UCStatus Podcast Episode 36: Best of Microsoft Ignite 2021

Hello Readers, I hope you’re well.

Welcome to Episode 36 of the UCStatus Podcast. This episode features me (@randychapman) & Mark Vale (@MarkVale83) and Shawn Harry (@shawnharry).

This week our chat follows hot on the heels of the recent Microsoft Ignite conference, November 2nd to 4th 2021.

https://register.ignite.microsoft.com/auth/login

If you didn’t attend any of the sessions I would urge you to have a look. Ignite is the fall technology conference from Microsoft where they announce a bunch of new and upcoming features, solutions and devices from across the Microsoft stack. As our interest is all about Microsoft Teams, that’s really what we focus on. Microsoft put together a convenient PDF showcasing all of the Microsoft Teams sessions you should watch. Microsoft_Ignite_2021_Teams_schedule.pdf

As you’d expect there are various keynotes laying out the vision for the next 6 or so months. The keynotes are often chocked full of new announcements, so I would definitely urge you to watch these.

Microsoft also puts together what they call a “Book of News” for Ignite. The Book of News is something you should definitely check out. Whatever your area of interest, this has all the news and links to more information where it’s available.

The Teams content starts here, if you just want to jump ahead.

So the list of things we found interesting. All of this is from the Book of News

Shared Channels –
- this is one I am particularly excited about. A Channel that has members that are independent from the memberships of the team they reside in. This will help with team sprawl. Members can be inside or outside your org. And the best thing is that the channel you are a guest in appears in the list of teams and channels in your home tenant. No need to switch tenants to get at the channel conversations, tabs or files.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service Voice Channels
- This isn’t specifically a Teams announcement, but a Dynamics 365 one. But basically the D365 team has created an omni-channel contact centre solution inside Dynamics, that uses Teams voice infrastructure and Azure Communication Services to route calls and chats from customers to your contact centre agents. This is a big deal I think
Chat enhancements
- You’ll soon be able to federate and chat between Teams work and consumer account. You’ll also be able to chat with yourself. Sounds strange, but this is basically a scratch pad of stuff for your focus. And more
Enhancements to virtual events
- We could have used a lot of this at Commsverse 2020. But virtual green rooms are coming. Plus enhanced controls for event producers, including staging content for sharing. Co-organiser roles. And a lot more
Microsoft Teams Rooms enhancements
- MTR always seems to get a lot of air time at Ignite and others. The Direct Guest join vendor list is growing. In addition to Webex and Zoom, you’ll soon be able to join meetings from Bluejeans and GoToMeeting.
New devices from Yealink and Logitech
- The Yealink AOI24 is a 24″ Teams display and a second screen for your desk. Yealink also snuck in an announcement about a new collaboration panel running Teams Rooms on Android. Basically an Android based, touch capable collaboration display (like a Surface Hub). Logitech also announced their new Tap Scheduler, a new Teams room booking panel which is now being certified.
Hot desking for Teams Display – this will start to have more relevance as more Teams Displays (like the AIO24) come along
and more