E5 and Skype for Business Cloud PBX Features Demo’d at Convergence 2015 EMEA

Today at Convergence EMEA 2015, Microsoft launched it’s new Office 365 Services, including new Skype for Business Services.

I’m pleased to say Modality Systems are a global launch partner, and I will be doing a webinar on E5 and Cloud PBX on 15th December if you would like to find out more.

You can catch the full Convergence keynote here: http://convergence.evo-td.com/library/KEY15EK01 , the Skype for Business demo starts around the 35 minute mark. The Launch blog post is here: Office 365 brings significant new value to business customers worldwide.

The demo’s were all live on production tenants and over internet. The demo’s included PSTN Conferencing, real time co-authoring, Skype Meeting Broadcast, iPhone 1 click join, Surface Hub, the Polycom Trio (cool new conference phone with great audio), Cloud PBX and PSTN Calling (Microsoft as a PSTN carrier) and a great testimonial from Accenture.

From 1st December 2015, 4 new Skype for Business Online services are generally available:

• PSTN Conferencing provides the flexibility to dial in to a meeting from a traditional phone, in addition to the existing ability to join a meeting with a single click on your PC or mobile device.
• Skype Meeting Broadcast makes it easier than ever to produce large virtual meetings for up to 10,000 meeting attendees, who can join from virtually any browser or device (see it in action). Now Skype for Business truly is a single platform for every type of meeting.
• Cloud PBX enables companies to eliminate separate PBX systems and transition to the cloud with Office 365 as the central location to manage users for communication and
• With PSTN Calling, Office 365 customers can also subscribe to Microsoft managed calling plans and phone numbers, starting in the U.S. with more markets coming later.

Jamie Stark gives a good overview of Cloud PBX and PSTN meetings in this Microsoft Mechanics session

In addition these new Office365 features were launched:

• Delve Analytics—Empowers individuals through rich dashboards that provide insights on time and relationships, with the goal of helping individuals get time back and spend it effectively.
• Power BI—A business analytics service that enables information workers to visualize and analyze data with greater speed, efficiency and understanding through live data dashboards, interactive reports and compelling visualizations.
• Customer Lockbox—Gives customers new approval rights, transparency and control over their data in the cloud.
• Advanced eDiscovery—Integrates Equivio machine learning, predictive coding and text analytics capabilities, to reduce the costs and challenges that come along with sorting through large quantities of data for eDiscovery purposes.
• Advanced Threat Protection—Protects against unknown malware and viruses by applying behavioral analysis.

If you are interested in some behind the scenes Convergence detail, Jamie Stark did a behind the scenes Skype Meeting Broadcast