What does 2023 have in store for Microsoft Teams? One thing is for sure, the platform never sits still, with an ecosystem that is constantly evolving. Several updates have arrived in the past few weeks with Meta’s Workplace platform, a way to make Teams Webinars bespoke, and better notifications for Teams Rooms.
At the top of its game, in the top right corner of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant Report, it seems primed for possible, if not probable, integrations and add-ons with bots right in the mix with the dashboards of chat and classic apps or developed by third-party app makers.
It has begun implementing the much-vaunted ChatGPT, as we recently intimated it would.
Announcing Teams Premium is now in general availability, Nicole Herskowitz, Vice President, Microsoft Teams, wrote in her post: “Built on the familiar, all-in-one collaborative experience of Microsoft Teams, Teams Premium brings the latest technologies, including Large Language Models powered by OpenAI’s GPT-3.5.”
Although the efficiency of AI will prove Teams Premium draw for many enterprise owners, their workplace environments are still complex, as many will be working with multiple vendors. With our latest Round Table topic, “Managing Teams in Multi-Vendor Environments”, we spoke with executives from Pure IP, Tata Communications, Resonate and 8×8 to divulge their expertise on the pros and cons of using Teams in such an environment, success with interoperability; hardware, software and mobile implications; and to give us a heads up about setting up the Microsoft platform with other vendors in general.
In your opinion, what are the pros and cons of using Microsoft Teams in a multi-vendor environment?
Ian Guest, Marketing Director, Pure IP
Pure IP’s marketing director Ian Guest clarifies what we mean when discussing different vendors; he says: “When we talk multi-vendor, we are referring to the different providers who make up the communications elements of any solution, including (PSTN) connectivity, legacy environments and voice-related applications such as Contact Centre, compliance recording and analytics to name a few.”
Guest believes a positive of Microsoft Teams is that it is one of the more comprehensive communications and collaboration platforms when you consider the features and functionality offered natively and via third-party applications. He continues: “Unlike other more proprietary platforms, there is a degree of openness with Notes and Supporting Info.
“Teams allowing providers to adapt and integrate their solutions which bodes well for offering customers more choice and flexibility.”
But he also believes integration can be tricky and not always seamless, affecting the user experience, particularly if they have to switch between platforms. Guest reasons:
“It is understandable if you consider you are trying to bolt together two applications that are engineered differently. Connecting legacy environments can also throw up some challenges.”
Harkirat Degun, Product Director, Resonate
“From a user perspective, Teams is a great tool to bring all those services and tools into one place,” says Resonate’s product director, Harkirat Degun. “Providing them with a single pane of glass experience for all their collaboration and productivity needs.”
Degun thinks that from a management perspective is where things become more challenging.
“How do you ensure all those services integrate, and how do you manage all those vendor relationships?” He asks.
Degun adds: “If you get it right, MS Teams can become a powerhouse within your environment, bringing together the best of breed services, partners, and vendors into a single ecosystem.”
Andy Rawll, Product Marketing Senior Manager, 8×8
8×8’s Andy Rawll believes there are two scenarios worth considering with this.
“The first is where the customer has legacy Unified Communications and Contact systems and is looking to roll out Teams,” he says. “The resulting solution may be an ill-fitting compromise if the legacy systems lack off-the-shelf integration options for Teams, forcing the use of gateways or low-level integration options.
“The second is where the customer looks to the future and uses the decision to adopt Teams as the catalyst to replace their inflexible, premises-based UC and CC technology with modern cloud-first solutions.”
Looking at the positives of Teams, Rawll says that it provides a single collaboration environment for all users.
He continues: “For customers with active investment in Microsoft/Office 365 productivity suite (Word, Excel etc.), it makes total sense to employ Teams for collaboration and to consider extending its capabilities with PSTN calling. Having said that, depending on the size of an organisation, it can be virtually impossible to use Microsoft Teams as the only vendor in your environment.
“This is why Microsoft has developed a thriving partner ecosystem and has built expertise and partnerships for implementing to streamline the process delivering complementary value on top of M365 faster and more reliably.”
Rawll adds: “Equally, customers benefit from the opportunity to select best-of-breed, optimum ROI solutions for calling and CC.”
Looking at the downsides, Rawll says: “It relies on underlying compatibility (and integration methodology) of each vendor to be technically feasible and commercially viable. The issue of a seamless/native user experience and using multiple clients for call handling is worth bearing in mind.
He concludes: “Another thing worth bearing in mind is that not all vendors are the same. For example, some vendors may have “integrations” that lack true integration, which creates bifurcated end-user and admin experiences that can cause more friction than necessary.”
Sriram Sampath, Vice President, Tata Communications
The VP for Tata, Sriram Sampath, points out that most organisations are in different stages in their journey to cloud PBX (Private Branch Exchange).
