Today’s hybrid work environment requires secure, modern converged communications.
Forrester has found that collaboration platforms that allow your team to work together remotely drive a 10% increase in productivity, saving your employees 2-4 hours per 40-hour work week.
All legacy phone systems lack integration and softphone software options that enable an Internet-connected device, such as a computer, to make phone calls. As a result, old line-based phones cannot support hybrid working environments where people make “calls” to collaborate directly from their computers. Forward-thinking businesses understand the importance of convenience, context, and speed of communications and are largely utilizing Microsoft Teams.
What is Teams Phone?
Microsoft Teams phone is a commonly used collaboration application built for hybrid work so that teams can stay informed, organized, and connected – all in one place. However, as remote, and mobile workforces increase, so does the need to integrate voice calling capabilities to make regular and emergency calls, receive calls, transfer calls, and mute/unmute calls, all through Microsoft Teams. Workforces need the ability to make calls to anyone, not just those who have Microsoft Teams.
Integrate calls seamlessly into the flow of work.
Provide a secure, productive employee experience with calls, chat, meetings, and Microsoft 365 apps united in one easy-to-use tool. Quickly start a call from chat, contact card, Outlook, or the Calls app. Collaborate in Microsoft 365 apps directly from calls and meetings. Leverage full suite of calling features from any device or location.
New calling experiences.
Simple call experience built on a single pane. Dial by name or number. Calling history with filters – see the info you want. Right canvas supports speed dial today. In the future, we will enable this canvas for a variety of custom treatments.
At-a-glance important call settings for items such as device connected and forwarding status
Shared line appearance.
- Teams enables people to share their phone line with their delegates.
- Full invite flow and call management:
- Manager initiated Delegate managed or initiated.
- See line busy status and active call information.
- Resume a call on hold by manager or admin.
- Make/receive shared line calls.
- IT Pro experience to create on behalf of users.
Voices matter for building personal connections and creating clarity.
Remote and hybrid work has made it challenging to maintain personal connections and enable serendipitous problem-solving that often happens in the office.
Studies show that voice is the human signal that creates understanding and connection.
Calling can help restore connections and build new ones with colleagues and customers.
Microsoft Teams call park retrieve.
- Teams enables people to park and retrieve calls.
- Park and retrieve calls.
- Park a call and get a code
- See all parked calls from Teams apps.
- Use Teams Phone or Teams app to retrieve the call
Forward to group
- Forward to one or more people
- Ring in sequence or simultaneously
- First to pick up takes call
- Settings UX for easy configuration
Transfer calls between desktop and mobile.
Take a call anywhere and easily move it from your desktop to your mobile device. Easily switch between personal devices while on the same call. Quickly add another device to an existing call. Used for sharing and viewing content from the second device and audio on primary device. Handoff support for all types of calls: 1:1 calls, group calls, and meetings.
End-to-end reliability and encryption: Since Teams Phone runs on Microsoft infrastructure, it can enable reliability in ways that are difficult or impossible to replicate from other providers.
Our end-to-end reliability approach builds upon tools and systems such as proactive network monitoring, automated system optimization, and fault-tolerant redundancy.
Ensures no other party, including Microsoft, has access to the decrypted conversation when both parties in a one-to-one call turn on end-to-end encryption giving you confidence your communications remain private.(Available for all 1:1 VoIP calls on the Teams app on mobile and desktop.)
Enhanced voice and video quality: We continually work to make calls more natural, resilient, and efficient. Teams uses AI to improve voice and video quality, and adaptive wideband codec technology delivers a high-fidelity audio experience for PSTN and VoIP calls.
Stay connected from anywhere with a range of basic to premium devices
Session Border Controllers (SBCs) certified for Direct routing
Microsoft partners with selected Session Border Controllers (SBC) vendors to certify that their SBCs work with Direct Routing
Network component providing:
- Connectivity – allows Microsoft Teams to interconnect to other voice components [B2BUA]
- Security – firewall for SIP traffic
- Media services – transcoding, support for voice/video calls
Microsoft works with each vendor to:
Jointly work on the SIP interconnection protocols.
Perform intense tests using a third-party lab. Only devices that pass the tests are certified.
Run daily tests with all certified devices in production and pre-production environments. Validating the devices in pre-production environments guarantees that new versions of Direct Routing code in the cloud will work with certified SBCs.
Establish a joint support process with the SBC vendors.
SBCs can be physical appliances or Virtual Edition deployed in the cloud.
List of supported SBCs: https://aka.ms/dr-sbc
Leveraging multiple SBCs
Load distribution and high availability
- Multiple SBCs can be grouped in a single voice route
- Depending on SBC vendor, multiple SBCs can be combined to cluster
- Cluster will look like single SBC to Microsoft Teams
High availability with back-up routes
- Voice routes have priorities assigned
- Route can only be used if no SBC in higher priority route is available
Disaster recovery
- Voice routing policies can be used to allow only a certain user to use specific routes
- E.g., after losing all SBCs in US, a subset of users can place calls to US via Europe gateways
Interoperability with 3rd party systems
Direct Routing allows customers with users in the Microsoft cloud to continue using 3rd party systems such as PBXs, Call Center, and Analog Telephony Adaptors (ATA) helping preserve key investments.
Key Reasons for selecting PSTN Connectivity option
Customer value:
Highly customizable approach that allows customers to maintain existing service provider agreements and use on premises/hybrid hardware. Available globally through partners.
Key reasons you would select Direct Routing
- Existing PSTN infrastructure (SBC or voice trunks) will continue to be used
- Required for PBX co-existence
- Migration from legacy telephony systems
- Integration for analog devices (elevator phones, overhead paging etc.)
- Multi-national company with locations outside Microsoft Calling Plan markets
- Existing service provider agreements are in place
- Local PSTN survivability needs (hospitals, oil refineries, airports, etc.)
- Customers can use a combination of Direct Routing and Microsoft Calling Plans
Microsoft Teams is Ready for Voice
In conclusion, Teams’ high call quality and versatile integration with other voice systems means it’s more than capable of serving the same purposes that legacy PBX systems have for years. Still, it’s important to consider that Teams is more than just a new piece of technology.
The purpose of Teams is to fundamentally change the way you work. While it most certainly can function in tandem with your old voice systems, the best thing Teams has to offer is the functionality of a modern workplace.
What companies need is a solution that can bring voice and video collaboration together. Such an effort requires highly specialized talent, extremely knowledgeable project management, and a team filled with passion for helping organizations move from platforms that are inhibiting growth and costing more than the value they bring.
Start your journey to Microsoft Teams today
When considering deploying Microsoft Teams, you need to make sure that Teams supports your organization’s Voice needs, including analog endpoints and integrations. With today’s complex communication technology environments, determining what your business needs are may be easier said than done.
Fortunately, we specialize in just that. With more than 20 years of experience in voice, sbc and as proud Microsoft Solution Partner with Specialization on Teams Calling, Logitel is uniquely positioned to help you start your journey to Microsoft Teams.
Schedule a 45-minute technology assessment today to find out what the transition to Microsoft Teams could look like for your organization.
