The evolution of Lync is Skype for Business -- Technical Preview available now

In the world of business, the typical office is fading away. Yes, there are still places where employees are housed in the same location, but the reality is, talent is scattered across the globe. Less people are spending their entire careers at a single company, so the concept of uprooting an entire family to move for a job is no longer realistic.

The Internet, of course, has afforded talented professionals to work offsite from home or satellite locations (or even outdoors!). The problem is, email is not the most productive collaboration tool, as chains can become convoluted and hard to manage. Phone conferences alone can be quite unproductive as well, as employees mentally check out and mute themselves to work on other things. Microsoft's Lync has been a dream come true for project collaboration, and today, the first preview of the next-generation of the tool, now called Skype for Business, is released.

If you aren't familiar with Lync, it is essentially an instant messaging solution for businesses, but it is much more than just chat. It allows for teleconferencing, screen sharing, and more. Most importantly, it allows employees to be more productive by working smarter.

"We announced last November that the next version of Microsoft Lync would become Skype for Business. I am thrilled to announce that the technical preview of the Skype for Business client starts today, and that the new client, server and online service will become generally available starting in April! The tech preview gives current Lync customers a chance to trial Skype for Business and get ready to upgrade", says Giovanni Mezgec, general manager for the Skype for Business team.

Mezgec further explains, "based on the familiar Skype experience that more than 300 million people use every month to connect with friends and family, Skype for Business delivers an expanded Lync feature set and enterprise-grade security, compliance and control to IT. It also enables people to search for and connect with anyone in the Skype network -- inside or outside their organization.  And Skype for Business is built right into Office, so features like presence, IM, voice and video calls, and online meetings are an integrated part of the Office experience".

Integration with the Skype network is huge, as this opens collaboration with people outside the walls of an organization. It is not uncommon for businesses to work with outside vendors to outsource data analysis or tech support. Now, Skype for Business enables users to collaborate and meet with people outside of the organization without the need of clunky solutions such as WebEx.

I know what you are thinking, couldn't this be dangerous from a security standpoint? Potentially. If a user accidentally  shares a private presentation or trade secrets with someone outside of the organization, it could be disastrous. This is all the more reason that IT professionals should begin testing the Technical Preview now; they must be confident that they have the correct restrictions in place for their organization and users.

There are many other cool features available, however, with one of my  favorites being "Call from Work". This will enable an offsite employee to make outbound calls from Skype for Business, that are routed through the company's phone system. This enables internal call recording and tracking to be utilized even though the call is not originating from the office.

Another cool thing is that the smilies, or emojis, will now mirror the ones in Skype. If you think these don't matter, you are very wrong. When communicating over instant messaging with text, it is easy for the recipient to misunderstand the tone or emotion behind it. Adding a smilie can portray the proper tone to a coworker. Not to mention, they can be fun, leading to improved morale.

IT admins will appreciate "Rate My Call", which is a survey for the user to take at the end of a communication experience. As IT professionals know, it can be hard to quantify and track user complaints. This tool will make it easier to find issues and work to fix them.

While Microsoft Office 2016 will likely get most of the attention from Convergence today, make no mistake -- Skype for Business will be the most important business solution that Microsoft offers. Once a company is entrenched in Skype for Business, the rest of the company's services and solutions will follow.

If you would like  to test the preview for your organization, you can access it here.

Does your company use Lync? Tell me about it in the comments.

Image Credit: trofalena/ Shutterstock