Microsoft 365 Phone System Benefits: The Future of Voice?

Using Microsoft Teams as Your Phone System

Microsoft Teams has been widely adopted as a tool to enable people to chat, share, collaborate and meet across organisations. No matter the size of the organisation, Teams makes working together efficiently much easier, especially with more dispersed workforces. With 145 million daily users across the globe, it is fair to say that Teams is one of the most popular collaboration tools on the market.

But while the adoption of Teams as a collaboration tool seems to be growing exponentially, when we talk to people about moving their voice to Teams we often get surprised responses. And when we explain that organisations can use Teams as their phone systems, we still get asked if it is possible to perform very standard features like putting calls on hold and transferring calls.

The fact is, organisations can use Teams not just for collaboration and meetings but also for making and receiving calls. And when they do, they can enhance user experience and customer experience. In the following section, we’ll explore how.

Replacing Your Traditional Phone System

By leveraging Microsoft 365 Phone System, you can use Teams to replace your traditional phone system. By using a solution like the Voice Enabled Teams offering from Six Degrees, you can have all inbound and outbound calls coming through Teams. You also get flexibility around call minutes, with either pay as you go or our call bundles and our international call bundles. We can offer international numbering, local breakout globally (subject to availability) and we are not tied to Microsoft’s calling plans.

When it comes to replacing your traditional phone system, you’ll want to be assured that Voice Enabled Teams – our managed version of Microsoft 365 Phone System – has all the phone system features you’ve come to expect. Voice Enabled Teams delivers the features you need: call queues can be configured, auto attendants can be setup, voicemail can be enabled, music on hold is available, and you can carry out call forwarding, group pickup, transferring calls, call park and retrieve, caller ID and much more.

We work with clients with all different voice needs and ensure that their solutions cover their voice requirements, along with the added benefits of collaboration and meetings all in one place.

Recording Inbound and Outbound Calls on Teams

For a number of organisations, it’s important to record inbound and outbound calls. This can be to help with customer experience, disputes, and for compliance and regulatory requirements. Teams itself cannot do this. However, Microsoft has worked with a handful of call recording providers to enable all calls, video, screensharing and meetings to be recorded.

At Six Degrees we work closely with one of these certified providers, Numonix, and our Microsoft Teams Call Recording solution offers a policy-driven approach to recording users and meetings. Transcription is also available, along with secure sharable links to recordings so if a call needs to be shared internally or externally it can be done within the platform, and the call itself does not leave the database.

Microsoft 365 Phone System Benefits

So, Microsoft 365 Phone system has all the functionality your organisation needs. But what are the key Microsoft 365 Phone System benefits when consumed as part of our Voice Enabled Teams offering? Here are some of the key benefits you should be aware of:

• Enhance user experience. A single user interface for all conversations helps to increase productivity. Users are already familiar with the user interface for Microsoft Teams through internal conversations – this ensures that all conversations are kept on the same platform. Users can easily liaise with colleagues while on a call with external contacts, helping to provide a better experience. If the organisation already uses Microsoft Teams internally, this helps to increase user adoption as it will be the go-to-system for all conversations.
• Call controls to provide a great customer experience. Microsoft 365 Phone System includes call forwarding, call parking/retrieving, and group pick-up to ensure that all important calls/conversations are picked up by the organisation. Call recording ensures that all important details from the conversation are captured and stored. This helps with regulatory compliance, but also helps to highlight any ‘good’ or ‘bad’ calls, and it is useful for training new starters and employees on how best to deal with contacts.
• Access on multiple devices – perfect for remote, flexible, ‘mobile’ workers. Teams can be accessed on multiple devices including mobile phones, making it very useful for remote and mobile workers who are always on the move. This helps to protect an organisation’s data, as contacts are stored on the Microsoft Teams app instead of on the devices.
• Cost-effective and flexible calling plans. Voice Enabled Teams is a more cost-effective solution than on-premises phone systems or other VoIP providers – organisations only need to pay one price to a single provider, instead of using multiple providers.

The Future of Voice

At Six Degrees, we believe Microsoft 365 Phone System and Microsoft Teams are the future of voice. Six Degrees Voice Enabled Teams enables organisations to make and receive voice and video calls through Microsoft Teams.

Consolidate your Microsoft Teams collaboration software with your unified communications platform, and achieve cost efficiencies while delivering a ubiquitous experience to your end users. Six Degrees will deploy and manage Microsoft 365 Phone System for your organisation, ensuring you leverage the maximum benefits from Microsoft’s transformational collaboration tool.

Schedule a call to learn more.