Teams: Skype to Teams Transition Overview
The University is changing their phone solution from Skype to Teams. While the University will switch over the week of July 10th, Vet Med will be cutover on Wednesday July 19th. Please read important information below to ensure you are ready for this change.
Who: All Vet Med departments. Includes remote locations MDVC, MWE and Brookfield Zoo.
When: Wednesday, July 19th. Start at 5:00pm and all users converted by ~6:45pm. Inbound calls will be disrupted for approximately 2 mins. Outbound calls will be disrupted for 50 mins. It is a rolling conversion, so not all accounts will start the conversion right at 5pm. Teams internal calling will work throughout the conversion.
What: The University calling solution is changing from Skype to Teams. After the conversion, Skype for Business will no longer work for internal calling, external calling, or IM. You will not be able to login into Skype. Teams already allows internal calling and IM currently. After conversion, you will have additional calling options within the Teams app that will allow external calling. All USB based phones will work with Teams. Many older IP phones (phones that are plugged into Ethernet instead of USB) will no longer work after the cut-over (see details below).
Preparation: Checklist to complete before cut-over:
| Checklist | Applies To | Instructions |
| Prep Tasks (Basic - Everyone) | ||
| Ensure Microsoft Teams is installed | Everyone | Teams: Install Teams App |
| Setup Microsoft Teams to auto-start | Everyone | Auto Startup Apps |
| Take Basic Training | Everyone | https://techservices.illinois.edu/microsoft-teams-transition-project/ |
| Practice Teams Calling | Everyone | Internal calls already enabled; make a practice call. Ensure your audio settings correct. |
| Practice Teams Chat: | Everyone | Replaces Skype Instant Messaging. |
| Confirm Phone Hardware is Compatible | Everyone | Teams Cut-over: Teams Compatible Phone Hardware |
| Prep Tasks (Intermediate) | ||
| Call Forwarding Rules | Some users | Will NOT transfer. See what you need to document here: Teams: Call Answering Rules and Voicemail |
| Skype Relationships | Some users | Not expected to migrate into Teams. |
| Prep Tasks (Advanced) | ||
| Embrava BlyncLights setup on Teams | CSRs, some Admin |
Teams: Embrava Connect Setup |
| Service Phones / Common Area Phones | Labs, VDL, VTH, some Admin |
These will need to be logged back into. Which account is being used, log-in name and password must be known for each phone prior to cutover. See additional details here: Teams Cutover: Common Area and Service Phones |
| Response Groups | Labs, VDL, VTH, some Admin |
Response groups for advance call forwarding rules such as Call Trees will be automatically migrated to Teams. |
| Call Trees | Some main office / dept lines |
Services areas with Call Trees are strongly encouraged to document their existing Call Tree rules prior to cut-over so they can be easily tested and verify to be correct after cut-over. |
| No-Prep Required (Informational) | ||
| Voicemail | Everyone |
Greetings and previous messages are not impacted. |
| Skype Groups / Favorites | Everyone | Migrated to Teams automatically. |
| Contacts | Everyone | Outlook contacts have already been migrated into Teams Contacts. |
Advanced - Contact Center (Touch Point Users):
Contact Center functionality should not change due to the conversion to Teams and no special training should be required. An update on all computers using Contact Center will be required to connect it with Teams calling system, but otherwise no changes should be observed. Test accounts will be setup with Teams Calling on or about 7/3/2023 in order to fully test Vet Med's Contact Center configuration in advance of cut-over. The evening of cut-over Contact Center will disrupted similar to other Skype calling accounts with a notable exception; the test accounts setup earlier in June will be available to make outgoing calls if required and to manage incoming calls.
After the Cut-over:
- Log into Teams: Make sure you can make an external phone call.
- USB phones Require No Action: Remember to have Teams running or you'll miss calls.
- IP phones Require Login: This is the not the same PIN procedure as with Skype. See Teams: Log into Yealink IP Phone.
- Lookup a Phone Number: Lookup the phone number of an employee still on Skype: See KB Teams: Look-up a Phone Number
- Setup Call Forwarding Rules: https://answers.uillinois.edu/124373
How to Get More Help
Vet Med employees with questions about the Teams cut-over or having trouble after the cut-over should reach out to the IT team at IT@vetmed.illinois.edu.
If there is a high volume of issues during or after cut-over a triage system will be used. In your ticket providing the following information (as relevant or known) will assist in triage and shortening resolution time.
- Urgency (i.e. Required for my work - please expedite, this phone is used frequently but a different phone can be used for the moment, or I can use my laptop for calling until urgent needs in the College are addressed)
- Issue description (i.e. Can't login into Teams, can't login into phone, no body can hear me talking, etc)
- Location of phone experiencing an issue (Bldg and Room)
- Phone number of phone experiencing an issue
- Account that is trying to login (your NetID, or the Resource account name for common area phones)
- Make and model of phone (i.e. Yealink T46S)