You can connect to Lync Online via a number of different clients. You can use a web browser all the way up to the full client that comes with Office 2013 Professional Plus but what happens if you are using an Office 365 plan that DOESN’T include Office 2013 Professional Plus as a desktop download (like say a stand alone Lync plan)?

In that case you’ll be able to download and install just the Lync client software but beware, because in this case what you’ll get as a download is Lync Basic NOT the full Lync client.

If you refer to this document:

Clients for Lync Online

You will note that it says in the foot note under the Client features for stand alone plans [my emphasis added]:

The Lync 2013 client is supported for use with these subscription options, but it is not included. To access multiparty video (gallery view), OneNote meeting notes, recording, and calendar delegation features, users must have rights to the full Lync 2013 client. You can obtain the full Lync 2013 client by purchasing Office 2013 Professional Plus.

So what doesn’t Lync Basic provide then? Here’s the list:

• Advanced call features: team ring, call forwarding, simultaneous ring, voice mail, call park, call delegation, response groups, and remote call control (not available with all Office 365 subscriptions)
• Calendar delegation
• Gallery video view
• OneNote sharing
• Recording
• Skill search (not available with Office 365)
• Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) (not available with Office 365)

These items are probably not an issue for most people but the big one that is missing from Lync Basic for me is the ability to record a meeting.

So if you have Lync Online and you DON’T have Office 2013 Professional Plus on the desktop make sure you understand the limits of what your chosen Lync client software can and can’t do. Just for reference here is a table of exactly what each Lync client can and can’t do:

Lync Client comparison tables

Back in January 2014 I sat the two new Office 365 exams:

70-347 – Enabling Office 365 Services

70-346 – Managing office 365 Identities and Requirements

and when I logged into my Microsoft Certified Professional portal today I was stoked to find:

Interestingly, passing these two exams gives you another qualification:

Not quite sure why it is considered ‘legacy’ (may be it is being changed?) but now I’m also a Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate!

These two exams are the more enterprise focused Office 365 exams. There is still the:

74-325 – Administering Office 365 for Small Business

Which I have also passed a while back.

My advice having now done the three exams is that it is very worthwhile to start with the 74-325 first to get a flavour of what these Office 365 exams are like. The 70-346 and 70-347 are certainly much tougher and more focused on the the enterprise features of Office 365 so you’ll have to work hard to pass them.

The challenge with all these Office 365 exams is that they cover such a wide range of topics. To pass you are going to have to know SharePoint as well as Exchange. You are going to have to know how to do things with PowerShell and via the administration portal. Finally, you are also going to have to know how to interface Office 365 to on premise servers and desktops. That is a lot to know for ANYONE!

If you need a hand with the 74-325 exam I have an exam cram guide for sale on my publications page that helped me (that’s why I created it).

Even though I now have these exams under my belt there is still a HUGE amount of stuff I am still learning about Office 365 and I honestly discover something new just about every day I use it. That’s what makes it such a great product for me as it appeals to my inner geek.