Overcoming common myths about Teams: what can it really do for your organization?

What’s stopping your organization from reaping the full benefits of Teams as a comprehensive calling solution?

Teams can greatly improve the productivity of internal communications and collaboration.

But unfortunately, many businesses are still convinced that Teams can’t support professional telephone systems for external contact as well.

In this newsletter, we look at common misconceptions that keep organizations from migrating their phone system to a modern, Teams-based upgrade.

As we’ll see, this strategic move can achieve a lot – when it’s empowered with the right technologies.?

“Teams doesn’t offer the functionalities needed”

Most organizations realize that a simple Teams calling plan can be very cost effective – partly because Teams is already part of their Microsoft 365 subscription.

However, it lacks key functionalities such as advanced queuing, interactive voice response (IVR), and detailed insights.??

?Once organizations realize this, they start to look at the options for third-party solutions – and there are a lot of them out there.

?Although these solutions can offer advanced telephony functionalities, they frequently come at a substantial cost, and they don’t make the most of Teams’ native capabilities either.

So many organizations are faced with the dilemma of having either an overpowered solution that costs too much, or an underpowered one.

But this is a false ‘binary choice’.?

There are, in fact, many ways to empower Teams without necessarily requiring a full contact center.

And, even when you do require the full functionality of a Teams contact center, you don’t need to be restricted by costly and inflexible solutions to get it.

“Can a Teams telephone system really save money?”

?Some of the biggest savings from Teams calling come from abandoning costly on-premise PBX/PSTN infrastructure, and all the maintenance and support this requires. Then you have the advantage of favorable calling rates.

But wait - what about the licensing costs for add-ons like Teams Phone?

As soon as you start adding on licenses for outbound calls and call-forwarding, the costs start to mount. This can leave you thinking that it’s less cost-effective than you first thought.

?Ok - it’s a reasonable assumption - but it ignores the possibility of addressing this need with highly competitive modular services. One example of this is the CallTo365 Phone app, which allows you to make outbound calls at a far lower cost.

And you also don’t need the Teams Phone Standard add-on licenses to provide PBX functionality either.?

There are more options than you might realize.

“Isn’t a CRM integration costly?”

One of the great things about Teams is that it enables the possibility for integrating with numerous business resources and third-party systems, including your ‘crown jewels’- your CRM.

By integrating data from your CRM into the Teams client, you have a clear overview of key information as soon as you pick up a call.

But what about the cost of this??

And how much time does it take to build the integration?

Uncertainty over this issue can prevent businesses from making Teams into a powerful tool for customer engagement – and it’s a totally unnecessary delay.

At CallTo365, we offer an exhaustive range of integrations for CRMs (including ones we don’t list on the website). These are ready to use, and secure.?

Of course, we’re not the only ones to offer CRM integrations for Teams, but our modular and flexible services are practically unique in a market that’s largely dominated by prescriptive and inflexible Teams solutions.

We believe that our approach gives more choice and freedom over how you want your solution to work, without vendor lock-in, high costs, or restrictive plans.?

Every scale of organization should be able to benefit from this modern methodology.?

What’s holding your organization back?

These are just a handful of the most common myths about what is (or isn’t) possible with Teams as a telephony or contact solution.

And there are plenty more we haven’t addressed here, too.

For example, the ‘difficulty’ of combining multiple channels like WhatsApp, phone, and webchats. Or using AI to increase productivity with intelligent automation and seamless data flows.?

All these are possible – and much more besides.

Indeed, the possibilities of Teams are almost limitless. But you need to know how to unlock them, using the best technologies and reliable partners. Now’s your chance to get answers.

?Join our upcoming webinar with Arcus IT on October 15th. We’ll discuss common myths like those above, and answer your questions too – so we can uncover the true potential of Teams for your organization.

?

________________

CallTo365 is a leading light in enterprise telephony, offering an end-to-end service for everything Teams Calling. With modular services, flexible contracts, and an automated delivery pipeline - we’ve taken care of all the complex parts of telephony to make it easier for organizations to gain the benefits of the most modern telephony solutions. Our expertise can become your strength – get in touch to learn more.

?