Microsoft Teams has emerged as the number one fastest growing application created by Microsoft of all time. It's also one of the biggest collaboration solutions for today's Enterprise, offering a secure and reliable way for people to link their collaboration strategy with the productivity tools that they're using every day.
Unfortunately, one of the areas where Microsoft Teams falls short is in calling and PBX connections. Although Microsoft offers a Cloud UCaaS solution, it's not currently comparable with the feature-rich on-premises PBX solutions that companies are used to. Routing and other essential user features are limited compared to what you would expect from a full cloud solution. However, there could be an alternative way to bring calling into Microsoft Teams, with help from leading communications and cloud company, Qunifi.
Qunifi have created their incredible Call2Teams solution; a channel focused opportunity that allows partners to connect on-premises customer calling solutions to the Microsoft Teams environment, this solves a big problem for customers who might not be ready to rip and replace their old phone systems and move into a full-stack Microsoft experience.
I spoke to the COO of Qunifi, Mark Herbert, and he talked me through the possibilities of Call2Teams as a new entry point for Teams users.
Tell us About Qunifi and Call2Teams
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Mark Herbert[/caption]
Mark told me that Qunifi originally came to life a few years ago as a feature of another business, but today, the company is completely independent. In recent years, the company began to see the impact of the collaboration environment and felt that there was an incredible opportunity to integrate with the Microsoft environment, and help people in the Microsoft portfolio do more with their products.
As a service provider working with Telecommunication companies and PBX vendors, Qunifi is dedicated to helping people combine their phone system network with the expanding Teams solution. "Microsoft Teams is really becoming the go-to solution for collaboration these days. However, the PBX offerings just haven't been enough for today's companies up to now. People who don't want to take a rip and replace approach to their communication strategy needed a different solution, and that's what we're offering."
The Call2Teams service, built on the AudioCodes SBC technology, allows organisations of all sizes to seamlessly integrate their existing PBX environment with the Microsoft Teams Calling and Direct Routing strategy on a monthly subscription basis. This simple add-on solution offers a kind of "Direct routing as a per-user service" that allows companies to take full advantage of Microsoft's solutions when it comes to Office 365 and collaboration.
What Challenges Are You Solving?
Microsoft Teams is becoming a successful offering on the current collaboration marketplace. As Mark told me:
