Microsoft Teams Insider

Tom Arbuthnot

Microsoft Teams discussions with industry experts sharing their thoughts and insights with Tom Arbuthnot of Empowering.Cloud. Podcast not affiliated, associated with, or endorsed by Microsoft.

  1. Microsoft Teams Queues App Explained — Shared Call History, Copilot, and What's Next

    15H AGO

    Microsoft Teams Queues App Explained — Shared Call History, Copilot, and What's Next

    Sean Gilmour, Principal Lead PM for Advanced Calling Experience at Microsoft, discusses the evolution of the Microsoft Teams Queues app — from its origins as a purpose-built workspace for collaborative calling to the latest capabilities, including shared call history and some of what is coming next. • How the Queues app was designed for "citizen agents" — workers who handle customer calls alongside their primary roles, from HR and internal help desks to healthcare professionals and financial services • Supervisor capabilities including delegated admin, monitor, whisper, barge, and takeover — traditionally higher-end contact centre features now available in the native Microsoft Teams experience • Shared call history: why giving agents and supervisors visibility of all calls across a queue, including missed calls and shared voicemails with lightweight management, is a significant step forward • How the Queues app fits into the broader Microsoft Teams Phone ecosystem alongside Dynamics 365 and certified contact centre partners through Teams Phone Extensibility • The role of Copilot and AI in enhancing call queue intelligence, from in-call assistance to proactive insights for part-time supervisors • Endpoint support across desktop, web, and IP phones, with a mobile-first experience in development for frontline workers Thanks to Luware, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.

    36 min
  2. Inside Novo Nordisk's Microsoft Teams Rooms Journey — Thousands of Rooms and Counting

    MAR 31

    Inside Novo Nordisk's Microsoft Teams Rooms Journey — Thousands of Rooms and Counting

    Christopher Amdi Mark, Senior IT Architect at Novo Nordisk, shares how the global pharmaceutical company transformed its meeting room estate — from traditional Cisco room systems and telepresence to over 2,500 Microsoft Teams Rooms with plans for more • How the shift from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams during COVID changed what users expected from meeting rooms • MTR Windows with Logitech and Lenovo, and the early challenges of scaling too quickly • Why Cisco's Android-based Microsoft Teams Rooms brought Novo Nordisk back to a trusted partner • Why BYOD is "Bring Your Own Disaster" — and how that might evolve • Managing a mixed estate of Cisco MTR Android, MTR Windows, and traditional Room OS devices with Cisco CVI across thousands of rooms • Replacing Cisco IX5000 telepresence suites with immersive front-row MTR experiences at a fraction of the cost • Where AI fits in — from intelligent camera framing to Microsoft Copilot Facilitator in the meeting room Thanks to Cisco, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.

    43 min
  3. Explaining Microsoft Work IQ, Agent Types and the Road to the Frontier Firm in Microsoft 365 Copilot

    MAR 24

    Explaining Microsoft Work IQ, Agent Types and the Road to the Frontier Firm in Microsoft 365 Copilot

    Alev Tamer, Senior Partner Solution Architect for AI Business Solutions at Microsoft, and Chris Wheeler, Senior Copilot Solution Engineer at Microsoft, break down the rapidly evolving world of Microsoft 365 Copilot agents — from personal assistants to autonomous digital colleagues. • What agents actually are and the spectrum from declarative no-code to low-code Copilot Studio agents and pro-code solutions in Microsoft AI Foundry • The frontier firm concept — three levels of AI maturity, from personal AI assistant through team-level agents to agent-operated, human-led organisations • Real-world agent examples in use today, including career coaching agents, Chris’ pub quiz agent in Microsoft Teams meetings, and autonomous complaint triage in NHS healthcare • Multi-agent teaming — how chaining specialised agents together is enabling end-to-end workflows like RFP processing without human intervention • Work IQ explained — how Microsoft Graph data, memory, personalisation, and inferencing combine to ground Copilot responses in organisational context • Governance, identity, and the challenge of managing thousands of agents with Agent 365 and existing Power Platform controls Thanks to Jabra, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.

    32 min
  4. How to RFP for Global Microsoft Teams Migration and Managed Services

    MAR 17

    How to RFP for Global Microsoft Teams Migration and Managed Services

    Chris Styczynski, Service Owner for Unified Communication and Collaboration at Clifford Chance, shares how the global law firm approached their RFP process for migrating from Cisco on-prem telephony to Microsoft Teams. • How Clifford Chance structured their RFP into six lots for flexibility: telephony migration, switchboard, contact centre, Operator Connect, on-site support, and managed services. • Why conducting an RFI first helped pre-qualify vendors and identify the right partners for a firm of their size. • The importance of understanding user requirements before going to market, especially as telephony needs evolve with AI and collaboration tools. • How to evaluate partners beyond technical skills—considering culture, flexibility, and communication style for an 18-month project. • Key considerations for global telephony migrations, including regulatory challenges across 20+ countries. Thanks to Numonix, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.

