Microsoft Corp’s Teams to Replace Skype for Business

Microsoft Corp’s Teams application will be replacing Skype for Business as the company’s primary teamwork software, Microsoft said on Monday, in its latest effort to defend against the threat of upstart Slack in the workplace collaboration software market. Microsoft Corp’s Teams to Replace Skype for Business.

The company announced new Skype voice and video technology that adds advanced calling capabilities to Teams.

Microsoft Corp’s Teams to Replace Skype for Business

Microsoft launched Teams, a Slack look-alike software, in March, and says it has been adopted by 125,000 organizations. Slack, by comparison, says it is used by 50,000 paying groups. Microsoft did not say how many organizations use Skype for Business.

Microsoft Office 365 Vice President Ron Markezich said:

Microsoft Teams will evolve as the core communications client

He also mentioned in his press briefing:

We will make Microsoft Teams the hero and primary experience for all voice, video, and meetings.

There is no question that Microsoft is making a very big push with Teams. The pressure Slack faces is something that every tech startup has to deal with.

Given that Teams and Skype for Business use the same infrastructure, it doesn’t really come as a surprise that both will also work well together and feature universal presence, as well as messaging and calling interoperability.