Microsoft IT Showcase

Skype for Business accelerates modern

collaboration at Microsoft
Microsoft employees need to connect anytime, anywhere, on any device. In Microsoft IT, our unified communication strategy
with Office 365 Enterprise E5 Skype for Business helps accelerate our digital transformation. Skype for Business provides broad
collaboration and productivity benefits—without borders and barriers . Skype for Business helps our business meet its need for
greater productivity, and it adds dramatic business value.

Making Skype for Business the standard

To make Skype for Business the standard for enterprise presence, voice, and conferencing, we knew that it needed to meet
specific user and business requirements. We decided to prove the business case within Microsoft, which is a large, complex, and
global enterprise—the perfect test bed.
Microsoft faces lots of user challenges, such as supporting and securing a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) culture, meeting
connectivity challenges, and supporting mobility scenarios, all across many geographies. On the business side, we wanted to
adopt Skype for Business as a cloud-based telecommunications service provider, and realize significant efficiencies and cost
savings by moving away from costly and high-maintenance third-party PBX, international dialing, and conferencing systems.

New Skype for Business services

Overall, Microsoft manages 114,000 employees in more than 775 site locations. Like other software services at Microsoft,
Microsoft IT manages unified communications (UC) at Microsoft. We deploy Skype for Business to every new employee, and
we use Skype for Business at every business touchpoint. Microsoft is using new and advanced Office 365 Enterprise E5 Skype
for Business telephony capabilities and realizing tremendous value. They include:
 Cloud PBX. A modern and cloud-based voice infrastructure that supports standard telephony functionality.
Worldwide, we’ve de-commissioned 141 legacy PBX systems, which has saved us more than $4 million in six years.
 PSTN (public switched telephone network) calling. The ability to make and receive traditional phone calls through
the Cloud PBX infrastructure. We host more than 9 million Skype for Business calls per month, of which 2 million are
routed through Cloud PBX. Notably, more than 50 percent of these calls are made remotely, away from Microsoft corporate
network connectivity.
 PSTN conferencing. A simplified meeting process, which supports both dial-in and dial-out conferences. Dial-in
conferencing lets users call a local number to join Skype for Business meetings from any phone. Dial-out conferencing lets
us add a user to an active Skype for Business meeting by connecting to their phone from Skype for Business. Overall, PSTN
conferencing saves us 95 percent in outsourced audio/video costs.

Our Skype for Business journey has lasted for many years. We’ve partnered across five Microsoft product teams, and seven IT
teams to make it happen. Although we’re moving Skype for Business to the cloud, we’ve found that IT continues to need to
partner closely with network and infrastructure teams. Almost any component within our IT infrastructure can impact Skype for
Business, such as networking conditions, wireless upgrades, and so on.

Empowering digital transformation

Let’s talk about a few scenarios that show how the new Skype for Business features empower our digital transformation. Perhaps
you can identify with some of these.

Supporting a roaming salesforce

Field sales might be our most critical group to support. They’re always on the road, and don’t have the benefit of our stable
corporate network, so their calls are often affected by network anomalies. Field sales relies heavily on unified communications to
get work done. They often connect over external wireless networks, and they’re the most affected by network quality variability
and reliability issues. Through the dial-in feature of PSTN Conferencing, our field personnel can participate in Skype for
Business meetings, even without a stable internet connection.

Transforming training
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When we deliver training through Skype for Business, we’re not limited by the constraints of booking a conference room, or
flying people in to attend in person. This means that we can be lean, and quickly develop and deliver sessions as needed. Training
sessions can also be recorded and watched offline at a later, more convenient time.
The training experience itself has become much more interactive when delivered through Skype for Business. With document
sharing and instant messaging (IM) features built in to Skype for Business, attendees can ask questions over IM during trainings,
and get their answers in real time. Polling and Whiteboard features quickly get people involved in training, and let presenters
quickly tailor their content accordingly.

Enabling productivity
Our teams use Skype for Business and other Office 365 Enterprise E5 products to communicate, collaborate, and share meeting
documents—all in one place. In addition to voice calls, by using Skype for Business, you can share content, add IM, add
attachments, co-author Office documents, and turn a voice call into a video call. In fact, 89 percent of our Skype for Business
meetings use these app sharing features. We can complete processes in real time with Skype for Business—giving back time to
our employees—and realize tremendous cost savings.

Our configurations
We have more than 200,000 active Skype for Business users, including employees, partners, and vendors. Over 19,000 of our
partners are federated and authenticated in our Skype for Business infrastructure. Federated partners can see presence
information, and use Skype for Business to communicate with Microsoft. Today, roughly 13,000 of our Skype for Business users
are fully cloud-based, 64,000 are in a hybrid configuration, and the remainder are hosted on-premises.
Our hybrid configuration typically consists of using the cloud for IM, presence, and conferencing, with voice being on-premises.
Our hybrid configuration is temporary, until we can host all of our Skype for Business users fully in the cloud, anywhere in the
world.
Our goal is to host all of our enterprise users in the cloud for efficiencies and cost savings. As we aggressively roll out voice
services globally, we move more workloads from on-premises to Skype for Business in the cloud.

The value proposition

We’ve seen significant cost savings and dramatic adoption rates at Microsoft. Skype for Business has shown tremendous value
for Microsoft. Overall, migrating to PSTN conferencing and enterprise voice saves us nearly $124,000 per day. When it comes to
travel, we avoid 45,000 trips per year, which represents a $93 million savings. Some of these data points show the transformation
of unified voice and what it brings in cost savings and productivity gains to our business. Table 1 summarizes the savings we’re
realizing.