    23 min
  5. Microsoft 365 AI Workplace Update March 2026

    MAR 12

    Microsoft 365 AI Workplace Update March 2026

    MVP Tom Arbuthnot shares all the latest Microsoft Teams and Copilot news and announcements in less than 15 minutes for March 2026. Many thanks to Ribbon for their continued support. PowerPoint Deck Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 3​ Anthropic in M365 Copilot ​ Copilot Cowork​ Agent 365​ Microsoft 365 E7​ AI Workplace Roadmap​ Teams Devices Roadmap​ New Teams Certified Devices​ Events​ Useful Links: Briefings Real AI Use Cases in the Contact Centre with Luware Nimbus - Costs, Risks and Benefits - Marcel Gaufroid, Head of Sales – EU, at LuwareMicrosoft Places in 2026: APIs, Desk Booking, and Copilot Context - Brennan McReynolds, Product Strategy Lead for Microsoft PlacesPure IP's Platform Strategy that Simplifies Enterprise Communications - Adnon Dow, Chief Strategy Officer at Pure IPAI Voice Agents - Sean Keegan, Developer Evangelist for Azure Communication Services at MicrosoftTony at NWN Explains How They Deliver Multi-Platform UCaaS at Scale with NUWAVE iPILOT Teams Insider Podcasts CTO of LabourNet on Microsoft Teams Phone and Contact Centre with a Dispersed National Workforce with Mike Love, CTO at LabourNet, Janet Souter-Dantu, Co-founder at ScopServ Integrated Services, and Vanesia Raborethe, Head of Sales at ScopServSharePoint at 25, Past, Present, and AI Future with Microsoft's Jeff TeperAI enabling real-time communications with Adam Jacobs, IC3 Principal Program Manager at MicrosoftScaling Microsoft Teams Phone and Teams Rooms at BAE Systems with Andrew Wigmore Other Useful Links https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2026/03/09/copilot-cowork-a-new-way-of-getting-work-done/  https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2026/02/27/microsoft-and-openai-joint-statement-on-continuing-partnership/  https://portal.changepilot.cloud/mc1247880  https://portal.changepilot.cloud/MC1247634  https://portal.changepilot.cloud/mc1248392  https://portal.changepilot.cloud/mc1245225  https://portal.changepilot.cloud/mc1243546

    14 min
  6. CTO of LabourNet on Microsoft Teams Phone and Contact Centre with a Dispersed National Workforce

    MAR 10

    CTO of LabourNet on Microsoft Teams Phone and Contact Centre with a Dispersed National Workforce

    Mike Love, CTO at LabourNet, is joined by Janet Souter-Dantu, Co-founder at ScopServ Integrated Services (Pty) Ltd, and Vanesia Raborethe, Head of Sales at ScopServ Integrated Services (Pty) Ltd, to discuss LabourNet's move to a Microsoft Teams-based contact centre with Landis. LabourNet, established in 1996, is a large labour law consulting firm with a national footprint in South Africa. • Why LabourNet standardised on Microsoft Teams as a single communications platform to support time-critical, high-importance client interactions • How Landis Contact Centre queues, presence-based routing, and reporting improved visibility and support availability-based call distribution across a geographically dispersed workforce • Lessons learned on adoption, process change, and why senior leaders tested the customer experience daily to drive improvements • What's next, including better use of contact centre data and a cautious, data-first approach to AI augmentation for agents Thanks to Landis, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud

    46 min
  7. Microsoft's Jeff Teper - SharePoint at 25, Past, Present, and AI Future

    MAR 3

    Microsoft's Jeff Teper - SharePoint at 25, Past, Present, and AI Future

    Jeff Teper, President of Microsoft 365 Collaborative Apps and Platforms, discusses 25 years of SharePoint — from its humble origins as an intranet product to a cloud platform supporting over a billion users and exabytes of data. • Origin story: How two separate Microsoft projects merged to create SharePoint, filling a massive need for intranets, document management, and collaboration in one customisable platform • The cloud transition: From Bill Gates announcing SharePoint Online in 2008 through years of architectural challenges to an elastic cloud service handling billions of requests per second • From MySite to OneDrive: The feature IT initially rejected that eventually became OneDrive, now serving over a billion accounts on the SharePoint platform • AI and large language capabilities: How LLMs and reasoning models are enabling zero-shot metadata tagging, AI-assisted site design, and agent capabilities across SharePoint • What's new: A refreshed design language, reimagined information architecture with five core pillars (Intranet, Build, Publish, Discover, and OneDrive), and AI woven throughout the experience Thanks to Neat, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud

    41 min
  8. AI enabling real-time communications with Adam Jacobs, IC3 Principal Program Manager at Microsoft

    FEB 24

    AI enabling real-time communications with Adam Jacobs, IC3 Principal Program Manager at Microsoft

    Adam Jacobs, Principal Program Manager at Microsoft, works in IC3—the real-time communications platform team behind Microsoft Teams. With four years at Microsoft and a decade at Polycom before that, Adam shares insights from the backend of one of the world's largest communications platforms. • How IC3 supports Microsoft Teams at massive scale, including cost considerations for new features and AI capabilities • The current state of Cloud Video Interop and why it remains important for some enterprise customers • Moving transcription to new platforms to support AI and M365 Copilot strategy • Real-time processing challenges for AI features, including face and voice recognition technologies • Adam's journey from IT director to Polycom to Microsoft, and the value of understanding both customer and partner perspectives Thanks to Pure IP, this episode's sponsor, for their continued support of Empowering.Cloud.

    21 min
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Ratings & Reviews

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About

Microsoft Teams discussions with industry experts sharing their thoughts and insights with Tom Arbuthnot of Empowering.Cloud. Podcast not affiliated, associated with, or endorsed by Microsoft.

Information

  • Creator
    Tom Arbuthnot
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    165
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Microsoft Teams Insider
  • Show Website
    Microsoft Teams Insider

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