My Microsoft Inspire 2019 #Microsoft Teams Notes

My Inspire 2019 Observations & Perceptions

Microsoft Teams as an Operating System?

It's no surprise that Microsoft Teams was a focus in the keynotes & at Inspire generally. What I found interesting was to hear Microsoft talk about Teams as an operating system or Windows. As I  remember, Microsoft quotes users in keynote saying something like "Its what I log in in the morning, work all day and log out at night". Another "I think of it as an OS where I get work done" (as I remember). I've heard this before, just not so publicly. Will Microsoft Teams be the next "Windows"? It's conceivable. 

What Does "...Support for Contact Centers..." Announcement Mean?

Microsoft and Microsoft Partners are super eager to be able to move customers entirely to Microsoft Teams. Some of the blockers are voice features that are not yet in Teams like Contact Centers, Call Recording, Attendant Consoles & so on. At Landis Technologies we talk to customers everyday about this need and there is significant pressure related to this need. On one side Microsoft has been slow to get a complete set API's for ISV's (like us) to create native/core products to fill these needs, and on the other side there is intense pressure to get this functionality ASAP. So what Microsoft has announced at Microsoft Inspire: "...Additional new partner integrations include support for contact centers, compliance recording and cloud solution providers." (Source) What does this mean in plain English? Microsoft is going to support 2 levels of contact centers: #1 The basic level is "bolting on" existing SIP contact centers via direct routing and legacy Skype for Business contact centers via federation. A coming Presence API (Source: Five9 engineer at Inspire) will assist SIP contact centers in making the integration less disconnected. #2 Advanced contact centers using the Microsoft Teams Calling API's that give a very "native/core" (like our own Contact Center for Microsoft Teams). This will be the "native" contact center experience that doesn't require the cost & complexity of buy/configuring an SBC & Direct Routing.

Bringing Physical Whiteboards Into Microsoft Teams Meetings

I thought it was interesting to watch the audience response to a demo of the Microsoft Teams coming feature that brings a physical whiteboard into Teams meeting via a webcam while making the presenter "see through" when getting in front of the whiteboard: One of the very enthusiastic applause points in the keynote. This feature and the PowerPoint rehearse were both very well received. So, for what its worth, this features seemed to strike partners quite good.

Vendors are Working to Bring Devices to Microsoft Teams

Jabra is the Jabra Panacast 3 camera 180 degrees very wide angle USB webcam. The rep noted they working on Teams certification, but since it is a standard USB device it work with Teams on my laptop that they nicely let me test. (See my video here) This is Jabra's first foray into video as far as I know.

I was also very impressed with the Poly Studio's ability to do active speaker detection. The Poly Studio is a standard USB, 4K, video bar that does active speaker detection with no additional software on the PC. I was impressed how it detected the active speaker in a huddle room (12 x12 approx.) and did a production-like switch to the active speaker. If the two speakers are far apart it did a cut and if close it did a nice pan. I think this has real promise and look forward to trying it out when the production firmware is released.

Microsoft Announcements

A big announcement at Inspire is around Microsoft Teams having 13Million daily users which surpasses Slack. Source

Microsoft highlights in its Inspire press release that Microsoft Teams now enables contact centers. "...Additional new partner integrations include support for contact centers, compliance recording and cloud solution providers." Source

New Partner Developments

Poly Studio: Source

Jabra Panacast : Source

Landis Technologies Native Microsoft Teams Contact Center Q4 2019 Source

Verba: Working with Microsoft on Teams recording solution Source