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Know the rules
All NAU employees and students should read and be familiar with the Appropriate Use of IT Resources policy. University IT policy manualMicrosoft Teams
NAU’s preferred collaboration tool
As a part of NAU’s license with Microsoft 365, all current students, faculty, and staff can utilize this fast-growing, multi-purpose collaboration and communication tool for free.
Transitioning to Microsoft Teams
What? Accordion Open
What is Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft Teams is a collaboration and communication tool that provides an online space for conversations, file-sharing, and meetings. Teams can be accessed from the desktop app, the mobile app, or any web browser. Access to Teams is linked to your Microsoft 365 account using your NAU login.
Teams provides many powerful communication and collaboration tools in one place, making it NAU’s preferred collaboration tool. Teams has already incorporated all the functionality of Skype for Business, except for calling. The migration from Skype will focus on bringing this feature over to Teams.
Why? Accordion Closed
Why are we transitioning to Microsoft Teams?
Microsoft is ending support of all Skype for Business products over the next year and is officially migrating Skype for Business functionality into Teams. Many organizations globally have already made this transition.
Because Teams includes all the major capabilities of Skype for Business, the majority of the NAU community can migrate those activities that took place in Skype for Business – most notably instant messaging and online meetings – to Microsoft Teams.
How? Accordion Closed
How are we transitioning to Microsoft Teams?
For most teams and individuals in the NAU community, it’s as simple as using Teams instead of Skype whenever possible. Teams is already up and running and improving processes for groups across the state.
Behind the scenes, ITS is working to move the audio calling component from Skype for Business to Teams. Teams can already be used to call anyone on the NAU network using audio or video calling, but external dialing will not be available until NAU is fully migrated off Skype for Business. NAU’s several call centers also have functionality tied to Skype for Business that must be transitioned and tested before NAU can make the switch.
When? Accordion Closed
When will I have to transition to Microsoft Teams?
Specific dates have not been finalized, but NAU is targeting 2023 or early 2024 to disable Skype for Business at NAU. While this does provide over a year of continued use of Skype for Business, ITS highly recommends users begin using Microsoft Teams to ensure a smoother transition.
Who? Accordion Closed
Who is impacted?
Anyone who previously used Skype for Business for instant messaging, online meetings, or audio calling will be impacted by the change.
Every member of the NAU community can take advantage of the collaboration tools of Teams right now. Students, faculty, and staff all have access to the tool and its many features.