How to Use Microsoft Teams: Voice Options for Businesses

How to Use Microsoft Teams: Basic Features

Have you ever wondered how to use Microsoft Teams in your company? If you haven’t already jumped on the Microsoft Teams bandwagon, then it’s time to get familiar with one of the latest additions from Microsoft. Microsoft Teams is a chat and conference calling app that combines all your conversations into one place and, with the right partner, it can integrate enterprise-level voice capabilities for businesses.

In October 2020, Microsoft reported that Teams had reached 115 million daily active users. The tool’s popularity increased with the pandemic, primarily because of the standard features it includes. Among them:

• Creating a team through the app or web browser and invite others to join.
• Chatting with other people in real-time across devices (mobile phone, tablet, laptop).
• Making text chat broader by adding attachments, such as files from OneDrive for Business.
• Viewing your recent chats as well as opening tabs on other teams you previously accessed.
• Searching for previous conversations within Microsoft Teams archive.
• Encouraging interaction with quick polls and surveys right into messages.
• Motivating engaging conversations with playful stickers and emojis.

Microsoft Teams is a unique collaboration tool for businesses. It is unlike other corporate communication apps like Slack or more traditional messaging apps like Facebook Messenger. Teams works by enabling users to create groups with different people from across the company and outside parties to work on projects or discuss various topics virtually.

Growing businesses, however, may find limitations in these basic features, especially if they are wondering how to use Microsoft Teams when they must integrate PBX-like functionalities to ensure communications continuity. This is where a voice enhancement comes in.

Related: Why Now Is The Time to Leverage Microsoft Teams SIP Calling

Enhancing Microsoft Teams with Voice Capabilities

With COVID-19, it became increasingly common to find professionals who work off-site. By late 2020, 33% of employees in the U.S. reported always working remotely, while 25% said they worked remotely sometimes. Nearly two-thirds of remote staff members want to continue to work under that modality in the near future.

A remote and hybrid workforce pressured companies to support their employees with the proper technology to keep teams connected. There were too many communication tools on the market that did not initially meet the remote collaboration needs, leaving a serious gap.

Microsoft Teams appeared to be a good fit, fulfilling these organizations’ collaboration requirements as everyone started to get familiar with a mobile, hybrid work model. But after a few months, IT managers had to find ways to transform it into a more comprehensive platform with enterprise-grade voice capabilities.

Leading developers in the industry designed a solution to boost Microsoft Teams with voice-enabled features, unifying communication across voice, video, data and mobile. It includes complete capabilities to enable the app to create seamless connections between employees and customers, no matter how they choose to work.

By partnering with the right provider, your answer to how to use Microsoft Teams will add up so much more, for instance:

• Include advanced call routing & queues
• Add cloud calling features
• Add SIP trunk sharing and linking
• Manage telephony extensions
• Use intercom and paging
• Boost communications security
• Include a contact center
• Use messaging features
• Support E911 management
• Guarantee near 100% service uptime
• Ensure mobile team members’ connectivity

Users can easily access these features from any connected device (mobile phones, laptops, tablets). Voice enhancement for Microsoft Teams will give you the flexibility to build a more scalable, streamlined network with less risk. No matter where your employees may be, their collaboration platform will remain available to them.

Microsoft doesn’t directly help with enabling voice capabilities for Teams, but they do have certified partners who are approved to manage the integrations your business needs. Even if you have a qualified IT staff, they are unlikely to have the skills or bandwidth to manage this migration efficiently or quickly enough.

Instead, a top managed service provider will help you gradually migrate your platform while preventing disruptions that could result in downtime during the process. Once the provider completes the deployment, your company will have a unified communications platform that provides the same user experience across voice, video, data and mobile applications.

No matter where your employees work day-to-day or your industry and business model, with BCM One’s voice-enabled Teams solution you can easily and quickly connect without ever worrying about phone quality or network issues.

Related: Do You Need Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams?

Voice-Enabled Teams Advantages for Businesses

The sections above mentioned the benefits of transitioning your traditional phone service or regular Microsoft Teams to voice-enhanced capabilities. In case you are still not convinced, aren’t sure how to use Microsoft Teams to its fullest potential or if this is the right solution for your company, let’s go over some of the advantages in more detail.

1. Easy integration: Microsoft allows developers to integrate third-party apps into their Teams platform, which increases its functionality exponentially. Microsoft Teams is already integration-friendly, meaning it works seamlessly with dozens of other applications to make it an increasingly powerful business tool that experts can customize in countless ways.
2. Comprehensive features: A trusted partner will implement business-class phone features into Teams such as call routing, queuing capabilities and telephony extensions, with ensured uptime at nearly 100% reliability.
3. Cost-efficiency: A unified communications and collaboration platform like voice-enhanced Microsoft Teams is cheaper to maintain and easier to manage than using different solutions independently. The implementation can also decrease certain costs, such as international calling. Microsoft Teams has international calling plans that, in some cases, can be expensive. Voice enhancement can cut these expenses and facilitate more affordable calls with business partners outside the U.S.
4. Expert guidance: Partnering with a Microsoft Certified vendor can help ensure your implementation goes smoothly. Network experts with the necessary skills and expertise will take care of firewalls, routers, licensing and troubleshooting for you so you can focus on running your business rather than the deployment requirements. They will also analyze your unique business needs and design a solution for your existing phone system’s specific scenario.
5. Network flexibility: If you are concerned about licensing costs, current calling plans or integration with existing networks, know that a leading managed services provider can offer end-to-end Microsoft Teams deployment across any type of network. This will enable you to get your communications system up and running quickly, with increased customizability and a less complex network.
6. More security: A more robust unified voice and collaboration platform will provide you with a fully integrated phone system with solid security that supports your IT infrastructure. Your provider will integrate, manage and monitor your network for greater efficiency, security and peace of mind.
7. Seamless communications: With Voice Enabled Teams, your employees can work where and how they want. Integrating voice with video creates a comprehensive solution with a suite of features that empower internal teams and external customers alike.
8. More adaptability: The pandemic is still forcing changes in work modalities worldwide. With a Microsoft Teams voice-enhanced solution, your company will be able to adapt quickly and stay connected with stakeholders in a more permanent, stable manner.

BCM One is a Microsoft Certified vendor. Their experts have all the qualifications necessary to help you turn your basic phone system into a powerful communications resource. Help your company adapt to the new ways people are working by enabling connection and collaboration from home, on the road, or even in a coffee house. An advanced solution like state-of-the-art voice-enabled Microsoft Teams will enable robust communications among employees and with customers, partners and vendors. Get started now.