So you have done your homework, planned for your Lync or Skype for Business Voice Deployment and have just completed the migration of your last user onto your nice new shiny platform. You can sit back and relax now and enjoy the fruits of your hard work right?
Certainly that is one option but the ever so keen Skype for Business professional will want to dive in and ensure a positive user experience for the community they support. In this post I will focus on the Microsoft Call Quality Methodology or (CQM) for short and show you how to get started on focusing on improving end user experience around your Skype for Business on premises voice deployments.
What is CQM?
The Call Quality Methodology is a troubleshooting and service management framework that can better focus efforts to improve enterprise voice services in Lync. When you use CQM, the intent is that less effort is needed to assure call quality and user satisfaction for enterprise voice services. The foundation of CQM stems from the extensive guide that Microsoft has published called Network Planning, Monitoring, and Troubleshooting with Lync Server. This 147-page guide was first published in 2013 when Lync Server 2013 first launched and has been continually updated. You will want to familiarize yourself with the guide as it provides a wealth of information on everything that will be a factor in affecting the overall experience a user has with Skype for Business. This includes recommendations and optimizations on Wi-Fi networks, Quality of Service, and desktop network driver optimizations to name a few. All of these can have tremendous impacts to the end user experience.
So where should I start?
Certainly you should start with reading the Network guide discussed above. Schedule meetings with your network and desktop teams and tell them your goal is to improve quality for all users of Skype for Business (which includes them too!). Review the relevant bits of information with them and jointly make a plan to see if the recommended guidance can be implemented. Of course it should go without saying that you can absolutely have these discussions ahead of your deployment so that the network and end user devices are ready to use Skype for Business. In a perfect world this is what would happen. However, in a not so perfect world, its only when users complain do things begin to happen to address issues. Rest assured if there is commitment to solving the issues it’s still not too late to begin addressing them.
Summary and Next Steps
1. Read the Network Planning, Monitoring, and Troubleshooting with Lync Server guide
2. Speak to your network and desktop teams about how they might be able to implement the provided recommendations.
3. Involve key stakeholders that have a vested interest in ensuring your Skype for Business Voice deployment is a positive user experience for all users
4. Document the plan and have regular check points until the agreed upon changes are made
5. Measure your results! Stay tuned for the next part where we dive into this!
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