With enterprises still confused regarding how to integrate a contact centre with Microsoft Teams, two clear approaches have emerged and been defined by Microsoft itself. The Connect and Extend integration models describe two viable approaches that organisations can adopt today but there are significant differences to take into account regarding each method. In addition, each model contains further complexities for organisations to consider.
Focusing on the Connect integration model first, these contact centres have been designed to utilise Direct Routing to connect the contact centre solution to the PSTN and to Teams. This is achieved using session initiation protocol (SIP) connectivity and Graph APIs to retrieve presence status from Teams.
There are two main ways in which a contact centre can integrate with Teams: when agents use the third-party client option, the connection to Teams is used only to gather the user’s presence information and the contact centre solution is a third-party client or website that manages voice, video and screen sharing in a proprietary mode. The second option – offered only by some solutions vendors – is using the Microsoft Teams client: here the contact centre uses Teams as a telephony solution so Teams becomes the PBX within the architecture that manages its communications. In this case, providers may also offer the opportunity to manage calls via a third-party app within Teams.
“This Teams client approach is the one we have decided to adopt in Mida Solutions’ C3 Cloud Contact Center for Microsoft Teams, as in our opinion and from a business perspective, it provides several crucial advantages for enterprises,” says Attilio Licciardello, General Manager at Mida Solutions.
“In addition, the SIP connectivity has allowed our customers to count on a Teams integrated contact centre solution since 2019, long before Teams became so popular as UC platform.”
Turning to the Extend model, this approach allows the integration to Teams via a cloud communication API, which is part of Graph APIs, for presence status, call functionality and call handling. Contact centres that take the Extend approach are built entirely and exclusively on Teams and agents use Teams as their client application.
Call connectivity is managed via Direct Routing or Microsoft calling plans. Call handling is very straightforward: the call and media stream stay inside the customer’s Teams tenant so everything from security to encryption is covered by Microsoft itself. Conversations stay in the same location as the customer’s Teams tenant so call handling is also compliant with the business’s approved GDPR and internal data policies.
“Mida Solutions’ philosophy towards the Extend model is very pragmatic: we constantly and carefully monitor Microsoft Cloud Communication API updates and new releases, as improving the customer experience within our contact centre for Teams is one of our goals,” adds Mauro Franchin, CTO at Mida.
“We will evaluate the Extend model as soon as we perceive that it allows us to deliver extra value to customers, compared to the current contact centre solution built on the Connect model.”
