Last Updated on October 17, 2016 by GrahamWalsh

So you have your Skype for Business deployment.  Are you struggling to use the built in method for extending the meeting invite details? Need to include a more corporate look and feel?  Is it tricky to explain how video users can join the meeting? This could be regardless whether within the organisation or external 3rd party contacts that are not federated. Enter Pexip Infinity and Modality Systems CustomInvite.

Modality Systems come to the rescue with their CustomInvite software solution.  CustomInivte is a add-in deployed on users Windows clients that sits behind the native Join Skype Meeting button that is added to Outlook when Skype for Business is installed.  You can then set the default template if you want to have different versions as part of your meeting invite.  Full details available here on their site – https://www.modalitysystems.com/software/custominvite

So how can Pexip Infinity and Modality Systems CustomInvite work together?

Simple…Pexip has dial in details for VTC systems that want to join a meeting.  CustomInvite can publish that information to a meeting invite so the users do not have to do anything as it can be applied as a global standard.  The other nice feature of the two products is that CustomInvite can have hyperlinks to meetings. The obvious one is the Join Skype Meeting which is the default Skype behaviour.  We can then also add in a hyperlink that will allow any web browser using ORTC (Microsoft Edge) or WebRTC (Chrome/Firefox) to join the Skype Meeting whether hosted on premise or hosted in Office 365 cloud.

What does it look like?

See below for a sample meeting invite that has the CustomInvite magic applied.

As you will see, the first link is the standard Skype Meeting link.  Then we have some instructions on if you are using VTC’s inside the organisation – just dial the same Skype Meeting ID.  This is possible as Pexip Infinity integrates with Skype for Business on premise via a trusted application.  This means it is able to look up the conference ID and place the call into the Skype Meeting.  The next line mentions if you are external to the organisation.  You can dial a SIP address (like an email address) or an IP address from your VTC and then enter you guessed it, the Skype Meeting ID.

Finally there is also an option to join using a web browser without any plugins, just click on the link.  The final piece of information is joining instructions if you are camera shy, driving or not able to join via video.  Users can just click on the dial in number and it will automatically enter the Skype Meeting ID, no fumbling around trying to switch apps and guess the meeting ID.

The last item in the CustomInvite is a ability to add graphics.  As you can see above, I’ve added our participation at Microsoft Ignite just like my normal email signature – why should a meeting invite be different?

To see a full overview of the this in action, I’ve recorded a video below.  Pexip is hosted in the cloud, this time in Microsoft Azure, VTCs are registered to Pexip in Azure.  So no need to keep those call control platforms such as VCS or DMA/CMA and just simplify your video infrastructure.