What are Best Practices for Teams Migration Journeys?

The ISDN and PTSN switch-off is only 26 months away.

That December 31, 2025, date will arrive sooner than you might expect, and then it will set the sun on analogue phone systems for good.

That doesn’t make the transition to digital any less intimidating, especially for those organisations with complex legacy infrastructure. Gamma specialises in aiding those digital transformations, specifically in customer migration journeys to leveraging Microsoft Teams.

UC Today caught up with Gamma at October’s UC Expo in London to discuss what best practices the company can share in streamlining those migration journeys.

“It’s worth saying that when we take these lessons, we’re taking them from real customers,” Jack Carr, Solutions Consultant at Gamma, told UC Today. “We’ll only give out the feedback we’re getting from live customers who have been on this journey themselves.”

“One is understanding your estate today,” Carr expanded. “Where do your numbers sit? Also, understanding if the numbers on the current system are in use. We see some crazy things, like lines going into buildings that no longer exist. Things like making sure that you’re on top of your timescales.”

“We know the switch-off is coming in December 2025. Our best practice advice is don’t wait if you don’t need to. There is a great opportunity to move now, and by leaving that later and later, you are opening yourself up to a little bit more risk. We definitely advise you not to do that.”

Given the task’s complexity, challenges will inevitably present themselves to customers on these journeys.

“One is understanding what options are there,” Carr detailed. “A lot of organisations don’t necessarily understand the differences between the enablement pass and how you actually get to Teams calling and where certain use cases need to fit, things like H-cases, analogue devices, international states, that sort of thing. Understanding that kind of challenge as well as, ‘How does that new world work when you do move technologies?'”

It is a complex and time-consuming process but ultimately a worthwhile one. For those businesses that might want a spare helping hand, providers can make that journey easier to undertake, manage, and ultimately conclude — even if a provider’s exact services might seem insubstantial at first glance.

“At the end of the day, the user will use the Teams interface, and the IT admins will use the Teams Admin Centre, so what actually is the difference?” Carr said.

“The things that we’re seeing (that matter to customers) are the relationship with the technology vendor,” Carr continued. “In this case, Microsoft. How close is that relationship? Do you work on things together? Are you giving active feedback to one another so you understand not only what Teams calling and the environment look like today but what it will look like in the future?”

Carr also mentioned the importance of specialisms — what is the company’s track record for delivering projects in specific verticals?

“We understand that telephony estates are unique by nature,” Carr said. “But we do see common trends, so working with a provider who has experience in your specific industry can lead you down a path where not only are you addressing the solutions and the concerns you have and you’re aware of, but the things that you might not be aware of and introducing a lot of things a lot of organisations haven’t discovered yet.”

UC Today’s video interview with Jack Carr will be released in the near future.