Photo by Oleg Magni

Originally Posted On: Microsoft Teams, Supercharged – UC Today

Why voice-enabling the pandemic’s big winner is the next big step for business

Over the last 12 months, Microsoft Teams has helped us battle the pandemic by revolutionising our ways of working and keeping the world’s businesses connected.

Back in the day, it was the young upstart to the big dog of virtual comms, Skype for Business.

The young pretender with the cleverer brand name.

Today, Teams is the go-to for millions in small, medium and large organisations for whom the communications culture has been forcibly reinvented, seemingly overnight.

The eye-popping stats change (increase) on a weekly basis but, at the last count, Teams adoption rates have grown almost 1,000% in a year, with 115m worldwide now logging on every DAY.

But it’s no longer just about user licences.

Partnering with US-based global mid-market managed services provider (and Microsoft Gold Partner) BCM One, businesses are now able to take the next bold step: to deploy Voice-Enabled Teams via seamless UCaaS, hosted voice and SIP trunking integration.

It’s changing the game today, and future-proofing tomorrow.

“The Teams marketing has of course proven to be effective in terms of user numbers,” says BCM One’s Marketing Vice President, Paula Como Kauth.

“As a result, the functionality and user experience are now both givens and, as the software continually updates, those will just keep getting slicker. But to really supercharge Teams’ true potential, it’s now all about integration.

“We are able to leverage its inter-operability with all existing network technology and any existing architectures. It means we can fill the voice and service gaps for UCaaS or SIP and give businesses reliable, flexible and affordable options to build out their voice capabilities on the Teams platform”

“We take Teams and transform it into a highly-customised, unified collaboration platform with enterprise-grade capabilities. It means small and medium-sized businesses can deploy what is effectively enterprise-level digital transformation without epic-scale capital investment. That’s so much more than simply supporting remote working. That’s driving efficiency, quality and productivity for customers AND customers’ customers.”

As next steps go, the business case is compelling.

The work-from-home model is now business as usual for over half of all employees and virtual human interaction is likely to continue to evolve even after the pandemic is over.

Businesses may return to their offices but a settled hybrid situation of many people still working remotely is likely to be the future norm.

Dialling into meetings is likely to become second nature for everyone and doing so via Teams will be the international standard for many.

The timing could not be more key.

“The time is now, but we can migrate users to Voice-Enabled Teams on a gradual basis to suit a particular business’s pace of change,” adds BCM One’s Como Kauth.

“It’s about managing integration and then providing effective adoption support to create a brilliantly effective and genuinely unified communications network. Our customers no longer need to be a big corporation to achieve that.”

And what of end-users’ rapid Teams learning this past year?

Well, that’s a story of bookshelf backdrops, mute button mishaps, and the occasional appearance by a pesky pet.

“We’re all adjusting, that’s for sure,” says Como Kauth. “Energy levels are definitely different over video but effective collaboration is improving despite people not being in an actual room together.

“That window on someone’s home; the personality they are able to express via backdrop choices; and someone or something occasionally making an amusing unexpected on-screen appearance is all part of that learning curve”

If only we could get to grips with the ‘legacy hand’..!