series. This first link to this their episode on Friday, in which they discussed Advanced Analytics: https://t.co/mlDhdyHNmQ. This second link is to the YouTube playlist where all of there other episodes are available for viewing: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLH5ElbTc1hWTvqa_CaVedTcqQQWQpdYmu
• AudioCodes IP Phone Certification for S4BO AudioCodes has achieved certification for some of their IP phones to be used in Skype for Business Online. This makes that playing field a bit more competitive, and is welcome news for many organizations that already deploy AudioCodes throughout: http://www.skypeadmin.com/2017/01/26/audiocodes-ip-phones-certified-skype-business-online/
• FREE App: S4BSwitcher Doug Routledge of Bridge OC has built a new Skype for Business profile-switching app for us, and provided it free of charge on the TechNet Gallery. Grab your download, take it for a spin, and be sure to leave some feedback and a rating: https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/S4BSwticher-Change-Skype-af12eaa8
• Consultative Transfer Confirmed Tom Arbuthnot had a post a couple weeks back about a possible new feature coming to the Skype for Business Windows client: Consultative Transfer. This was met with much fanfare, and Microsoft has since confirmed the upcoming feature. Read about it here: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Skype-Operations-Framework-Skype/Skype-for-Business-2016-on-Windows-Consultative-Transfer/ba-p/41122

If you would rather watch the episode at my YouTube channel instead of in the window above, check it out here: https://youtu.be/GABJ4tm53-I

Stay Techy, My Friends!

#Skype4BRecap - 01/20/2016 - Skype Operations Framework CQD, Avaya Bankruptcy, E911 Fix, January Training

While the episode was a few days late, there was still some really good topics to be covered. While much of the "newsy" attention was given to Avaya's Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filing, other great announcements like the launch of the Skype Operations Framework Quality User Experience module took center stage. For a complete listing of topics, see the section at the bottom. And of course, be sure to watch the episode below:

Topics

• SkypeUG User Group in Austin While there are many chapters under the SkypeUG umbrella that have set meeting dates for Q1, I am linking to my own chapter, the Austin chapter. If you are not already signed up, go for it! If you are in another city with its own chapter, register on that city's respective page. http://www.skypeug.com/events/austin-winter-2017/
• Partner Training for January The following link has a lot of resources for Partner training in the Skype for Business world. Most of the Sales and Technical instructor-led training classes are already past, but there are plenty of on-demand resources to take advantage of: https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/uspartner_learning/2016/12/19/skype-for-business-partner-training-schedule-winter-2017/
• Skype Operations Framework Quality User Experience A new SoF module was launched last week, and this one centers all around Quality, with a lot of training and focus on CQD: https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Skype-Operations-Framework-Skype/SOF-Quality-User-Experience-Release-Launch-Jan-16th-2017/ba-p/39437
• Avaya Bankruptcy There have been all kinds of articles and blog posts on the topic of the Avaya Bankruptcy, but the following is a snippet with key details from fortune.com: http://fortune.com/2017/01/19/avaya-bankruptcy/
• Lync Server 2013 January CU: E911 Fix There were not huge amounts of things to focus on with January's Lync Server 2013 CU, but a fix to a troubling E911 issue that was introduced in the November 2016 CU was implemented. Just may be worth your time: https://ucmart.uk/2017/01/20/lync-server-2013-january-2017-cu-emergency-calls-fix/

If you would rather watch the episode at my YouTube channel instead of in the window above, check it out here: https://youtu.be/CdZisP0eHM0

Stay Techy, My Friends!

#Skype4BRecap - 01/13/2017 - MSUC.Chat on Jan 27, Cloud PBX PSTN Calling Dial Plans, Consult Transfer

The news of the week this week by far is the ability to create and configure Dial Plans, with EXTENSIONS, for Skype for Business Online, Cloud PBX, PSTN Calling users! However, that's not the only thing worth mentioning. Check out the video below, and don't forget about the links to the various topics discussed below that:

Topics

• MSUC.Chat on Jan. 27 The next MSUC.Chat meeting has been scheduled for the 27th of January! If you missed the first one, be sure to go sign-up now and get it on your calendar. Just register to get the meeting invite, and we'll see you there on Friday, the 27th! http://msuc.chat/index.php/2017/01/11/next-msuc-community-chat-friday-27th-january/
• Cloud PBX PSTN Calling Tenant Dial Plans This is HUGE news! I have had customers asking for custom dial plans and extension dialing in Skype for Business Online for many months, and it looks like that capability is finally making its way into S4BO: https://support.office.com/en-US/article/What-are-PSTN-Calling-dial-plans-2f0cfb59-1ca1-4e31-84ce-09d0b1a7ce1b?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US
• Consult Transfer button in the Windows Client For those of you that are fans of the Consult Transfer functionality, it looks like it may finally be making its way into the client. Check out Tom Arbuthnot's blog post for more info: http://tomtalks.uk/2017/01/consult-transfer-button-skype-business-office-2016-insider-fast-channel/
• Skype for Business 2015 (Lync 2013) Jan 3 Update There was a client update that went out on Jan 3rd, and a lot of little buggy behavior was fixed. Check out the update page to find out if that annoying bug that you have been dealing with is addressed: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3141468?sd=rss&spid=16924

If you would rather watch the episode at my YouTube channel instead of in the window above, check it out here: https://youtu.be/Rx2cmO6gjBg

Stay Techy, My Friends!