Microsoft Teams Cloud Voice is Microsoft’s telephony system that offers you a cloud solution to allow your employees to deal with calling.
There are a couple of different delivery options depending on what you are looking for. This will be unique to your organisation and might depend on users, hardware and current phone provisions.
Microsoft Teams full solution
The first choice to consider is fully moving your entire phone system to Teams. Not only using the teams application to make and receive calls but also using Microsoft to manage your phone numbers and call plans.
This route is easy to deploy, makes billing extremely easy and using the Teams admin portal is extremely simple to add numbers or manage the whole system.
The only drawback is you can’t shop around for call plans as it is all done via Microsoft.
Keep your existing call provider
The second option is to use Teams as the interface to your phone system. This allows you to keep your current arrangement for calls, lines and numbers.
You then use a third party integration system called a SBC (Session Border Controller) to integrate your phone system with the cloud and Microsoft Teams.
This allows you to benefit from the full market of telecommunication companies and means you get cheaper call plans or continue to use your existing package. It also allows additional capability like call recording.
There is a new Operator Connect solution allowing you to easily connect Teams to some of the biggest PSTN providers. This makes it easier than ever to connect to your existing supplier and integrate with Teams.
Skype for Business to Teams
Skype for Business and Teams share a lot of capability but from a calling perspective were designed quite differently.
If you are currently using Skype for Business or maybe an on-premise solution, it is possible to move this system into teams and allow you to benefit from the cloud and the latest technology.
The last thing worth noting when considering how you migrate to Microsoft Teams is the fact that you do get a wide range of devices that are compatible with Microsoft Teams as well as access to your telephony via the Teams application on desktop, tablet and mobile.
These are the three main routes to getting your telephony system moved to Microsoft Teams. There are various benefits to each route and the use of each will depend on your own circumstances. In our experience most organisations prefer to stay with their existing calling provider and simply move the interface to Teams. To understand more about what Microsoft Teams can do for your telephony system please visit our article or discover our full range of Microsoft Teams services.
