If your organization is dealing with a poor-performing phone service, your employees may have difficulty communicating with each other when they’re working from home or from different office locations.
Poor communication as a result of challenges experienced by an unreliable phone service, can lead to poor productivity and efficiency among employees.
Additionally, a poor-performing phone service may negatively impact customer relationships potentially leading to lost customers and lost revenue.
A Microsoft Teams Connect solution can improve your organization’s communication capabilities leading to better communication between employees, enhanced customer relationships, and increased revenue.
Coeo has helped deliver Microsoft Teams telephony to thousands of organizations and knows how important a reliable phone solution is to the productivity of an organization.
We want to inform you about what Microsoft Teams Connect is so you can determine if it is the right fit for your organization.
By the end of this article, you will know what Microsoft Teams Connect is, how it works, and if it is a good fit for your organization.
What is Microsoft Teams Connect?
Microsoft Teams Connect is a Microsoft solution that replaces your organization’s existing PBX phone system and connects it to the cloud.
Since Microsoft Teams Connect is a cloud-based solution, it allows you to make and receive calls over the Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN).
Microsoft Teams Connect allows your organization to port all its numbers to Microsoft Teams and allows you to use Microsoft Teams as a telephone solution in addition to acting as a collaborative platform.
Microsoft Teams Connect not only allows you to transfer your phone solution to the cloud but also enables you to use the chat feature and shared channels for better collaboration:
● Chat
Microsoft Teams Connect chat feature allows you to chat with internal users in your network such as employees and also allows you to chat with trustworthy external users outside of your network.
These external users can be prospects or customers that you can interact and share information with.
Microsoft Office 365 allows organizations to set up a tenant where user accounts are grouped together and synced in the same network so they can chat with each other and access files together.
This benefits an organization that collaborates on projects and helps with file sharing. Tenants allow you to chat with and share files with anyone within that tenant.
While most solutions only allow you to chat and share files with users in your tenant, Microsoft Teams Connect will enable you to chat with external users outside your tenant which can result in better productivity.
● Shared channels
Shared channels allow you to invite collaborators to a group and communicate and share information within that group. This feature helps an organization working in a remote work setting.
Shared channels is a new feature introduced by Microsoft that allows you to connect and collaborate with parties inside and outside of your organization. A shared channel helps you collaborate as one extended team.
Shared channels prevent collaborators from viewing information, files, and documents outside of the shared channel.
Collaborators in a shared channel will only be able to view what is shared in the channel which eliminates the worry of oversharing with individuals outside of your organization.
If you add a customer or prospect to a shared channel, for example, they will only be able to access what is sent in that channel and will not have access to any other important legal documents in your network that are not posted in the channel.
How Microsoft Teams Connect works
With traditional Microsoft Teams, you can only chat with and call people within your organization that are on your network.
Once you implement a Microsoft Teams Connect solution, you are not just using Microsoft Teams as more than just a collaboration platform.
Teams Connect allows you to port your numbers from your traditional PBX phone system to Microsoft or a third-party provider and use Teams Connect as a phone system.
These calls are made over the internet using the PSTN. This will allow you to chat with and call individuals outside of your organization just like a regular phone system.
There are two main ways you can connect to the PSTN using Teams Connect. You can connect your phones directly to Microsoft using Microsoft as a direct carrier. Alternatively, you can connect through a third-party provider.
This second option is known as a “bring your own carrier” model where you can connect to any Microsoft-approved provider such as Coeo and use Microsoft Teams Connect as your phone solution.
By taking this approach, you can continue to use any provider that best fits your organization’s needs while still taking advantage of a cloud-based phone solution using the PSTN.
Is Microsoft Teams Connect a good fit for your organization?
Now you know what Microsoft Teams Connect is and how it works. This will help you determine if it is a good fit for your organization.
If your organization has a reliable phone service and a phone provider that serves your organization well then Microsoft Teams Connect may not be a good fit for your organization.
On the other hand, if your organization has a poor-performing phone solution that hinders communication among employees and with customers, Teams Connect may be a good fit for your organization.
Your employees may be working remotely or in different branch offices within the organization making it hard to communicate and collaborate on projects.
In addition, it can be hard to communicate and send documents to customers without reliable communication.
Microsoft Teams Connect might be a good fit for your organization to solve these problems.
If you have determined Teams Connect might be a good fit for your organization, you need to determine if Microsoft or a third-party provider will best meet your needs as the provider for your solution.
If you have an internal IT team with the ability and time to manage and maintain your phone system you may be able to use Microsoft as your provider.
Microsoft is a large corporation and may not be able to solve any problems that can arise with your solution in a timely manner so it is important you have a team that can solve problems when they arise.
On the other hand, if you lack IT resources and need help managing and maintaining your solution, a third-party provider like Coeo will likely provide more timely support and have a more intimate, working knowledge of your organization.
Next steps to purchasing a Microsoft Teams Connect solution
Now you know what Microsoft Teams Connect is, how Microsoft Teams Connect works, and if it is a good fit for your organization.
This will enable you to determine if Microsoft Teams Connect will help improve your organization’s communication resulting in greater productivity.
No one wants to have a phone solution that contributes to poor productivity, poor customer relationships, and lost revenue.
Microsoft Teams Connect can improve your phone solution and help solve these problems.
Coeo knows how important a reliable phone service is to an organization and has improved the communication capabilities of thousands of customers by delivering Microsoft Teams to them.
We want you to know what Microsoft Teams Connect is and how it works so you can determine if it is right for your organization.
If you would like to speak with our team to learn more about Microsoft Teams or ask any questions you may have you can schedule an appointment.
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