When will Polycom and Microsoft certify the newest Firmware for Phones

[SigmaSysITSupport]

Hi guys,

We currently have VVX 501 devices
Firmware: 5.6.0.17325

Newest Available: 5.8.0.12386

We understand that the current method to stop the automatic downgrade of phones in Skype for Business Online, is as per the post made by Jeff Scherz. 

http://blog.schertz.name/2016/07/device-updates-with-skype-for-business-online/

Is there an ETA on when the 5.8.0.12386 release will get approved and will become the default in the Microsoft servers?   We wish to keep the updates coming from online, and the current firmware in Microsoft does not allow us to do BToE without daisy chaining the phone to a computer since the code generation has changed.

Note: We do not want to manually update/upkeep all the VVX devices we have. 

Regards
IT Support

[SteffenBaierUK]

Hello @SigmaSysITSupport,

We have absolutely no control over this and cannot make any recommendations on this.

Please work with Microsoft on this.

Best Regards

Steffen Baier

Polycom Global Services

[SigmaSysITSupport]

Thank you, but I don't understand.

Is this firmware published and made available to Microsoft?  Is it in the approval process? 

Why does Polycom not have any dialogue or update on when a firmware would be posted in the Microsoft Skype for Business Online servers? 

From what I can see, there are a lot of requests about the automated downgrading of firmware every day.  Shouldn't this be a priority for Polycom, so that their users have the best experience out of the box?

[mschulze]

Hi SigmaSysITSupport,

why don´t you disable automatic update in O365 in generell? Then you´ll get rid of this problem first. After that, install a provisioning server or even better a Polycom Resource Manager (makes definitly sense if you have to manage many phones) and deploy new FW releases automatically.

[SteffenBaierUK · Accepted solution]

Hello @SigmaSysITSupport,

Polycom regularly releases maintenance releases aka X.Y.Z and/or new releases aka X.Y.Z within Microsoft’s 3PIP qualification.

Usually maintenance releases are not separately tested by Microsoft and new or major releases are submitted to our Partner Microsoft and are tested and released at their leisure.

Polycom always advises customers to be on the latest Maintenance release and this may only be archived whilst setting up an own Provisioning Server and/or a Polycom solution like RPRM.

Polycom customers, as long as they utilize either the correct LYNC -018 or Skype for Business -019 SKU or have proof of an individual Polycom per device license, are always entitled to use the latest available software.

Additionally utilizing either an provisioning server or a solution like RPRM provides far more flexibility to utilize our Phones and their abilities via personal configuration.

Best regards

Steffen Baier