Maximizing ROI with Microsoft Teams SIP Phone Solutions

Organizations are always looking for ways to reduce costs and streamline their networks. Against that backdrop, Microsoft’s SIP Gateway—by way of Microsoft Teams—has given customers more functionality and flexibility without adding complexities. When implemented the right way, Microsoft Teams enables organizations to utilize SIP calling and leverage core features by making MS Teams compatible with most standard SIP-based phones.

Through a Microsoft Teams SIP phone solution, your business can integrate its existing communication system into the larger Teams infrastructure. Decision-makers and IT departments can improve efficiency and functionality while responding to an increasing need for flexible communications solutions.

The combination of MS Teams and SIP technology creates a unified communication system that meets modern business demands. The best path to successful implementation is through a managed service provider that simplifies everything and removes the burden on your IT staff.

The Growing Demand for Microsoft Teams SIP Phone Systems

The global SIP trunking market is expected to reach $43 billion by 2031, nearly four times its market value in 2021. The reasons for this growth are plenty, from increasing work-from-home trends to the growing demand for unified communications solutions that bring together previously disconnected systems.

If you don’t currently have a Microsoft phone system but use another type of SIP phone, you could save thousands of dollars while taking advantage of the Microsoft Teams integration. You can also increase your ability to use other features of MS Teams, such as chat, automated workflows, and live transcription, on the same system as your phone, increasing integration across the board. 

Put simply, the potential ROI of leveraging the MS Teams SIP integration is immense. Consider the benefits to your entire business, especially if your existing phone system is capable of supporting the integration and you already use MS Teams for other communications.

Microsoft Teams SIP Gateway Explained

Microsoft’s SIP Gateway solution enables core Teams calling functionality on legacy SIP phones. Most modern organizations have adopted an omnichannel approach to internal and external communications to streamline workflows and enhance customer satisfaction. Your SIP phone transfers data in the form of voice, video, chat, messaging, and documents back and forth between end users via the Internet Protocol (IP). In contrast, traditional landline wires provide only voice communications.

The age of dedicated Microsoft SIP phones is over. With an MS Teams SIP phone solution, you can use Teams as your collaboration platform and still get all of the SIP calling features you need in one integrated system. Most phones purchased in the last decade are likely SIP-compatible, ranging from Microsoft-certified products to more generic, universal options. Manufacturers and vendors typically list capabilities in the product manual or specifications.

Of course, SIP trunking also enables you to use softphone solutions. Download your business phone technology onto mobile devices or desktop computers, or—better yet—use the SIP for Teams integration to avoid a dedicated system and maximize your ROI.

Why The Need for Both Microsoft Teams and SIP Calling?

If you’ve always used SIP phones for voice calls and a separate instance of Microsoft Teams to add robust video conferencing capabilities, you may notice that they don’t always work well together. Unless you use a Microsoft-certified SIP phone, you’re out of luck. That’s a problem for many organizations.

Modern companies need more than basic voice capabilities to keep up with customer demands and employee preferences. Thanks to work-from-home trends and technological advances, expectations have changed. Your workforce, distributed or not, has different needs than it did just five years ago. Even while a large number of companies support a diversified workforce, significantly more have embraced remote working to expand their hiring practices and gain more skilled labor.

Many organizations have built a hybrid environment where physical locations matter less than ever. Any communication technology implemented must support that need for flexibility.

MS Teams and the Hybrid Workforce

Today, 16% of companies across industries are fully remote, and more than 32 million workers are expected to work remotely by 2025. Perhaps more importantly, 98% of workers share a desire to work at least partially remotely and will gravitate toward companies that can streamline this process. Companies need ways to support evolving work preferences, forcing them to embrace and connect various communications and collaboration platforms.

Video conferencing is now a mainstay, replacing the need for in-person meetings. Whether you use Zoom, Microsoft Teams, or another online conferencing platform, chances are that you need more than just video meetings. Successful organizations utilize full voice capabilities and all of these platforms’ collaboration features for daily operations.

Connecting voice with collaboration capabilities in a unified communications platform streamlines all types of interactions across your company. Whether your employees work at a centralized office, home office, on the road, or across the globe, they can connect with others using a corporate-supported network.

The Benefits of Unified Communications

Your Microsoft Teams SIP phone integration is just one step towards a unified communications environment. The more streamlined and connected your network is, the greater the cost savings, the less equipment you have to maintain, and the fewer third parties you have to handle.

Instead of paying for and managing multiple technologies, partners, carriers, and separate invoices, you can work with one provider. Even better, you can invest in Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) to let your MSP handle everything for you. As a result, your IT team can focus on other initiatives, further boosting the ROI of your integrated technology.

