Microsoft Migration: How to Embrace Teams Phone in a Multi-Vendor UC Estate

Leading digital workplace management software provider VOSS Solutions on why it doesn’t have to get messy

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Microsoft Migration: How to Embrace Teams Phone in a Multi-Vendor UC Estate
Unified CommunicationsInsights

Published: January 26, 2023

Simon Wright

Technology Journalist

It’s a no brainer for so many enterprises: move the telephony into Microsoft Teams.

Cloud-powered, feature-rich voice for the modern age. One, beautifully unified communications stack enabling a flexible work-from-anywhere culture. Call costs halved or even better.

Easy, right?

Well, no, actually.

While many vendors paint a picture of a perfect world where a single solution is deployed, legacy evolution of communication technology means that, in the real world, it’s messy.

Most enterprises, no matter their size, must manage a mix of old and new UC technologies and vendors, whilst simultaneously juggling changing work practices.

Microsoft Teams Phone does have the power to transform but, for large and complex organisations in particular, it’s not a case of simply throwing a switch.

Indeed, the most successful migrations are well-mapped and carefully-planned journeys that rely upon asking the right questions and plotting the right course.

Why choose Microsoft Teams Phone in the first place? What does it offer? Where to start? Which users to move; when and why? How to go about it? How long does it take?

And, perhaps the most important question of all, what makes for a successful migration?

The answer to that last one is often found in partnering with a third party organisation that has the expertise to help enterprises make all the right decisions at all the right times in all the right ways.

Additional financial investment in any migration, of course – but one upon which the returns deliver in spades.

“Most organisations got started on their journey to the cloud way before Microsoft Teams became a platform capable of delivering so much of the extra functionality they now want or need today,” says Tim Jalland, Solution Manager at leading digital workplace management software provider VOSS Solutions, which is already helping hundreds of companies navigate the next leg.

“They have an existing system and an existing set of processes that are not easy to change overnight.

Microsoft Teams Phone must sit in an environment where there are other UC applications. Too many organisations embark on a major migration, but they haven’t really thought it all through. That’s when unwelcome surprises appear out of nowhere.”

VOSS – which is hosting a free live global webinar on how to master Microsoft Teams Phone migrations on January 31 – has developed a tried and tested phased approach: discovery, design, deployment and, critically, ongoing service and support.

Additionally, as customers’ journeys unfold, its single-pane-of-glass solution keeps track of all the moving parts, ensuring a smooth transition.“It’s all about the plan and execution – identifying the bits to tackle first to unlock early benefits,” says Jalland.

“Then working out how to address things that are more complex and that will take more time. Older device types or the contact centre, for example. Getting all of the multiple actions in the right order before you start is crucial to success. How to handle incompatibilities, how to move users whilst running old and new systems in parallel, how to create a unified management portal.

“Without expert help and support, organisations eventually reach a mid-point crisis; managing both their old and their new system at the same time. Maybe they are looking to migrate slowly, over 12 months, and yet people are continually leaving and joining the organisation so there is lots of moves, adds and change activity needed on both systems.

“Information and data might be contained within different spreadsheets and word documents in all parts of the business and it’s very hard to know which stage each system is at. In short, the whole thing becomes a bit of a knotted mess.

“Managing and automating the process in the way we do provides a controlled view of exactly where everybody is and allows those slower to adopt to come over in a measured and monitored way. These are things which come with the experience we now have.”

With 2023 set to be a year in which enterprises look even harder for simultaneous productivity increases and cost efficiencies, there is no doubt that Microsoft Teams Phone has the power to deliver big.

Are you and your customers ready to take advantage?

VOSS Solutions’ live 45-minute webinar: ‘The Real World is Messy: How to Embrace Microsoft Teams Phone in a Multi-Vendor UC Estate’ will be hosted by Solution Manager Tim Jalland and respected industry analyst and co-founder of Enable UC Kevin Kieller on Tuesday, January 31 at 8am San Francisco, 11am New York, 4pm London, 5pm Paris. To register click here

 

 

CCaaSCustomer ExperienceEventMicrosoft TeamsUCaaSWorkplace Management

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