Over the last few years, Microsoft Teams has become the central hub for hybrid work.
The platform connects people through not only voice, chat and video but also across the broader collaboration ecosystem – bringing in other Microsoft services such as SharePoint and OneDrive, as well as a host of third-party platforms.
With this in mind, more and more employees are living their work lives in Teams than ever before, making it essential for businesses that Teams is running smoothly.
Voice Complexity
The voice side of Teams is arguably the most complex. Regardless of whether businesses opt for Teams Calling Plans, Direct Routing or Operator Connect, there are several different networks and infrastructures that need to be connected to deliver the call to the end user.
This is further complicated by hybrid work, which has seen businesses go from working in offices to being scattered across houses, coffee shops and trains.
Microsoft MVP Nick Cavalancia outlined the core problem this creates for IT teams in a recent report for Martello.
“In the new hybrid working environment, where some people work from home while others are still in the office, it makes sense that we should want to have employees keep their same methods of working,” he explained. “If they’re used to grabbing a handset or headset and just making their calls from their computer, then that’s ideally what they should continue to do.
“However, supporting this adds a new level of complexity for IT because now we’re mixing a very modern cutting-edge technology like Teams with a set of potentially legacy telephony technologies that probably haven’t changed in years.
“The harsh reality is that this creates an environment with lots of different potential points of failure with many vendors, services, systems, and connections that may be to blame.
“Add to this that when users contact the helpdesk, all they know is they can’t connect to Teams, or their call quality is bad, and unpacking actually where the issues lie can be a major challenge for IT.”
The Root of the Problem
Locating the source of the issue is particularly tricky in a hybrid environment. The problem could be related to an office internet connection, a user’s home internet, a hosted or on-prem SBC, a SIP trunk provider or a carrier’s Operator Connect set-up.
For a remote user, it could be something as simple as a home bandwidth being drained by their children gaming online.