Another major benefit of UCaaS is mobility. UCaaS gives you access to the most up-to-date mobility options on the market. You can support your office, remote, and hybrid workers with all the tools they need to stay productive and connected, no matter where they work.

Because UCaaS is cloud-based, it doesn’t require much infrastructure, such as physical cables and wires. You can scale your business on demand and pay only for what you need at any given time. Adding or removing users and locations is as simple as a few clicks within a centralized platform.

Your UCaaS provider, not your IT team, is responsible for maintaining and upgrading the technology that supports cloud communications. Introducing new features and capabilities doesn’t require investing in new hardware or worrying about disruptions to your network. You can simply add features as easily as you add new users.

Mapping the Benefits of UCaaS

Journey mapping can be a powerful exercise to understand how a unified communications platform can benefit your business at every level. By mapping your entire infrastructure, you can understand where you have unnecessary redundancies, outdated technologies, information silos, or operational inefficiencies that a better solution could resolve.

It’s a five-step process specifically designed to gain deep insights and overviews into your communications infrastructure:

1. Define your objective
2. Understand your communication needs
3. Assess your connectivity options
4. Select your solutions
5. Optimize your connectivity infrastructure

In this final step, you will move toward a more unified, integrated solution. Against this backdrop, any integration within your solutions, such as adding SIP trunking to your existing MS Teams infrastructure, can solve your objective’s needs.

Disaster Recovery: More Than a Benefit—a Requirement

UCaaS has built-in, cloud-based disaster recovery to maintain business continuity. While we often think of a disaster as a flood or fire, disasters are anything that disrupts normal business operations. From power outages to service disruptions, companies need to be resilient. UCaaS is the ideal solution to accommodate that need.

Imagine your office with only an on-premise, traditional, circuit-switched telephony network. When the power goes down or the weather prevents staff from traveling to work, how does your company send and receive phone calls? From their personal devices? How do you control security and maintain professionalism? How do your customers reach your business?

UCaaS provides multiple ways to communicate internally and externally. With sophisticated calling features based in the cloud, such as call center functionality, advanced call routing, and integrations with critical business applications, operations continue as normal. If the power goes down in one location, the system can automatically route incoming calls to alternate locations or mobile phones. Employees can use messaging, chat, or Microsoft Teams SIP phone systems to communicate and collaborate with each other.

The Microsoft Teams integration with SIP phones means you can make a voice call from the Teams app and dial into a Teams meeting using that same device. Employees can move seamlessly between voice calls, chat, and video meetings while maintaining workflows and accurate data. The technology’s capabilities include any type of call, both inbound and outbound, as well as advanced features like call transferring, dialing in and out of meetings, and device-based “do not disturb” and voicemail indicators for individual users.

Having the ability to work from anywhere while staying connected to the network allows companies to sustain business operations, even when disruptions occur.

Leveraging the Full Power of MS Teams Communications

From working with a distributed workforce to more flexibility and business continuity during disasters, Teams SIP calling features can be immensely beneficial as part of a unified communications platform. With the right tools in place, your business can challenge any type of adversity or future technology head-on.

Just as importantly, adding SIP trunk integration enables your organization to leverage the full power of MS Teams communication features, including:

• AI-enhanced audio, dynamically adjusting for anything from poor room acoustics to sound enhancements and suppression of background noise.
• AI-enhanced chat enhancements, from dynamically generated summaries of conversations (text and voice) to a more intelligent search and insights that save valuable time.
• Native software integrations with other Microsoft 365 applications, enabling Teams users to natively schedule Outlook meetings, collaborate in applications like Word and Excel, and more.
• Native video conferencing, including the ability to record meetings, share screens, collaborate on whiteboards, and create virtual breakout rooms.
• Call transfer and retrieve features that shift calls to more relevant recipients, all done through the MS Teams interface—including the ability to shift calls from one device to the other.
• Advanced data analytics that can show anything from usage to trends and even audio quality, opening the door to continuous improvement opportunities that linear calling could not.
• Voice recording and smart transcriptions, adding an accessibility component to a communications channel that had previously struggled in this arena.

Simplifying Integration With a Reliable Managed Service Provider

Microsoft Teams SIP phone integration creates a truly unified communications solution with the added SIP trunk connectivity. The result is a powerful system, specifically designed to handle all of your communications needs. 

Implementing any comprehensive system can be complex, and for most businesses, it may be overwhelming. Managed Teams services are an immensely powerful option, helping you leverage these benefits without extensive, ongoing, and costly internal IT resources dedicated to the upkeep of this system.

Managed services from BCM One simplify the entire process, from business assessment to employee training and implementation. Contact us today to learn more about enabling Teams SIP calling and building a unified communications network without the complexity.