How MSPs Are Adding a Voice Solution to Microsoft Teams

Many organizations that adopt Microsoft Teams plan on using the service for its message, video, and phone capabilities. It may come as a surprise, then, to discover that calling capabilities are only included with a Microsoft 365 E5 license. This leaves organizations with an E1 or E3 license to consider whether to pay for the upgrade to an E5 or Teams Phone license or to seek a more cost-effective solution.

The data is clear on how organizations are approaching this: a study from Cavell Research Group discovered that 85% of Microsoft Teams voice users leverage a third-party UCaaS provider instead of using a Microsoft Calling Plan. Most cite a few common reasons why they search for a value-added service:

• Return on investment: Only 8% of Microsoft 365 customers choose an E5 license. However, organizations without an E5 license must pay an additional fee to Microsoft to obtain calling capabilities. When balancing the added cost of the upcharge to the E5 or Teams Phone license with the value of the Microsoft calling service, many organizations don’t find the investment worthwhile.
  A lot of NXTSYS Partners find that they can leverage a provider like RingCentral for Microsoft Teams for similar costs to deploying a native Microsoft calling plan.
• Advanced calling use cases: Some employees just need a dial tone to place and receive calls. Others need more advanced capabilities. Receptionists, sales people, support staff, and others rely on capabilities like CRM integrations, custom IVR, and a receptionist console. Many organizations find Microsoft’s calling capabilities are limiting and don’t meet the demands of phone power users.
• Reliability: Microsoft's Service Level Agreement (SLA) for Teams allows for more than 52 minutes of downtime per year. However, Teams experienced more than seven hours of outages by early February 2023, exceeding their annual downtime SLA by a factor of nearly eight just a few weeks into the year.
• International coverage: For multinational organizations, Teams may not provide calling coverage to countries where they do business. This forces them to take on another phone provider for international calls.
• Contact Center integration: Microsoft doesn’t offer a Contact Center solution, leaving organizations to find a third party solution to integrate with Teams.
• Integrations: Teams is well-known for its communications capabilities. But most organizations rely on apps outside the Microsoft 365 ecosystem to run their businesses. Teams may not provide integrations that optimize workflows, forcing context switching and lost productivity.
• Advanced analytics: Microsoft Teams offers basic adoption and usage and quality of service reporting. For advanced analytics, organizations will need to buy a costly PowerBI license. Additionally, they’ll need to hire an expert to create, manage, and distribute reports.

Teams Direct

You must purchase a Microsoft calling license subscription (not commissionable), and an individual Microsoft Calling Plan for Teams for every user.

You'll be responsible for the system design, configurations, deployment and ongoing management of the Microsoft Teams add-on license for each user in the organization.

3rd Party UCaaS Provider ^{MSP preferred}

Utilizing a UCaaS provider that integrates with Microsoft Teams can create a superior experience for many customers, providing the flexibility and capabilities to meet their needs and budgets.

The 3rd party provider will be responsible for the licensing, system design, configurations, deployment and ongoing management of each user in the organization.

Teams direct routing or seamlessly add the 3rd party provider's embedded app (MSP preferred) to the native Teams app. The flexibility to choose between deployment options empowers your customers to pick what fits their work style, technology strategy, and budget.

Direct Routing

Get the most native experience for calling by choosing a phone system plan to take over the back-end telephony capabilities. This solution enables the Teams calling experience with a provider's cloud PBX solution, all without leaving the Teams interface.

This solution is ideal for organizations that aim to:

• depend on a provider’s UCaaS to power their calling
• deliver a native app experience for messaging, phone, and video to their end users
• have budget for the added cost of an E5/phone system plan and Teams Phone license (Microsoft calling license required)

Pictured: RingCentral for Teams – Direct Routing

Embedded App in Teams

A 3rd party provider's Teams embedded app enables calling from the Teams app to both internal extensions and external numbers. It’s the simplest way to supercharge the phone experience for both end users and IT admins without having to deploy a new app to end users. Most importantly, there’s no need for an added Microsoft calling or E5 license to capture this value.

This solution is ideal for organizations that want to:

• leverage a provider’s superior telephony while maximizing the value of their Teams investment
• does not required installation of provider's client on desktop (app embeds directly in Teams)
• no added costs of Microsoft calling license (not needed)

Image: RingCentral for Teams – Embedded App

With the provider's Teams embedded app, users access an icon presented in Microsoft Teams. They can then place and receive calls, access voicemails and voicemail transcriptions, and send or receive an SMS or fax, along with other enhanced features. These tools fill critical gaps in Microsoft Teams, transforming it from messaging and video meeting tool to a communications powerhouse. This approach is also a money saver, as it doesn’t require the added cost of a Teams Phone or E5 license.