The convergence of IT and communication is not a new phenomenon – but the evolution of Microsoft Teams has undoubtedly accelerated the blurring of lines between the two.
Teams now has 270 million monthly active users despite launching just five years ago. So, demand is there.
However, despite the depth of capabilities offered by Microsoft in the Teams platform, there are still ways to enhance the experience for users.
Teams saw mass adoption during the pandemic as businesses scrambled to keep their workforce connected. But now this panic is over, companies have time to take stock and assess how different technologies can be brought together – turning Teams into a central hub for collaboration.
RingCentral and UK-based Microsoft partner Bytes work together to create a holistic solution for end users that elevates the Teams experience. This involves aggregating a plethora of technology, with voice front and centre.
Voice in Teams
Many businesses have adopted Teams over the past three years with chat and video collaboration at the forefront of their minds. Their attention is now turning to voice, as demonstrated by recently published Microsoft figures.
The Redmond-based giant said that the number of Teams users with PSTN connectivity has been growing in the double digits for the past five quarters.
With Teams becoming such a crucial tool for businesses, it’s essential that they have enterprise-grade telephony plugged in to ensure a high quality of service.
“Customers want enterprise resiliency built into the backend, and that’s where the strength of our relationship with RingCentral lies,” Justin Powell, Modern Workplace UC Specialist at Bytes, told UC Today.
“We offer them the full Teams experience inside the Teams interface, but we give them enterprise UC and contact centre sitting behind it. That’s one of the big drivers for us.”
RingCentral gives organisations two ways to plug into Teams. The first is via Direct Routing, which plugs the service directly into the native Teams dialer. The second sees the RingCentral dialer integrated into the Microsoft Teams sidebar as a third-party app. This removes the need for a separate Microsoft Teams Phone licence.
RingCentral’s approach is to meet the customer where they want to be, rather than force them down a certain avenue.
“We’re giving them the opportunity to evaluate,” Ben Hollyer, Senior Regional Partner Manager at RingCentral said.
“We can give them Direct Routing with all the benefits of our reporting and analytics, or we can give them the embedded dialer that comes with cost savings and more advance features to support the user.”
“At RingCentral, we don’t have a bias towards one or the other, but customers really are evaluating what works for them.”
Teams in the Wider Landscape
The rise of public cloud and as-a-service offerings has changed the dynamic of technology procurement, bringing enterprise-grade features to the masses and sparking a move to a solutions-led approach. Teams sits at the heart of this, acting as a gateway to other tools and platforms.
Bytes, for example, brings together Microsoft’s stack with best-of-breed technology across areas including ERP, cybersecurity, networking, storage and infrastructure.
The firm has recently pulled unified communications into the fold via its digital workplace practice, with RingCentral as its number-one partner. This is at the same time as bringing its own internal teams closer together to create end-to-end solutions for customers, Powell said.
“As a business, we’re focused on modernising our approach. Bytes are well known for our licensing expertise, but now we’re much more than that,” Powell said.
“We have a layer of solutions engineers who understand our entire portfolio of products across all areas. Plus, we have a plethora of service offerings.
“When speaking with customers, our specialists bundle desktop, applications, UC and network infrastructure with other technology areas. This is how we intend to evolve towards solutions selling.”
Strength to Strength
The objective for Bytes and RingCentral is continued growth as we move towards 2023. Bytes is currently RingCentral’s second-biggest partner in the UK but has ambitions to hit the top spot in the next 12 months.
Powell said that the unified communications and contact centre space is greenfield for Bytes, meaning big opportunities lay ahead. He added that, while other UC vendors are knocking on Bytes’ door, the firm is all-in with RingCentral and has no intention of onboarding a competitor.
“We want to go to the customer with a portfolio that has different offerings but no competition,” he said. “Our strategy is to align to RingCentral and their key strengths.”
Bytes will be offering a free of charge Workshop with those that wish to know more about UC/CC and how bytes can assist. Please contact [email protected] to find out more.
