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The Reports dashboard shows you the activity overview across the Microsoft 365 or Office 365 products in your organization. It enables you to drill in to individual product-level reports to give you more granular insight about the activities within each product. For example, you can use the Skype for Business activity report to see how much your users are using peer-to-peer or organized conferencing sessions, or how much they're participating in conferencing sessions.
Check out the Reports overview to learn more.
This report, along with the other Skype for Business reports, gives you details on activity across your organization. These details are very helpful when you are investigating, planning, and making other business decisions for your organization.
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Note
You can see all of the Skype for Business reports when you log on as an administrator in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
How to get to the Skype for Business activity report
Go to the admin center > Reports > Usage.
On the Usage page, choose Skype for Business > Activity on the Select a report list on the left, or click the Skype for Business activity widget.
Interpret the Skype for Business activity report
You can get a view into your user's Skype for Business activity by looking at the Activity and Users charts.
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The Skype for Business Activity email activity report can be viewed for trends over the last 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, or 180 days. However, if you click into a particular day in the report, the table (see number 7) will show data for up to 28 days from the current date (not the date the report was generated).
Note
If you click into the details of a specific day, the table will only show data for the 30 days up to the date when the report was generated.
Each report has a date for when this report was generated. The reports usually reflect a 24- to 48-hour latency from time of activity.
Use the interactive chart data on the Activity chart to understand usage trends and to see the number of conference activities that are being held in your organization. It will show you the total number and types of Peer-to-peer sessions, Organized and Participated in conference sessions across your organization.
Use the interactive chart data on the Users chart to understand usage trends and to see the number of unique users that are participating in conference activities that are being held in your organization. It will show you the total number of users along with the types of Peer-to-peer sessions, Organized, and Participated in conference sessions.
You can filter the series you see on the chart by clicking on an item in the legend. For example, on the Activity chart, click or tap Peer-to-peer sessions, Organized, or Participated to see only the info related to each one. Changing this selection doesn't change the info in the grid table.
Each chart has an 'X' (horizontal) and 'Y' (vertical) axis.
- On the Activity chart, the Y axis is the total number of peer-to-peer, organized, and participated in conference sessions that are held.
- On the Users activity chart, the Y axis is the number of unique users attending in each type of peer-to-peer, organized, and participated in conference.
The X axis on both charts is the selected date range for this specific report.
The table shows you a breakdown of all the conferencing activities per user. This shows all users who have Skype for Business assigned to them and their conferencing activities. You can add additional columns to the table.
Username is the name of the user.
Deleted indicates that the user's license was removed.
Note
Activity for a deleted user will still display in a report as long as he or she was licensed at some time during the selected time period. The Deleted column helps you to note that the user may no longer be active, but contributed to the data in the report.
Deleted date is the date on which the user's license was removed.
Last activity date (UTC) is the latest time the user engaged in a peer to peer session, or organized a conference or participated in a conference.
Peer-to-peer shows the total number of peer-to-peer conference sessions that the user used.
Organized conferences shows the total number of conferences that were organized by that user.
Participated-in conferences shows the total number of conferences that this user participated in.
Product assigned is the Microsoft 365 or Office 365 products that are assigned to this user.
If your organization's policies prevent you from viewing reports where user information is identifiable, you can change the privacy setting for all these reports. Check out the Hide user details in the reports section in the Activity Reports in the admin center.
Click or tap the Columns icon in any of the columns to add or remove columns from the report.
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You can also export the report data into an Excel .csv file, by clicking or tapping Export.
This exports data of all users and enables you to do simple sorting and filtering for further analysis. If you have fewer than 2000 users, you can sort and filter within the table in the report itself. If you have more than 2000 users, in order to filter and sort, you will need to export the data.
Want to see other Skype for Business reports?
Skype for Business device usage report You can to see the devices, including Windows-based operating systems and mobile devices, that have the Skype for Business app installed and are using it for IM and meetings.
Skype for Business conference organizer activity report You can see how much your users are organizing conferences that use IM, audio/video, application sharing, Web, dial-in/out - 3rd party, and dial-in/out - Microsoft.
Skype for Business peer-to-peer activity report You can see how much your users are using IM, audio/video, application sharing, and transferring files.
Skype for Business users blocked report You can see the users in your organization that have been blocked from making PSTN calls.
Skype for Business PSTN usage report You can see the number of minutes spent in inbound/outbound calls and cost for these calls.
