The Benefits of Adding Cloud Telephony to Microsoft Teams

Remote working has been on the rise for some time, but the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this trend. A recent survey conducted by 451 Research found that 67% of organizations expect remote working policies to remain in place either permanently or for the long term. Many large international companies are considering closing some of their office locations and shifting to a permanent remote working model. All of this strengthens the case for investing in technology to support the more dispersed workforces that businesses expect to be managing in future.

The growth of Microsoft Teams as a cloud telephony solution

The collaboration tool that has seen the most rapid increase in adoption is Microsoft Teams. According to Microsoft itself, the total number of daily active users increased by over 70% to 75 million over a two-month period following lockdown. Currently, it is used mainly for internal collaboration, with few businesses using Teams for external communication. However, this is expected to change over the next two years.

Microsoft’s Phone System turns Teams into a full enterprise telephony solution. Users can make and receive external calls directly from Teams on any device from anywhere in the world. Microsoft’s own Calling Plans offer a quick and easy way for smaller companies to connect to the PSTN network, but larger organizations typically use a third-party managed service provider for connectivity. This approach, called ‘Direct Routing’, offers greater flexibility, wider geographic coverage, lower rates and increased levels of support. Industry analysts forecast that by 2022, as many as 90% of large enterprises using Teams for telephony will use Direct Routing for PSTN connectivity.

Cloud telephony benefits for IT teams and users

While large enterprises typically maintain a consistent set of IT solutions for all users globally, telephony is often the exception. It’s common to find a disparate range of PBX equipment across offices, and a different carrier in each region. By moving telephony into the cloud, businesses can standardize their approach across all offices, leading to reduced complexity and cost, and improved control, flexibility and compliance. Specific benefits include: 

By using Teams for voice calling, users are able to communicate and collaborate more effectively when working remotely. Specific benefits include:

Setting up Direct Routing is simpler with a managed service provider

Rolling out cloud telephony across large enterprises can be a complex process because telephony is business-critical and organizations need to migrate from a disparate mix of legacy solutions. Using a managed service provider, with deep expertise in Microsoft voice solutions and the global reach to support a multinational organization, typically means that the transition can happen faster, with less risk, and with a lower resource requirement on the IT team

To learn more, read LoopUp’s whitepaper “Adding cloud telephony to Microsoft Teams”, which takes readers through the basics and the benefits. Topics include:

Rob Jardine is Chief Marketing Officer at LoopUp, the cloud communications provider.