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Tom's Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365 Update

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Many thanks to Logitech, this month's Empowering.Cloud benefactor. Check out their recently launched Zone 305 Teams certified dongle-less headset, and the center of room Logi Sight now has beta Smart Switching.
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Lots of news for the start of the new Microsoft financial year. Get up to speed in 17 minutes with my chapter marked July monthly update video and grab the PowerPoint deck.

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Microsoft Teams News:

• Speaker recognition (for identifying who said what in the meeting room for the transcript/Copilot/Meeting Recap) has now expanded to all Teams Rooms on Windows devices, regardless of the microphone type. Later this year, speaker recognition will expand to Teams desktop for bring-your-own-device (BYOD) meetings. Teams Rooms on Android devices will follow in 2025.

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• The European Commission has sent a "Statement of Objections" to Microsoft. In a preliminary finding, EU regulators said Microsoft may have gained an unfair advantage by not giving business customers a choice of whether to have access to Teams when subscribing to Office 365 and Microsoft 365. This is why Microsoft has unbundled Teams world wide for Enterprise customers

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• On July 31, 2024, Microsoft will stop supporting the legacy services infrastructure for chat messaging, which impacts Teams Rooms on Android on 1449/1.0.96.2024020802 or earlier and Teams Phone devices 1449/1.0.94.2024011003 or earlier. Ensure all your devices are updated before the end of July to avoid impacting Service. This is a good example of why watching the Microsoft Message Center is important. It's MC804766​

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• Classic Teams 1.0 client now end of support (July 1st). Users still running classic Teams will experience in-app messages informing them that the client is no longer supported. Make sure you check all your users are updated to "new" Teams 2.1 before October 23, 2024

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• Important one for Teams Admin and Operations Teams - Changes are coming for the permissions needed to create and manage Teams Phone (TP) resource accounts​

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• Microsoft Teams Bookable desks GA, Learn docs and Support docs​

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• Microsoft Teams Webinar integration with HubSpot using the new Graph Webinar API's

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• Copilot for Sales - Teams plugin now rolling out. Process conversations in real-time and return insights to sellers, such as an overview of an account opportunity. More about Copilot for Sales​

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• New optimized Microsoft Teams VDI on Azure Virtual Desktop and Windows 365 Public Preview rolled out for all users, Microsoft blog​

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• ​Digital Signage coming to Microsoft Teams Rooms on Windows August directly with XML/URL and with partnerships with Appspace and XOGO. Coming to MTRoA 20215. Custom background coming to Microsoft Teams Rooms panels​

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• Microsoft Teams Rooms Enhanced cross-platform SIP meeting join coming with Pexip and Teams Rooms Pro August.

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• New PowerShell to disable In-Product What’s New messages and/or Conference adverts in Microsoft Teams, Tony Redmond​

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• Skype for Business Server Subscription Edition coming 2025, What does that mean?​

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Industry News

• Dynamics 365 Contact Center Generally Available. $110 per user per month for the full licence and $95 PUPM for digital/voice. Voice is leveraging Azure Direct Routing and Azure Communication Services. Find out more in my monthly update. Look out for a special Teams Fireside chat or Teams Insider Podcast soon, where I dive deep with the Dynamics Team

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• Jabra recently released Firmware 1.1 for the Panacast 50 VBS MTRoA, adding BYOD mode. Jabra+ for admins, Jabra’s new platform for remote monitoring and management of meeting rooms, will be available this month

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• CallCabinet compliance call recording and analytics, offers auto-provisioning transacted via the Microsoft Marketplace

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• If you missed them, check out my conversations from Commsverse
  • Matt Hurst at Ribbon shared his thoughts on the latest in Operator Connect, both opportunities and challenges​
  • Michael Levy at Numonix explains their Teams Recording as a Service and an interesting US government use case
  • Lee Davis at Jabra and I discussed what Jabra headsets bring that is unique in terms of the sentiment analysis​
  • Rick Garcia and Brandon Bradley at Momentum explained their new fax app for Microsoft Teams.
  • Mark Brunwin at Tango Networks discusses pairing your Teams Phone number to an eSIM​
  • Elaine Ho at Microsoft and I discussed voice isolation, voice enrolment and GDPR compliance
  • Andy Ramos on what makes Pure IP different from other OC operators
  • Randy Champman tried to give me the Teams BYOD story and MeetUp 2 specs and pricing of the while flying around the test track
  • Graham Walsh on the Neat device portfolio and hints a new features at 104 MPH​
  • Preston Martin at Landis talked about their new web chat feature​

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Expert Briefing

• ​Microsoft Mesh: The Future of Virtual Collaboration​

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Teams Insider Podcast​ - Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon, YouTube​

• ​Microsoft Mesh, Real-world Use cases and AI Futures, Jeremy Dalton, Head of Immersive Technologies at PWC and Cathy Moya, Senior Customer Success Program Manager - Mesh Team at Microsoft
• ​Truly Working from Anywhere with Teams Phone Mobile, Robert Skyrme, BT/EE Technical Pre-Sales ConsultantMaking your Microsoft Teams Meeting Room Intelligent
• ​Enhancing Efficiency at Century Communities with Microsoft Teams Phone​
• ​The Evolution of Microsoft Teams Rooms and Devices, with Craig Durr, Chief Analyst and Founder at The Collab Collective

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Product Briefings ​

• ​Neat and Shure Partnership Offers Enhanced Video & Audio Experiences on Microsoft Teams Rooms​

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Online Events

• ​Teams Fireside Chat with Traci Herr, Snr. Escalation Engineer - July 11th - Talking about the Microsoft Teams Android migration to Android Open-Source Project (AOSP) and Autopilot deployment for MTR and more
• Microsoft Teams Devices Ask Me Anything - EMEA/NA and APAC - July 15/16th
• ​Neat webinar: Choosing the Best Platform for your Microsoft Teams Rooms - July 30th
• ​Teams Fireside Chat with Miguel Corteguera, Global Customer Success, Converged Comms, Microsoft - August 8th

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In-Person Events

• ​Microsoft UC User Group London - September 19th
• ​UC Expo London - 2-3 October 2024

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I read all email replies. Let me know if you have questions, comments, or feedback.

Thanks

Tom

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