Recently I have been checking out new phone systems with Skype for Business being end of life in April of 2019. The one thing I noticed about Skype for Business is the complexity of the setup for use. You need to login to the admin portal of Office365 and purchase Skype for Business Online (Plan 2) for $12 dollars a month. Then you need to buy a calling plan for Skype for Business Domestic Calling Plan for $12 a month or Domestic and International Calling Plan for $24.00 month.

As I looked more into Skype I noticed really how outdated the platform is compared to others in the same space. Ring Central is the standard for cloud phone systems and they integrate natively with Office365 and Skype. The one thing I did notice is easy and simple Ring Central was to set up compared to Skype for Business.

Ring Central was much more feature rich offering SMS messaging, call routing and a large variety of desk phones. Skype does not offer SMS messaging at all so I thought well since Skype for Business is going to be aged out I will use Microsoft Teams for a phone system but again there is no SMS messaging, limited features and a small choice of IP Phones. To me with Microsoft aging out Skype for Business and the push for users to move to Microsoft Teams I was surprised at the limitations of the platform especially SMS messaging.

Even free Google Voice offers SMS messaging and they are a service you do not pay for monthly at a commercial level. I just find that yes Microsoft Teams is the future but its stuck with the same limitations that Skype for Business is I don’t understand why Microsoft would do this and to top this all off regular Skype has at least one-way SMS text messaging.

When I was looking at cloud phone systems even Vonage small business plan had more options than Skype for Business and offered SMS messaging. Even small cloud companies like Dialpad offer SMS messaging. I just think if Microsoft wants to be a major player in the phone system business they need to offer basic non-complicated phone systems with an easy step up and more feature rich plans.