However, he believes the journey is different for everyone. Sampath says: “Enterprises have acquired a variety of telephony platforms over a period across their offices and regions. When it comes to moving them to the cloud, it is not a simple lift and shift operation.”
He adds:
“The main objective of moving to a cloud communications platform should be to provide the best experience for employees in the current hybrid work model.”
On the pros and cons of Teams, Sampath outlines his view and says: “The advantages of using MS Teams in a multi-vendor environment (in addition to its collaboration suite features) is that it helps organisations continue to use the majority of their existing devices in the new cloud PBX platform.”
Sampath thinks that for the experience to be seamless, an enterprise must choose a partner who can deliver an end-to-end solution for Microsoft Teams.
He adds: “Having multiple vendors for application, network, security, voice, conferencing, regulatory guidance, compliance, integration with other systems, etc. can create a huge risk in completing the migration journey, leading to budget overruns, wastage of time and other resources.”
What advice or experiences would you share as insights for an organisation looking to incorporate Teams as its multi-vendor environment?
Andy Rawll, Product Marketing Senior Manager, 8×8
“There are a few things worth considering here, and it starts with asking questions of your organisation,” says Rawll.
“For example, what directional investment is the firm making in the ecosystem’s future? Will it require installing new hardware and software, or will it live in the cloud as a service? Will it require running manual powershell cmdlets, or have these elements been automated? How much training and support are you expecting for your end-users and support teams?”
Rawll suggests that if they are happy with their answers to these questions, organisations should seek a single provider of both UC and CC services that can demonstrate native integration of UC calling services and formal Microsoft solution certification for Contact Centre.
He concludes: “They should look to source the solution through a proven and accredited provider/integrator that can provide a single point of contact for all elements of your UC/CC/collaboration solution. It’s also worthwhile for them to consider the impact of rejecting the promise of a single vendor (Microsoft) solution and adding the complexity of at least one additional vendor relationship.”
Ian Guest, Marketing Director, Pure IP
“Before moving to Teams, it’s important to understand your business requirements and how they’ll be met in Teams,” suggests Guest.
He continues: “Teams offers a myriad of integrations, but it’s important to understand how those integrations will affect existing business processes and workflows. Ensure you understand your existing environment well and plan out your integrations and migrations. Make sure you have your end state planned out.”
He adds:
“It’s also important to note that migrating an established estate onto any new solution has challenges, and the same is true for Teams. The best advice is to work with a managed service provider who understands and works with the solutions you depend on for your business processes.”
Sriram Sampath, Vice President, Tata Communications
Sampath believes that assessing existing configurations, such as devices, their usage, routing scripts, trunk groups, users, and usage restrictions, is essential to understand the current lay of the land.
He says: “This data should then be investigated in terms of what is required, what needs clean-up, what must move to the cloud, and more.”
Sampath adds that in a multi-vendor environment, it will be challenging to get this done as system configurations would have evolved, people managing them would have left, and business needs and operational arrangements could have a gap, plus other changes.
He says about his own firm: “Tata Communications GlobalRapide platform provides tools to automate this discovery process, which is very useful, especially in multi-vendor environments. Once the discovery is made, our consultants will work with the business teams to identify what should be moved to the cloud. Users and system configurations are migrated to the cloud through our automation tools for provisioning.”
Sampath speaks about solving problems and comments:
“Managing and monitoring the platform across regions, users, devices, CPE GWs, etc., in terms of quality, performance, availability can be challenging.”
“We take that pain away from our customers and let them focus on this core business. Our GlobalRapide platform can provide insightful information on the above through our portal, where all the information is made available to the operational user in a user-friendly way.
He concludes: “It is also important to train the employees and handhold them as they adopt the new UC platform. Management should have visibility of the progress of this adoption and how they can improve it, resulting in a better return on their investments.”
Harkirat Degun, Product Director, Resonate
From his own experience, Degun says: “As a company, Resonate has worked in many organisations where there are multiple vendors operating services. If not set up correctly, it can quickly become a pain point for users interacting with the service and the staff having to manage it operationally. Under these circumstances, you have issues that can escalate and end badly, and that’s not good for anyone!”
He remarks: “I could cite some of those cliché sayings like “Teamwork makes the dreamwork…” or “You are only as strong as your weakest link…” which are to some extent true, but my advice would be to ensure you start on a level playing field. But what does that mean?”
Degun advises:
“Make sure all the vendors know their roles and responsibilities, ensure that is a defined escalation path and finally have some measurable goals aligned to the business to assess the performance of each of the vendors regularly.”
He finishes: “With this approach, you’ll ensure that things get done efficiently, processes are followed, and you are always getting the best out of each of your vendors/partners, which will result in great service.”
One of the main challenges of managing a UC system is interoperability between multiple vendors. What factors should organisations consider making it a success when managing Teams?
