Microsoft Teams has seen phenomenal growth over the last two years, driven primarily by the need for video and chat collaboration tools to facilitate remote working.
Businesses are now looking to make Teams part of their long-term communications strategy, with the addition of voice services the next step for many.
Jason Telles, Presales Engineer at net2phone, explained to UC Today that this trend started to accelerate in 2021, largely because the nature of cloud-based phone solutions means they can be delivered in an affordable way to businesses of all sizes.
“What has been significant is it’s not just a conversation with large enterprises, it’s SMBs as well,” he explained.
Small businesses haven’t had access to enterprise type solutions in the past, but Microsoft offers the same types of solutions to businesses of all sizes, so this is where the biggest shift has been.
The accessibility of cloud-based technology has been coupled with the realization that businesses need more flexibility when it comes to communication – a lesson learned, in part, when many were unprepared for remote working in 2020.
But cloud phone systems are not without their complexities. Telles said that licencing is one factor that dominates conversations with customers looking to add voice services to Teams.
net2phone keeps it simple by offering two Teams solutions. The first is a native Direct Routing solution for Teams; and the second combines its own UCaaS offering integrated with Teams.
The Direct Routing solution is for businesses that are going all-in with Teams and comfortable managing the wider Microsoft environment, either through internal IT staff or with a channel partner.
In this case, businesses manage the PBX functionality from within the Teams Admin Center and net2phone provides call path trunking into that environment, along with some of its own benefits such as unlimited calling plans and contingency plans in case Teams suffers an outage.
The second option, Telles explained, is designed to be more flexible for businesses.
“net2phone’s UCaaS plus Direct Routing option provides a hybrid and redundant solution, which gives customer more flexibility and scalability for their business needs,” he said.
“We find, for example, customers have a need for a hybrid approach for their employee’s communication and collaboration needs. This makes it a great fit for net2phones UCaaS plus Teams Direct Routing solution, because the Hosted PBX functionality is managed on the net2phone UCaaS platform, and we then extend net2phones Hosted PBX functionality into the users MS Teams environment”
Making the Right Choice
There are a still several challenges to navigate even once a business has decided to move its voice to Teams.
Telles said that it’s essential for these companies to assess all their options and carry out a thorough due diligence.
“Discovery is a huge part of the process,” he explained.
“We’ll help establish what customers know about Teams and what they actually want in terms of functionality.
“Every business is unique, and a lot of customers don’t really realise what they’re going to get with UCaaS because they’re used to on-premises phone systems. But once they learn more about UCaaS, they realize the importance of scalability in today’s business environment and how their on-premises phone system has restricted their ability to adapt to today’s business needs.”
In terms of net2phone’s own offerings, Telles said they are particularly well aligned to businesses with pockets of employees around the world.
“We have a unique, unlimited call plan with coverage in more than 40 countries,” Telles added.
“It really benefits businesses with a global presence that are paying significant fees for long distance calling”
“We’ve gone head-to-head with competitors and this has proved to be a real differentiator for us.”
