News

Microsoft Introduces Subscription Plans for Teams Rooms Devices

• By Kurt Mackie
• July 27, 2020

Organizations will soon be able to keep their Microsoft Teams Rooms products patched and trouble-free via new Standard and Premium subscription options, Microsoft recently announced.

Additionally, Microsoft indicated that all Microsoft Teams Rooms devices, "including collaboration bars, IP phones and more," can now be managed from the Teams Admin Center portal, which apparently starts with version 4.5.35.0, released on July 23, per a "Release Notes" document.

Subscription Options
Microsoft Teams Rooms are partner-built videoconferencing devices that were formerly called "Skype Room Systems," offering access to video meetings, voice-over-IP, presence and chat functions. These devices lack access to white-boarding and Office applications, which Microsoft offers via its own Surface Hub videoconferencing hardware product line.

Apparently, Microsoft Teams Rooms have needed some management and other capabilities that Microsoft is now packaging with its two new subscription options.

The Standard subscription for Microsoft Teams Rooms, priced at $15 per device per month, provides the licensing to use the Microsoft Teams collaboration service, Microsoft Endpoint Manager Intune for device management, as well as the Phone System and Audio Conferencing capabilities. Under this subscription plan, IT pros are responsible for the device and service monitoring, including patching. The Phone System service is a private branch exchange replacement solution for connecting voice-over-IP phone calls, per a Microsoft document description. The Audio Conferencing service permits meeting participants to connect using their phones, rather than a Teams client, according to another Microsoft document.

The Premium subscription for Microsoft Teams Rooms, priced at $50 per device per month, dispenses with IT pros needing to manage updates and monitor service quality. Microsoft takes over those functions remotely.

"Microsoft provides 24/7 management and monitoring of your room operating system and software, surfacing insights and alerts around any action needed on-site and taking remote action on your behalf as permitted," Microsoft's announcement indicated regarding the Premium offering.

The Premium offering also includes device setup and some on-site support, according to another Microsoft announcement. Apparently, Microsoft is enlisting its partners for the on-site support. There's also an integration with ServiceNow for trouble ticketing. Organizations need to have a supported device and be in a region where it's available to use the Premium option. Those nuances are described in a FAQ at this Premium subscription landing page.

Teams Admin Center Device Management
Microsoft is billing the Teams Admin Center as "the admin's single portal to manage all their Team devices and ensure they are always up to date and ready for use." It shows device health status, as well as call quality information over the last seven days. Actions to take get flagged and there's some drill-down capability into problems. The portal even will show if a peripheral device, such as a camera, is disconnected.

Microsoft added the ability for IT pros to "automatically update phones and collaboration bars," which apparently was a manual process before with the Teams Admin Center portal. Bulk actions can now be applied across devices using the updated portal. There's a new tagging capability that lets IT pros group devices for certain tasks.

If wanted, organizations can "delegate administration through Partner Center, so that partners can administer and manage the devices on the organization's behalf," using the Teams Admin Center. There are "dozens of partners" trained to help, Microsoft's announcement indicated.