Harkirat Degun, Product Director, Resonate
Degun reckons the main challenges Resonate‘s customers face around interoperability are two-fold. He says: “Not knowing what exists in the environment and also not knowing what can be supported in Microsoft Teams and what you can interop with.
Degun believes business owners must understand their UC landscape to address this challenge.
He continues, “You can start by identifying all the systems in play and their use. This will help you to determine which elements can be moved to your primary tool like Microsoft Teams, which elements require interop and which elements can remain standalone.
He concludes: “At our firm, we have defined a legacy mapping process that does exactly this and the outcomes are you can save costs by rationalising your environment and provide your users a better UC experience.”
Andy Rawll, Product Marketing Senior Manager, 8×8
To ensure that adoption and usage are consistent, Rawl says companies need to select a solution that retains the native Teams user interface.
He adds: “Also, make sure to review scope and charging structure (unmetered vs metered) for available calling plan options and assess the uptime guarantees available from the primary vendor.”
Sriram Sampath, Vice President, Tata Communications
Sampath observes: “There is massive change happening as office spaces are being reimagined — traditional desk phones, video conferencing systems and even legacy applications need to be strategically integrated with the newer collaboration and communication methods.”
The Tata VP believes all of this requires managing multiple vendors, tools, and endpoint hardware.
He refers to his own company: “Working with a partner such as Tata Communications is a solution to ensure smooth interoperability. With our deep experience and expertise in multi-vendor platform integration, we offer an integrated SLA for different vendors across hardware and platforms. The client can rely on us through our managed services as their partner of choice.”
Ian Guest, Marketing Director, Pure IP
Guest thinks Interop for Phone is relatively easy these days, particularly if organisations opt for a provider with the capabilities to connect them across multiple platforms, not forgetting any legacy elements.
He continues:
“Interop for meetings is much more complicated with options like Direct Guest Join for Webex and Zoom. Integration for Chat and Collaboration is tricky, though there are solutions like Mio.”
Guest explains that from a user experience perspective, it is best to minimise the time users need to regularly depend on interop solutions versus having a single vendor native experience.
He adds: “Alternatively, where you need to bring in non-native functionality through applications, understand how the application has been designed to work with Teams. Has it been designed specifically for Teams or adapted to work with Teams? There are good options in both camps, but it is good to understand the development background. Seeking references and reviews is always advised.”
Combining hardware, software and mobile applications can be complex in a multi-vendor environment; what advice can you give to make development, set up and running easier?
Sriram Sampath, Vice President, Tata Communications
Referring to an Omdia Enterprise Voice, Video, eSBC, and VoIP Gateways Report, Sampath confirms that organisations are using multiple collaboration tools simultaneously to address TCO and differing requirements across different sets of employees.
He adds: “Managing these various tools is not easy. Organisations often look only at the technology stack and realise how important it is to work with a partner who understands telecom regulations, compliance, and security.
He says about implementation and what his firm does to provide solutions: “Our GlobalRapide offering brings together the management of a UCaaS platform such as MS Teams as well as the underlying voice infrastructure and multiple endpoints. We have experience and expertise deploying complex UCaaS and voice projects for global clients in multiple geographies.”
Ian Guest, Marketing Director, Pure IP
Guest suggests turning to experience; he says: “When managing multi-vendor environments, the best advice is to work with a service provider who has experience and knowledge amongst the platforms you are working with.”
He concludes: “Migration to any new platform and adding integrations often comes with challenges. Another obstacle can be managing on-premise and analogue solutions in addition to cloud-based ones and ensuring they work together effectively.
Andy Rawll, Product Marketing Senior Manager, 8×8
Rawll states: “Ideally, to make life easier, you would only support particular pieces of hardware, software, and mobile apps, including minimising the use of proprietary network infrastructure and premise-based equipment, but this is becoming increasingly unrealistic with BYOD.”
He concludes with the best approach and says: he would look at those variables that can be centrally managed and configured in the cloud. Also, prioritise solutions that offer self-service moves, adds and changes custom reporting, and personalised analytics.”
Harkirat Degun, Product Director, Resonate
Degun admits that combining different applications is always a challenge.
In response to this, Degun says:
“Planning is key; you need to understand the “what”: in other words, what needs to integrate and interoperate and what are the intended outcomes.”
He continues: “Having this clear set of requirements is a good stepping stone, but there’s more to do. At this stage, it’s good to prioritise. You can do this to align to your goals and outcomes. Still, it’s good to focus on the “low-hanging fruit” — initiatives that will provide the most cost savings, best user experience improvement, are the least complex to deliver or a combination of the three.”
Then, Degun confirms, organisations can concentrate on the “how” he adds: “Remember to think about this short-term — how are you going to deliver successfully and long term? — How will you operate and manage successfully, including the operating frameworks mentioned earlier?”
