As the digital transformation era starts to count itself in decades rather than years, higher education institutions are rethinking their communication strategies to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and support a more connected learning environment.
Microsoft Teams is emerging as a powerful solution for universities looking to consolidate their communication tools while improving user experiences. By integrating voice, messaging, and collaboration tools into a single platform, Teams provides a seamless and cost-effective approach that aligns with modern digital workflows.
From reducing IT complexity to fostering mobility and digital communication synergy, Microsoft Teams, powered by SIPPIO, is reshaping the way universities communicate, ensuring students and faculty stay connected wherever they are.
Lower UC Costs and Improved User Experiences
Traditional telephony and legacy UC infrastructures have been expensive and cumbersome for decades, demanding extensive on-prem hardware and ongoing maintenance. Microsoft Teams Phone offers institutions a chance to transition to a cloud-based solution that significantly reduces costs while offering an intuitive and efficient communication platform that refines the user experience.
For example, through SIPPIO, Roseman University migrated from a legacy Cisco UCM system to Microsoft Teams, skirting the necessity for costly on-prem infrastructure. The university dramatically lowered its phone system expenses by utilising Microsoft's education licensing.
Additionally, the shift culminated in an improved UE, as faculty and staff quickly adapted to the modern communication interface. While the move to a softphone-centric approach was initially greeted with scepticism by faculty accustomed to desk phones, after a 90-day trial, the vast majority of users found the transition to Teams seamless, with only 50 of 700 users electing to return to their desk phones.
This eliminated the university's need for most physical handsets.
By consolidating multiple comms tools into a single application, universities minimise IT complexity and bolster productivity. With voice becoming an integrated capability rather than a siloed system, faculty and students reap the benefits of a more streamlined process, enabling efficient communication across campuses.
Enhanced Digital Communication Synergy
Today’s students and faculty communicate via a diversity of digital channels, and Microsoft Teams is facilitating universities' fusion of those strategies into a cohesive communication ecosystem. While voice remains pivotal, higher ed institutions are recognising that modern communication increasingly begins digitally—via email, text messaging, or instant chat—before escalating into a call or video meeting.
Microsoft Teams Phone by SIPPIO empowers institutions to elevate communication beyond traditional voice services by merging SMS, WhatsApp, and Apple Messages into the platform. This fosters a smooth, omnichannel experience for faculty and students, encouraging them to connect via their digital outlet of choice. Rather than depending exclusively on contact centres for student inquiries, Teams allows direct and straightforward contact between faculty and students, which in turn, boosts engagement and responsiveness.
Critically, the benefits of this integration extend well beyond convenience. By centralising comms channels within Teams, universities can get rid of redundant tools, lowering licensing costs as well as IT overhead.
Just as importantly, faculty and staff can oversee all interactions in one app, refining efficiency and ensuring prompt replies to student messages. This strategy not only modernises communication strategies but also builds a more inclusive and responsive environment for all.
Improved Mobility for a Modern Learning Environment
Higher ed is no longer restricted to traditional lecture halls or conventional office spaces. As institutions thrive via the new era of remote learning and hybrid work environments, mobility has become an absolutely essential factor in maintaining seamless communication. Microsoft Teams assists with this revolution by allowing faculty and students to stay connected anytime, anywhere, through their mobile devices.
Roseman University’s experience with Teams by SIPPIO illustrates the transition to a mobile-first approach. Faculty members rapidly adapted to using Teams on their smartphones, meaning they could stay accessible without being tethered to an old-school desk phone.
