Polycom Phones for Microsoft Teams

As customers consider their options for migration to Microsoft Teams modern Phone System it’s worth observing that Polycom, Microsoft leading AV partner, have made several key announcements recently. 

All Polycom devices certified for Skype for Business online are supported by Teams. So Teams will support both the VVX range of business media phones and the Trio 8800 & 8500 conference phones. Although the Trio can be considered an audio video conference device it was only ever certified on Microsoft’s audio track. If ordering new devices it is best to procure the “Microsoft edition” versions as these will arrive preinstalled with the correct profile and license (SKU’s ending with 019.)

Polycom did originally announce that LPE phones would also be supported but this is now no longer the case for several reasons; mainstream support has already ended for LPE and O365 enforces TSL 1.2 from November this year. Polycom will release new software for existing phones and a Teams native mode for the Trio 8800 conference phone was presented at partner connect in March, see graphic below.

The user experience will remain the same when a user is migrated from Skype to Teams with the following points: 

Polycom Trio 8800 - Teams (Landis Technologies LLC (c))

·       All Skype for Business sign-in capabilities will remain unchanged

·       Skype for Business users will be able to make and receive calls on their phones with no change to their current experience

·       Presence information will work

·       Users will still have access to their corporate and local directories 

·       All existing Skype for Business meeting capabilities will continue to work

Microsoft have announced that when a user is migrated additional features will be realised:

·       Incoming/outgoing P2P calls (when calling a Teams-enabled Skype for Business phone user)

·       In-call controls via UI (mute, hold/resume, transfer, end call)

·       Phone notifications about upcoming meetings

·       Calendar access and meeting details

·       One-click join for prescheduled meetings

·       Mute/unmute for conferences

·       List of meeting participants

·       Hold/resume for conferences

·       Hang up from conference calls

·       Ability for IP phones to add another Skype for Business user to an ongoing meeting   by using the ‘Add Participant’ feature

In addition to the existing line-up already Teams ready, Polycom will introduce a new range of desk phones for Teams in 2019. These will be designed with the features that are on the Microsoft roadmap in mind and provide a similar user experience to that of the Teams mobile client, specifically touch driven input.