

While Teams offers a robust feature library and comprehensive services for its customers, it may lack some enterprise voice services your brand needs to make the most of its interactions with customers, vendors, and more. You may now love this powerful application and wonder, can Microsoft Teams replace your phone system completely? This is a common question because traditional phone systems lack many of the Teams features businesses need and have gotten used to. As of January 2022, Teams noted 270 million monthly active users. The Verge reported Teams’ usage jumped from 44 million daily active users in March 2020 to more than 75 million in April the same year – a 70% increase in only 30 days. Microsoft Teams’ popularity grew enormously during 2020, particularly with so many people working remotely in light of COVID-19. “Microsoft needs to add to its list of carriers and operators for Operator Connect to be more useful, but that will happen over time.Is Microsoft Teams Enough to Replace Your Phone System?

“Operator Connect adds a simpler option for these companies and will most likely be the go-to option for connectivity,” she said. Pleasant said that while most Teams Phone customers opt for Direct Routing for PSTN connectivity, many lack the internal skills and expertise required for deployments. “For this segment of customers, Operator Connect will work very well, alongside Direct Routing for more complex environments,” he said. There are currently more than a dozen PSTN operators on Microsoft’s Operator Connect program, with more on the way “in the coming months,” said Herskowitz.īrandenburg said there are a substantial number of customers that want to move to a cloud-only option for Teams and voice calling while retaining existing carrier relationships. “By maintaining your existing operator relationships, you will save on infrastructure purchase and management, you will benefit from enterprise-grade reliability and shared technical support,” Nicole Herskowitz, Microsoft Teams general manager, said at the Enterprise Connect virtual event this week.

Unveiled at Microsoft’s Ignite conference earlier this year, Operator Connect is an operator-managed service that makes it easier for businesses to connect their PSTN to Teams Phone. Microsoft also saie Operator Connect will be available this week. The feature can be accessed via a car’s own control system or Apple’s Siri voice assistant.Īlso coming later this year is the ability record and transcribe one-to-one phone calls and a walkie-talkie “push-to-talk” function for desk phones. “Spam call detection is quickly becoming table stakes for cloud calling providers, so it’s good to see Microsoft implementing it within Teams,” said Michael Brandenburg, senior industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan.Īlso available now is an integration with Apple CarPlay, announced earlier this month, that enables workers to make calls and join voice meetings from their vehicle. It can also “digitally attest” outgoing calls to ensure that Teams Phone calls are not flagged as spam by external recipients. Microsoft is also looking to prevent spam calls from becoming distractions with a spam identification feature, now generally available, that’s can identify and decline unwanted calls. “The ability to easily transfer calls between devices is something users have been asking for, and will be especially important going forward as workers move between the office, home, kids’ soccer games, etc.” Microsoft “The new hybrid workplace will require tools that let workers be flexible and mobile, moving from the car to the office to the home office,” said Blair Pleasant, president and principal analyst at COMMfusion.
