Dialpad Offers License-Free Routing for Teams

Dialpad is expanding its Microsoft Teams integration portfolio to include License-Free Routing.  

Using Dialpad’s solution, outbound calls to the PSTN from Teams will not require a Teams Phone license or separate phone app to work alongside Teams.  

Dialpad launched its ‘Dialpad for Microsoft Teams’ offering in June 2021, and it has designed License-Free Routing as an added benefit for customers.  

Kat Conti, Partnership and Product Marketing Manager at Dialpad, said: “The Microsoft Teams user count continues to climb higher and higher, so it’s safe to say that if your organisation is a Microsoft shop, you’re probably using Teams.  

“You might be using it for internal calling, video meetings, or as the sole platform for all your company’s communications, but it almost certainly plays a role.  

“Microsoft Teams handles team collaboration, video meetings, and file storage nicely, but it’s still missing a few things.  

“One of the biggest issues is the complex licensing – you need to navigate the Microsoft site to figure out what licenses you need for outbound calling, additional calling plans, and so on.”  

Teams PSTN user numbers are rapidly expanding, reaching 12 million in July this year. Dialpad is using the first-to-market approach with its License-Free Routing offering in this hotly contested space.  

It says the solution offers a more cost-effective solution for companies using a separate business phone system to make calls outside of Teams or using a host for direct routing.  

As the Teams Phone license is usually included with the Microsoft E5 license, companies will now be able to select different licenses if they are not using the E5 every day.  

Dialpad for Microsoft Teams  

Dialpad for Microsoft Teams brings features from Dialpad into the Teams environment, removing the need for customers to switch between communication applications. It allows users to use call, meet, and text within the same app.  

Outbound calls can be made by searching for contacts in a synced Microsoft 365 and Dialpad phone directory or by entering a number into the search bar. Inbound calls are received in the usual manner via a pop-up alert.  

According to Dialpad, Teams lacks a number of useful business communications features, including AI for communication workflows, SMS/MMS messaging, global availability, advanced calling tools, call analytics, CRM integrations, and 100% uptime SLAs. All of these features are offered within Dialpad’s Microsoft integration portfolio.  

Dialpad for Microsoft Teams creates a single, unified workspace, which includes having access to full call history with visual voicemail, sending SMS messages to your contacts, and managing your call recordings.  

AI technology is also utilised in every call. Interactions are transcribed in real-time using speech recognition and natural language processing models. The AI can detect keywords and call sentiment and provide real-time assistance and recommendations to call participants. All the information and insights produced are shared with participants at the end of the call.  

Conti explains some further benefits of AI which Dialpad’s Teams integration can provide: “Only Dialpad can deliver an integrated, truly unified communications and contact centre experience through Teams, complete with native AI for every contact centre interaction.  

“It’s the industry’s first “AI at the Core” customer experience solution, and when used with Teams, gives you AI-powered productivity tools that are hyper-focused on making it easier to have more productive conversations, improve customer effort and satisfaction, and reduce contact centre costs.”  

Dialpad also uses ‘modern split-cloud architecture’ to power its HD voice for Teams, whereby all the call routing, business logic, and storage are held in the Google Cloud Platform. This helps to increase scalability and security for businesses.  

During the call, voice traffic is run on Dialpad’s telephony network, which provides PSTN access in over 70 countries.