In the last entry of this series, I’m going to give a short overview of telephony in Microsoft Teams.
For in-depth information on Teams, download the white paper below. Click here to read my previous posts about collaboration, chat apps, and enhanced instant messaging.
Telephony in Microsoft Teams can provide dial-tone voice service to firms that have E5 licensing and a telephony plan. This feature allows you to dial phone numbers right from your Teams client. As with all software-based telephony, it also lets your phone number travel with you wherever your Windows client or mobile phone client go.
The Cloud PBX back-end phone system has undergone rapid development to integrate all of the features we typically associate with telephony systems into the team-based operational model that Teams offers. While it is possible to integrate certain existing on-premises telephony solutions with a cloud-based Teams solution, Microsoft’s preferred method is to allow Cloud PBX to provide the entire solution.
For those who want the experience of a desk phone, there are certified Teams phones that run a modified version of the Teams client and can connect to the service to make and receive phone calls as well as join meetings. The phones come in a variety of sizes and feature sets at price points that reflect their capabilities.
Kraft Kennedy has recently cut over to using Teams exclusively for telephony and we’ve found the features to be fully suitable for our needs as a multi-office consulting firm.
