As an increasing number of companies consider migrating to Microsoft Teams, they may be wondering about the best way to do it.
If they are considering a Microsoft solution, they could either go to Microsoft themselves and arrange things using internal resources, or they could bring in a trusted partner to help them.
Microsoft partner CPS spoke to UC Today to illustrate how it can deliver a seamless transition to Microsoft Teams to better support their communications stack.
Dean Woolgar, a UC Solution Architect at CPS, says: “Microsoft have a lot of different partners, at CPS we are well-positioned to help with solutions around Teams Voice and related services.
“While companies can go direct to Microsoft, they will only typically deal with items native to Teams, we will wrap the customer's detailed requirements around the deployment, whether that's contact centre functionality, call recording, devices, or security and compliance to help run the company's communications efficiently – we provide a joined up solution as a one-stop-shop.”
Big bang or phased
Some customers aren't in a position to go for a “big bang” approach and entirely move into the cloud to run all their communications. Many prefer to initially keep their legacy PBX in place from the likes of Mitel or Avaya, for instance.
Woolgar says: “If they ultimately want to migrate to Teams Voice from their current PBX, partners can help them to achieve it. At CPS, we have different competencies and certifications across the company and can help them, whatever legacy vendor is involved.”
As for Teams projects, to help customers move to a successful migration, partners often provide adoption and change services such as virtual drop-in clinics for key staff, classroom training for users and a “train the trainer” service for company staff.
Woolgar also says that partners have better access to third-party vendors that may be integrated to customers' Microsoft systems due to pre-existing and mature relationships, if they need ongoing deployment support. “It's easier for partners to deal with issues than customers doing it themselves, as they know all the right people to approach at other vendors.”
