University-wide Skype for Business upgrade to Microsoft Teams

Starting May 8, 2021, University Information Technology (UIT) will begin to gradually migrate University of Utah student, faculty, staff, and affiliate and University of Utah Health employee accounts from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams. The upgrade is part of the effort to modernize the U’s communication technology and better meet the needs of those working, learning, and teaching remotely. Additionally, UIT intends to retire Skype for Business, a step necessitated by Microsoft’s plans to end support for the application.

Microsoft Teams features a number of collaboration tools, including instant messaging, video conferencing, file sharing, and voice calling. For more information about the Teams upgrade, please refer tothis IT Knowledge Base article.

The migration will take place in two phases: an opt-in phase and a mandatory migration. Users are encouraged to migrate to Teams as soon as possible. Please refer to the migration timeline below for more information. Note: UIT will work directly with departments that depend on Skype for Business for voice services and conference rooms to migrate those systems to Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft will host several free introductory Teams training sessions in May. For more information, please visit the Teams migration help article.

Migration Timeline

Starting May 8, Skype for Business users may transition to Microsoft Teams ahead of the university-wide migration.

Users will receive a banner notification in the Skype for Business client when the upgrade is available. To migrate early, select the “Try it” button. The Teams client will automatically download and install if it isn’t already on your device. Alternatively, you may visit the Microsoft Teams website to download the desktop and/or mobile client. Users should sign in with their uNID@umail.utah.edu credentials and uNID password. You may be prompted to authenticate with Duo 2FA. 

After you migrate to Teams, Skype for Business meetings that you have organized will automatically convert to Teams meetings. Meeting participants who still use Skype for Business can connect to the meetings using the Skype web application.

Mandatory Migration

UIT will migrate all remaining Skype for Business users to Microsoft Teams in the third or fourth quarter of the year, pending campus and hospital governance approval. This migration has been approved by the university's Strategic Information Technology Committee.

This announcement will be cross-posted to @theU, Pulse, and other communication channels.

For additional details or support, your local IT support staff may be able to assist, or you may contact your respective help desk: UIT Help Desk (801-581-4000, option 1) or ITS Service Desk (801-587-6000).

 

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