At the beginning of February 2017, I decided to accept a new challenge and re-joined Microsoft as a Cloud Solution Architect, focused on Voice solutions.
One of the first things I had to do was to keep up with all the changes that happened in the last 9 months and I was surprised to see how much the O365 solutions had evolved in a such short time.
During this ramp up period, I started looking more in depth into the Skype Operation Framework material published by the Skype Product Group and I got to the conclusion that the contents available on this site are just amazing!
…The Skype Operations Framework (SOF) provides a foundation for customers and partners to accelerate success with their Skype for Business Online journey. Be it small or large organizations, SOF provides the methodology to guide customers and partners on when and how to use the included tools and assets to drive their Skype for Business migration or deployment while delivering quality and reliability. This is a major benefit for many who, in the past, had to figure out how to navigate their deployment on their own; customers and partners can now build their own delivery capabilities using the SOF delivery methodology as the foundation…
Everything is “customer success” centric.
“Customer success” is reached when a project is well executed from the planning phase into the operational one.
There are 5 reasons behind my excitement about the Skype Operation Framework:
Microsoft practical experience shared with Customers and Partners
Not everybody might be aware of it, but the SOF is based on the experience that Microsoft Consulting Service (MCS) gained along the past years from Voice Projects.
It’s outstanding that a company shares its knowledge about a topic with everyone and allows customers and partners to learn from its own experience.
Sinceit comes from an authentic experience, the SOF framework gives you “ready material” that can be downloaded and used for workshops with customers, allowing you to build on existing content and hence save a lot of time.
Universal language
One of the main goals of the SOF is to create a common universal language that can be adopted by customers, partners and Microsoft employees.
Having a common language helps communication between different subjects engaged in Voice projects, and avoids misunderstandings.
Being on the same page when collaborating is crucial to guarantee customer success.
Better understanding of Project Processes and avoiding classical mistakes
The Skype Operation Framework approach is based on MOF (Microsoft Operation Framework – ITIL for Microsoft technologies) and is divided in Phases (Plan, Deliver and Operate) and for each of the Phases there are different Stages (Envision, Assess, Design, Prepare, etc..).
This division is the core structure that every successful IT project should adopt.
If you look carefully to the SOF logo above, you see that these three phases create a wheel. This is because in real life, after the implementation of an infrastructure, new features/products will come and consequently a new Plan/Deliver/Operate approach will be required to introduce and adopt these new features/products.
With the cloud, this concept or innovation becomes much more relevant than before, when a product was released every 3 years.
SOF is also synonymous with Project Quality: if a customer or a partner follows the Skype Operation Framework methodology, every phase from the deployment till the operation is examined and implemented ensuring a correct approach of the project. This method allows people to understand what cannot be ignored in a successful Skype implementation. (eg. Network Assessment, Persona Analysis, Delivery plan, etc.).
Readiness material
SOF is a living framework. Every time a new feature is released, the SOF material is updated and ready to use.
Readiness is a crucial pillar of the Skype Operation Framework: our partners and customers can learn from it, be prepared and deliver successful projects.
Troubleshooting guidance
Last but not least, the SOF website provides you with a troubleshooting guideline based on specific issues (e.g.: sign-in issues, conference issues, etc.) in order to help customers and partners resolve common issues without involving Microsoft Support. This troubleshooting guide comes directly from Microsoft´s department for Customer Service and Support knowledge base.
I warmly suggest that you to get familiar with the SOF and leverage its content whenever applicable.
Learn more at http://aka.ms/sof
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