Richard Smith – Former Microsoft UC Alliance Director
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Richard was responsible for managing and developing IR's global unified communications alliance partnership with Microsoft. Before joining IR Richard spent 16 years at Microsoft in roles spanning sales, product marketing, partner development and field readiness for Microsoft' M365 solutions portfolio. Outside of the office, Richard is a keen family man and sportsman enjoying camping, skiing, mountain biking, and rugby.
Managing the Microsoft endpoint ecosystem
If your organization is running Microsoft UC and Collaboration tools, like Skype for Business or Teams, it is critical to have visibility in to - and the ability to manage and troubleshoot - the entire endpoint ecosystem, to ensure a good end-user experience. It's also important to be able to identify where non-approved endpoints may being used, as these can not only impact that one user – but everyone who is trying to engage with them also.
Communications Blog
Microsoft Ignite 2018: Key Takeaways
Microsoft Ignite took place in Orlando last week and I had the privilege of being there. I have been to many Microsoft events over the years (I spent almost 17-years working there), but this was my first time at Ignite. So, as a newbie to the event, I thought it would be a good idea to share my thoughts on what the key takeaways were - especially given many of our customers and partners from around the globe may not be able to attend in person.
Communications Blog
Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams Feature Parity
Since Microsoft announced that Teams would replace Skype for Business Online at Microsoft Ignite in September 2017, the race has been on for Teams to be feature comparable with Skype for Business Online. However, this race was always going to be more of a marathon and changes wouldn't happen over a short period of time. 10 months later, at Microsoft's key partner conference Microsoft Inspire, various officials stated that there was now feature...
Communications Blog
What Microsoft means by "Intelligent Communications"
Microsoft launched its vision for Intelligent Communications in September 2017 and celebrated the 1st anniversary of Microsoft Teams 6 months later, in March of this year. This bold vision describes a world beyond that of traditional unified communications to one where Microsoft seeks to enable people to complete tasks more efficiently with minimal context switching, to participate in more productive meetings that cover the entire meeting...
