Northeastern is moving forward on a transformative initiative that will introduce and support Microsoft Teams as the university’s single platform for unified communications (UC). This initiative will significantly accelerate efforts to modernize and streamline the ways in which members of the university community communicate and collaborate with one another, at Northeastern’s locations and around the globe.

At its core, the Teams/UC initiative will replace the aging campus telephone system with a modern, voice over IP (VoIP) solution in Microsoft Teams calls. The initiative will also leverage the university’s extensive and growing partnership with Microsoft to center Northeastern’s digital communication and collaboration experience within Teams and the broader Office 365 ecosystem. From individual calling to conference calls, to collaboration, interaction, and engagement among individuals, groups, departments, and organizations of all shapes and sizes, this approach will provide the tools and an experience that directly enable Northeastern 2025—that will empower working with anyone, anywhere, at any time.

Oversight for the Teams/UC initiative will be under the direction of Sean O’Connor, associate vice president and chief technology officer. Several staff members dedicated to the initiative will work in close collaboration with colleagues from across ITS units, and IT and business partners throughout Northeastern, to support UC and the VoIP/Teams calls migration. The role of manager of digital university solutions and experience will also provide support of the UC initiative and the broader campus rollout of Teams.

The Northeastern UC project team has engaged with an outside implementation partner to develop a rollout plan and a support model for a smooth Microsoft Teams calls adoption across the university. Initial pilots were completed earlier last year and the project team will conduct a phased rollout of Teams calls beginning in Spring 2020. Departments and users will be contacted by the UC migration team to coordinate each migration wave as the initiative plans on completion of migration in Spring 2021.