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Table 1. Value and adoption

Skype for Business Detail

Conferencing savings realized Nearly $124,000 per day
Travel cost savings realized $92 million per year (45,000 trips)
Enterprise voice adoption 127,000 users
IM messages hosted More than 130 million per month
Video calls hosted 44,000 monthly peer to peer video
calls
External partners federated 19,000 authenticated and federated
partners
Remote use More than 50% are remote
participants (not on corporate
Microsoft network)

Cloud PBX
PBX systems manage calls after they’re inside of your enterprise, like routing calls to extensions, direct lines, or an attendant. In
the past, PBX systems were on-premises, managed by a third party, and required significant hardware investments. Cloud PBX—
cloud-based call management—delivers familiar business phone call control and management features, such as call waiting,
directly from Office 365.
With Skype Cloud PBX, we no longer have to contract with a traditional telephony carrier for services, use traditional phone
hardware, or use an on-premises PBX. Calls are routed over the Internet. Cloud PBX hardware support and management usually
happens at an IT datacenter, rather than at a dedicated PBX site. We can even replace proprietary and expensive dedicated desk
telephones with lower-cost headsets.
In the past six years, we’ve decommissioned 70 percent of our owned PBXs, and migrated to Cloud PBX. This represents more
than $2,500 saved—per day. At the same time, our enterprise voice sites have grown by 238 percent. Table 2 highlights these
data points.
Table 2. Cloud PBX

Cloud PBX Detail

PBX infrastructure realized 70% legacy PBX sites
decommissioned, moved to Skype
Cloud PBX
Cost savings Nearly $700,000 per year
Enterprise voice site implementation Skype for Business enterprise voice
sites up 238%

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PSTN calling
Combining Cloud PBX with the PSTN calling service creates a complete enterprise telephony experience for our end users, with
Microsoft as the provider. A fast and flexible provisioning environment is supported by Office 365 and the power of the
Microsoft global network.
The PSTN calling service connects private telephony exchanges to the PSTN. A typical scenario has a caller using a legacy land
line, or a cell phone, in situations where Voice over IP (VoIP) is challenging. PSTN calling routes a call to a traditional telephone
number that is outside of your own organization, such as a person, or to a different organization that has its own PBX.
With the combination of Cloud PBX and PSTN calling, operations are optimized, and in many cases, tasks are completely
automated by Office 365. Consider the impact on corporate moves, or new hire scenarios. Before, telecom managers had to
perform PBX programming to assign users to specific phones. Today, phone numbers and presence information are automatically
associated with a user account through Office 365. The information follows that user to any physical location, computer, or
mobile device. Today, moving to a different office can be as simple as picking up your laptop, and connecting to the network.
We make and receive calls using Skype for Business, using existing phone numbers and calling plans. With PSTN calling, you
assign users to subscription-based plans either for domestic calling, or local and international calling. Table 3 shows how many
calls we’re hosting, and how many enterprise voice users we’re supporting.
Table 3. PSTN calling

PSTN calling Detail

Monthly calls 9 million
(approximately 2 million are cloud-
based)
Overall adoption 131,000 enterprise voice users
(approximately 20,000 are cloud-
based)

PSTN conferencing
PSTN conferencing includes both dial-in and dial-out functions. Dial-in PSTN conferencing simplifies the meeting process—it
lets us add telephone access, also referred to as an audio bridge—to meeting invitations at the time of scheduling. That way,
attendees can join a meeting from any telephone with a local or toll-free phone number. Dial-out PSTN conferencing lets online
meeting attendees add others to a meeting by dialing their phone number.
Dial-in PSTN conferencing helps when attendees can’t connect to the Internet, don’t have a stable Internet connection, or don’t
have audio access from their PC, tablet, or laptop. In Skype for Business, a user chooses to join a meeting by dialing either a toll-
free or a local dial-in number—as provided in the Skype meeting invitation—instead of using the Join Skype Meeting option
(it’s VoIP). Dial-out PSTN conferencing gives us the flexibility of easily adding meeting attendees simply by dialing their phone
number.
Using PSTN conferencing services—built directly into Skype for Business—means that we don’t have to outsource conferencing
to third parties. As a result, we’ve dramatically decreased our voice infrastructure costs. We’ve eliminated lots of costs associated
with third-party conferencing services, such as per-minute national/regional or international tolling, and audio/video support.

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Table 4 highlights some of these data points.

Table 4. PSTN Conferencing

PSTN conferencing Detail

Audio/video costs reduced Down 95% ($8 million per year)
Per-minute international tolls Eliminated, saves $5,200 per day

Key Takeaways
We have more than 200,000 employees, vendors, and partners using Skype for Business within our own enterprise, and the
adoption statistics and tremendous savings realized tell their own story. Skype for Business communication and collaboration
features have permeated all aspects of our workplace, and we continue to aggressively migrate all of our users to the cloud.
Skype for Business in Office 365 simplifies how people get work done in any organization, with one simple experience—that
includes chat, voice, video, and sharing—that people can use inside and outside the organization, regardless of location. These
capabilities, as part of Office 365, fundamentally change what can be expected from a global telecommunications service
provider.
We’re taking advantage of new Office 365 Enterprise E5 Skype for Business capabilities—they’re helping us replace a costly
legacy telephony infrastructure with one that is cloud-based and extremely efficient. PSTN calling and conferencing services
provide a complete and simplified enterprise telephony experience for our end users.

For more information

Microsoft IT
microsoft.com/ITShowcase
Learn more about Office 365
Learn more about Skype for Business
Reinventing the modern business ecosystem
Improving service quality in Skype for Business
Optimizing network performance for Microsoft Office 365

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