Microsoft Teams has been one of the biggest winners in the drive for unified communications and collaboration platforms.
Its growth has been exceptional with daily active users (DAU) sitting at about 32 million pre-pandemic. This figure soared to 115 million in October 2020 and jumped again to 145 million in April this year.
Most recently, Microsoft changed the metrics by which it measures Teams use, revealing in July that it now boasts 250 million monthly active users (MAU) and 80 million MAU for Teams Phones.
Teams have become integral to Microsoft 365’s offerings and the vendor is even integrating it into Windows 11 for consumer use. The platform has become a behemoth in the world of remote working technologies and Microsoft is keen not to lose its share of the market as organisations shift to hybrid work.
We gathered industry experts to discuss how they and their customers have experienced the options for Teams Direct Routing (DR) and integration, the challenges that remain around Teams adoption and deployment, and the big opportunities they see for the channel with hybrid work.
Our panellists come from Vyopta, Giacom, VanillaIP, and Call2Teams.
Have the DR and integration options for Teams delivered for partners and customers alike?
Carl Oliver, Product Manager, Giacom World Networks:
“Adding Business Voice to existing Office 365 or Microsoft 365 licences removes the need for dealing with separate telephony providers and consolidates billing and support channels. For employees that don’t need to make/receive calls to/from outside lines, this is not added to their Office 365 or Microsoft 365 licence but can be added quickly if their needs change.
“The DR solution has created further advantages over Microsoft’s calling plan – especially for larger organisations – due to greater flexibility, lower rates, and increased level of support. However, many SMBs still see the benefit of Microsoft’s simple calling plan.”
Iain Sinnott, Sales Director, VanillaIP:
Iain Sinnott
“But I suspect that for many customers the long term benefit will still be a hybrid system that links Teams to a secondary telephony solution and this will be in part down to the need for support”
“There is no doubt that Teams is delivering more and more of the voice, CX and collaboration feature set but having something and being able to exploit the benefits are two different things. As the mobile market has shown, the reseller remains an important part of the solution even if buying directly could give the same functional result.”
What are the challenges that remain around Teams adoption and deployment?
Carl Oliver, Product Manager, Giacom World Networks:
“For existing users, adding the Microsoft 365 Business Voice option into Teams is a no-brainer – it just feels natural if you have used Teams for any length of time. However, transitions straight onto Teams with Business Voice with no prior use of Teams is a large step.”
“Companies that are looking for call-centre like capabilities with features like call parking or administration for large numbers of operators, won’t have all their needs met by the out-of-the-box solution.”
“With general Teams adoption, the benefit case for it needs to be clearly defined for those small businesses who adopted their consumer video solutions during lockdown and stuck with them. The challenge here is to align productivity with the ability to stay in contact to overcome potential barriers to another change in working practices.”
Marc Haimsohn, Senior Director Business Development, Vyopta:
“Microsoft Teams adoption is up by every measure; however, issues around the pace of adoption remain.
Marc Haimsohn
The deployment and use of multiple UCaaS platforms by customers has been an issue slowing the adoption of Microsoft Teams. Also, the inability to identify which employees are the slowest adopters has compounded the issue. Examples include employees in certain geographies, those using particular peripherals or headsets, or employees from particular lines of business.
“Organisations would benefit from proactively uncovering issues that affect the quality of experience for Microsoft Teams users, and then correlating those issues with adoption, while also proactively remediating those systemic issues – whether they are network, platform or other environmental considerations.”
Mark Herbert, President and Founder of Qunifi and the Call2Teams solution:
“Switching an entire organisation to Teams overnight becomes virtually impossible for large
Mark Herbert
enterprises or those with complex telephony requirements, like call centres.
“Typically, these enterprises have a legacy of vast estates of existing PBX, call centre, and CTI integration, much of which is built into their business processes. Reliance upon some high-functioning aspects of these systems means they are often likely to remain, waiting whilst Microsoft build-out capability within the Teams service to match.
“This challenge can be overcome with a hybrid approach, retaining the on-premise or cloud PBX to manage the call-control and use a bridge into Teams to attach the Teams users to the legacy PBX or call centre platform. We have experienced many partners winning large enterprise new business and bringing forward the timelines of opportunities by taking a low-risk non-disruptive hybrid approach.”
Iain Sinnott, Sales Director, VanillaIP:
“There is a convergence of knowledge, opinion and assumptions which could lead to some bad selling. It is important that sellers and customers establish the results their business needs and then challenge each solution option to deliver against that requirement.
“It is all too easy for telecoms salespeople to sell the assumption that Teams ‘can’t deliver on telephony’ and too easy for IT sellers to underplay the future importance of voice. We are all going to have to go to school on this subject so we can help the customer deal in facts.”
Where are the big opportunities for the channel and Microsoft Teams in a hybrid working world?
Carl Oliver, Product Manager, Giacom World Networks:
“From a hybrid working perspective the MS Teams meetings features were developed rapidly for mass remote working, However, as people are heading back into the office the hybrid features for meeting attendees – both in the office and remotely – are being prioritised for development for upcoming releases.
“Operator connect was announced at Ignite 2021 allowing businesses to directly enable PSTN calling from their existing carriers in Teams. This creates a new way for customers to simply and quickly enable PSTN calling for Teams, using services from non-Microsoft telephony operators.”
Mark Herbert, President and Founder of Qunifi and the Call2Teams solution:
“As we settle into the new normal, Microsoft will still be the go-to for tools for hybrid working. Providers need to work with, not against Microsoft.
“When UCaaS and voice providers ‘Teams enable’ their service, customers can take advantage of the Microsoft Teams end-user experience and benefit from reduced desktop admin, whilst retaining the core capabilities of the UCaaS platform that’s embedded in their business today.
“This approach provides customers with a best-of-both-worlds message: deliver Teams capability where needed and a traditional phone experience elsewhere, whilst maintaining the power of the UCaaS platform. This can be delivered in a non-disruptive way, with no rip-and-replace requirement.”
Iain Sinnott, Sales Director, VanillaIP:
“The opportunity is there for a reseller who can demonstrate a real understanding of the product options and an ability to pull the right solution from a portfolio of options.
“For many business challenges Teams is an option, and for some of these it will be the ideal option, but for others, there are better apps to create the best result in Voice, Meetings, collaboration and customer experience.
“It is important not to forget flexibility and manageability. There are many businesses who remain trapped by good ideas they subscribed to for five years just three years ago, not suspecting that the world could change in the way it has. Cloud can and should be based on 30-day agreements, self-service and real-time deployment. We are not just the sales agents of Microsoft, we are the advisors and supporters of UK business, a role that needs to be protected for the customer’s sake.”
