What does the rise in Microsoft Teams mean for the PBX?

Having a single integrated piece of software that handles all communications and collaboration for an entire company is something that IT admins and HR departments across the world dream of. If you add another layer on top of this that enables businesses to deploy and manage users across any device on a platform which boasts a five 9's uptime guarantee and industries start to revolve around it. But when global ways of working change because of one tool, what happens to existing communications infrastructure and operations? 

Over the past decade or so Microsoft have taken ownership of the desktop, with the Windows operating system now accounting for around 68% of the desktop, tablet, and console OS market.

What is less well known however is that on top of this (and despite Teams being unbundled from some of the standard Microsoft licensing bundles), the tech giant has also well and truly shown their dominance when it comes to collaboration and PSTN enablement with their Teams solution. As they head towards potentially capturing half the integrated voice market for themselves, Microsoft are enabling business communication in a few different ways, but if there is one thing you take away from here let it be this - As a provider, the rise of Microsoft Teams in the communications space presents massive amounts of opportunity for you.

How Teams Phone works with existing PBXs

As businesses of all sizes move more and more towards hybrid-working models, what they view as their communication must-haves are changing. There is obvious enthusiasm amongst users to do everything in Teams, but there are also serious business requirements that must continue to be delivered as our idea of the workplace transforms.

PBXs remain unrivalled when it comes to maintaining business as usual for things like compliance, reporting and call centre functionality, so for the most part, any Microsoft-based solution has to work hand in hand with existing infrastructure. This is why Direct Routing is the current leading form of Microsoft Teams voice enablement - it seamlessly integrates into whatever existing setup an organization has. Mark Herbert, Our Chief Partner Evangelist, said it best:

"Microsoft’s voice strategy does not appear to be to want to run the worlds’ biggest PBX. Microsoft have provided an interface for PSTN and PBX integration with Microsoft Teams, a decision which suggests Microsoft’s primary interest is selling Teams, not phone systems.” 

Some UC providers have tried to ‘out-Teams’ Microsoft by building their own collaboration suite, yet working with rather than against Microsoft has been proven to produce viable routes to revenue. PSTN integration is just one way for PBX providers to grow and adapt their offering to suit the modern world of communications.

Deploying a Teams Phone solution

Embracing a ‘Teams-friendly’ strategy presents new and exciting opportunities for providers, particularly for those with larger enterprise customers where Microsoft Teams deployment is happening at an exponential pace.

Essentially there is an option that is available to organizations who want to integrate their existing PBX with Microsoft Teams and it's one of the main reasons as to why Direct Routing has become the most popular Teams Phone options - Direct Routing as a Service (DRaaS).

DRaaS gives the best of both worlds in the way that it allows organizations to retain all of the functionality of their existing hardware whilst unlocking the full power of Teams calling, quickly and easily. Not only is Direct Routing the main driving force behind Teams Phone growth up to now, it can be the key that helps you tap into the success of Teams and its hundreds of millions of monthly active users.

Adding Teams Phone to an existing PBX - Where we come in

The providers that give customers the richest experience without making them compromise are the ones who are likely to prevail. As voice and IT services continue to converge, fixing the ‘with-Teams’ challenge can buy time to build and maintain clear differentiation as the market evolves.

Call2Teams is our award winning middleware that lets you give businesses exactly what they want - The ability to reap the benefits of a single collaborative hub, whilst avoiding the loss of their existing calling infrastructure. This means little to no disruption in return for centralizing everything a business needs to communicate and collaborate into a single pane of glass.

Looking to learn more? Get in touch with us today for more information.