Unifying MS Teams, Public Calling and Enterprise Telephony

The benefits of 101TEAMS and Microsoft Teams working together

It’s no secret that your enterprise phone system (including your handset range) is one of your business’s most significant investments. It’s only fitting, then, that your phone system effectively serves the best interests of your organization. In this article, we explore how 101VOICE can help you get more out of Microsoft Teams through our innovative product, 101TEAMS.

The current MS Teams landscape

Thanks to massive advances in modern-day network capabilities, there is a lot of innovation happening in the telecoms industry.

The question CIOs, CTOs and even SMBs are asking is not “Should we update our phone systems?” but rather “How do we evolve our communication systems to serve the best interests of the business?”

Among the most fashionable players in the business, telecommunications is Microsoft. Organizations have widely adopted Teams as an internal meeting tool in addition to their existing phone systems. While this has enabled organizations of all sizes to communicate easily and effectively through chat, video conferences, file-sharing and more, it hasn’t proven viable as a replacement for an organization’s entire phone system.

You can’t easily call the outside world from Teams and when you receive a call, the call is received on your phone system (and handset), not through Teams. Moving to Teams for external calling requires adding new SIP Trunks or VoIP lines, which can traditionally only be done through Direct Routing.

Fortunately, phone operators can now activate their phone service on Microsoft Teams using Direct Routing and issue phone numbers and bill for calls. However, there are some important considerations before you embark on this process:

• How to combine your phone lines that are already connected to your PBX systems with Microsoft Teams.
• How to use the handsets that were bought with your PBX (often at a high cost) with Microsoft Teams.
• Determining if Microsoft Teams even has the functionality to replace your entire phone system (Hint: It probably can’t, or at least not without a further investment).

101VOICE has good news. We now help organizations like yours seamlessly combine the functionality and reliability of your existing phone system and Microsoft Teams.

Exploit 101TEAMS for the best of both worlds

The best thing about using 101VOICE as your partner? You have options! Our 101TEAMS product provides you with a choice between the following solutions:

• Moving your phone numbers from your incumbent operator to the 101VOICE  network
• Using 101VOICE as your phone line operator (we do this by offering external lines or SIP trunks that can connect to Teams) with competitive calling plans
• Augmenting Teams with the 101VOICE phone system. This option also allows you to:
• Leverage the 101VOICE platform for functionality that Teams doesn’t have (or does have, but at a higher cost)
• Use your existing handsets alongside Teams
• The benefits of 101TEAMS and Microsoft Teams working together

Using Direct Routing to combine Teams with your existing phone system has many benefits. Among these would be choosing your preferred provider, greater flexibility and scalability, saving money and accessing more capabilities and functionality, as seen below.

101TEAMS also caters for emergency calling

Direct Routing allows us to integrate 101VOICE SIP trunks on Teams to ensure you always have access to direct emergency calling. You can rest assured that both Direct Routing and our calling plans are compliant with Kari’s Law and the new Ray Baum’s Act, so there’s no need to worry about compliance.

Partner with us and never worry about organizational communication again

When making a big decision like whether or not to connect Teams to your existing phone system, it helps to know that you have a partner on your side with the expertise and capabilities needed, to help you make the right choice.

101VOICE is that partner. Our award-winning track record and decades of experience in the telecommunications field have seen us deliver solutions and build a solid base with many satisfied customers. If you’d like to leverage our expertise or consult with us on any of your needs, please get in touch.