Skype for Business PSTN minute pools report you can see the number of minutes consumed during the current month within your organization.
Skype for Business session details report You can see details about individual user's call experiences.
Related topics
Skype for Business (SFB) is a business-focused app that allows you to instant message, phone and video call, screen share, host and record meetings, and generally collaborate with your colleagues. If you’ve ever used Microsoft Lync, then you’re in luck – Lync was rebranded to Skype for Business in 2015, refining Lync’s core functionalities ever since.
Please note this is a separate product from Skype for consumers. It’s an important distinction to make since SFB should not be viewed as a phone replacement or VOIP Service. It cannot make emergency phone calls. It serves as a lightweight collaboration tool. Any business using the Microsoft ecosystem, particularly small businesses, should take a look at SFB. It seamlessly integrates with Outlook from where you can create Skype meetings and populate your contact list. It offers a variety of plan options at attractive prices, though making sense of that spider web proves difficult (see here). Last but not least, Microsoft has already announced that Teams will be replacing SFB and when sunset occurs, it isn't clear.
An enjoyable experience
Simplicity is its strength
At its core, SFB allows you to select another SFB user from a contact list and from there, start an instant message conversation, make a call (video if you have that capability), or share your screen. Additional features build from that basic premise.
Easy learning curve and intuitive UI
The application tucks toward the side of your screen, and goes for the tall and skinny look. Your name falls at the top along with your picture, availability status (available, away, do not disturb, etc.), and a personal message for your contacts to see if you choose to write one. Below that sit four icons across the menu – Contacts, Conversations, Meetings, Settings. These determine what you see in the body of the application. It defaults to Contacts, which means most of the time you’ll be looking at your contact list when the app is open. Your contacts each have a picture, availability status, and video capability indication. Managers can check on the idle time of their employees as SFB shows a timestamp for how long someone has been away from their computer.
From there go about your usual use case. Double click on your colleague’s icon and up comes the conversation window. More icons appear allowing you to make a call, share your screen, or send a file. You can also find a “+” icon on the upper right to expand this conversation to more people. Invite the whole office, if you'd like! Some subscription levels allow up to 250 people in a conversation.
The SFB plug-in for Outlook rocks. Once installed, all you need to schedule a Skype meeting from Outlook is to make a new meeting, click on the SFB icon plug-in, and it auto populates your conference information in the body of the meeting. Add your attendees, an agenda, and pick a time, and you are off to your next game of conference call bingo.
Flexibility for including non-SFB users to your meetings and calls help SFB stand-out as a great tool for collaboration. When invited to a SFB meeting, non-SFB users have the ability to download the SFB Web App to their browser. The app allows for HD video conferencing, IM in meetings, presentation viewing, desktop sharing, whiteboard, lobby, and presenter access controls. The app also enables PC-based audio and video. The only drawback is that other SFB functionalities like viewing a user’s presence or contact information are unavailable.
Where can you run this program?
Luckily, Microsoft serves up a free client that you can try. According to the website, the free basic client provides presence, instant messaging, and conferencing features. If you are licensed for Office 365 ProPlus, Office 365 Enterprise E3 and Office 365 Enterprise E4, you are also licensed for the full Skype for Business Windows desktop client, which includes additional features including advanced telephone support, archiving, and compliance features.
Is there a better alternative?
Microsoft has made it clear that Teams will replace SFB but gives no clear date when the service in question will shut down. While the UI of SFB is preferable, Teams has some clear advantages when it comes to features, specially for larger organizations. Persistent chat (think chat rooms) and greater integration with other Microsoft Office suite products is one advantage of Teams. It’s also the future-proof choice given more development is unlikely with SFB.
Slack is another very popular alternative. It has one of the best UIs in the business; mass adoption so you’re bound to find others in your organization that have some experience with it; and a target painted on its back: Microsoft developed Teams to compete with it.
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Our take
Small businesses should take a hard look at SFB for their communication needs. That is, if they don’t already subscribe to Office 365 which bundles it. Large businesses may want the more robust features of full-fledged VOIP services or Teams. Its simplicity is its forte. Microsoft Teams – the replacement for SFB – can appear cluttered and less intuitive, albeit more capable.
Should you download?
Does your office participate in the modern, remote-work era where it might need IM, video calling, and teleconferencing? Does it use Microsoft products? If so, it probably already has SFB and if not, the free version lies a few clicks away. So, go for it.
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