One of the biggest challenges for many companies during the disruption of 2020 was pivoting to a remote work model. Microsoft Teams offered a way to enable collaboration for remote workers while providing a familiar Microsoft user experience and integrating with existing Microsoft tools.
Of course, those companies that adopted Microsoft Teams in the midst of the pandemic may not have anticipated a persistent remote work environment. However, as both companies and employees recognize the advantages of remote work, businesses that adopted collaboration tools as a stopgap measure will certainly need to fully integrate those tools into their current communications environment. That means figuring out how to give team members the same in-office calling options from a remote environment.
While Microsoft Teams does have a calling feature, implementing that feature doesn’t always make sense. For organizations that have an existing phone system, spending the money to replace that system with Microsoft Calling is impractical or unnecessary—why replace a full-featured, application-rich phone system that works well and everyone is trained and reliant on?
For many companies, moving to a new phone system and a new provider is financially and practically prohibitive, especially after the disruptions of 2020. And implementing a new phone system from Microsoft comes with a variety of hassles and expenses. Replacing existing IP telephones, analog devices, contact center, call recording and management platforms can be disruptive and cause a loss of existing feature functionality. Many phone and technology providers have become long-term advisors for business growth, and to suddenly move to a new provider can mean losing a trusted partner.
In addition, the Microsoft Teams calling solution may simply not meet a company’s needs. In some organizations, team members have already returned to the office where requirements have changed, or they have no need for collaboration tools, so only a small segment of the company would need the calling feature of MS Teams. And for some companies, the Microsoft calling solution may not provide the deep reporting and analytic functionality of their existing phone system.
Allstream Call2Teams
Enter Allstream’s Microsoft Teams integration with Call2Teams—a practical, simple add-on for existing Unified Communications (UC) Cloud Voice and Mitel on-premise customers that allows them to leverage the full suite of features of their existing UC solution in the MS Teams environment. With Allstream’s Microsoft Teams Add-on License, companies can:- Use MS Teams as a softphone and retain their existing UC Cloud Voice or Mitel MiVoice Business on-premise system, allowing the continued use of existing call management, call control, contact center, call recording, dial plan, numbers and voicemail.
- Leverage a mix of existing VoIP phones and MS Teams user devices without sacrificing functionality.
- Make and receive calls in MS Teams from anywhere, on any device (Android or iOS), and easily add video and sharing.
- Implement calling functionality in MS Teams quickly and easily without replacing devices, software or phone numbers.
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