Operate from anywhere Microsoft Teams integration changes the game.

Microsoft Teams and the operate-from-anywhere concept are inextricably linked. This is important at a time when organizations are working to break down communications silos and cut costs while boosting employee productivity and customer experience. In short, they want to keep their business successful and resilient, even in the face of future change.

In The new corporate imperative, we claim that convergence is coming. It’s true, and application and services integration will enable the next generation of unified communications. Point solutions just for contact centers or the office are going away.

For a deeper dive on Microsoft Teams, read our dedicated eBook, Connect Everywhere.

So in this light, enabling customers to operate from anywhere means adding to Teams’ goodness...giving it superpowers to provide users even more flexibility and capabilities like analytics and unlimited, global calling plans without interfering with or disrupting the familiar Teams interface. We see opportunities to make Teams more valuable in the contact center.

Ultimately, solving customers’ communications challenges using their ideal mix of 8x8 X Series and Microsoft Teams is the heart of operate from anywhere.

Adopting a single solution with Teams and 8x8 X Series allows organizations to meet the needs of individual business units or businesses, in industries like manufacturing and health care, that have unique requirements. There are numerous examples of where 8x8 and Teams are better together:

• Phones on a plant floor or in a medical facility may not have an email address associated with them — 8x8 supports these devices
• Switchboard services is an 8x8 strength that improves call routing to Teams’ users
• Business continuity — Large organizations are concerned about recovery and resiliency as well as uptime, security and globalization
• Reporting and analytics — 8x8 allows deep levels of reporting and insights of calls made within Teams

Oisin Glynn and Thomas Croft are two top 8x8 unified communications experts who speak with organizations every day about their communications concerns.

Croft says, “Teams comes up in every conversation, and then we educate clients about how they can extend the value of it in their organization. Frequently, they are not asking us to replace Teams, rather they want us to add more value on top of it. This could be adding contact center capabilities or leveraging native business app integrations like CRM. IT leaders are dealing with added pressures of having to serve a virtualized workforce on top of enhanced competition in an uncertain economic climate.”

A surprising thing we found, Croft adds,“is that although use cases may be different, business size does not limit the value of combining Teams and 8x8 X Series. There is something there for everyone.”

Glynn says, “Teams has become a destination app. It used to be that the first thing you would do in the morning would be to check Outlook. Now, lots of people check Teams first. Organizations are tapping into that popularity but also want to make sure that all their employees can message each other and have shared presence, things like that.

“Uniting communications services across an entire organization offers many benefits today, but we are still moving closer to a Lord of the Rings-style...One communications service to rule them all. The technology is advancing every day. Businesses should review the latest possibilities with their technology advisors.”

8x8 will soon be releasing original research about IT decision maker attitudes about Teams. Here is a sneak peek at the results with three findings:

• 80% of respondents indicated that they are somewhat likely or extremely likely to integrate Microsoft Teams with their existing or different 3rd-party telephony provider
• 91% of respondents somewhat agree or strongly agree that “It is important my organization has a unified communications strategy between its contact center and the rest of the organization
• Device reports, trends analysis and custom dashboards are the features that had received the most extremely interested votes among features they would be interested in if they were available through Microsoft Teams

Products like 8x8 X Series and Voice for Teams do not have to be Microsoft Teams replacements. Teams represents a vital component of operate from anywhere. Services like Voice for Teams extend Teams’ value by adding new functionality and efficiencies.

Helpful Resources

Learn more about 8x8 Voice for Microsoft Teams

Case Study: Ghost Enterprises wins back business, thanks to 8x8 Voice for Microsoft Teams

Video: Operate From Anywhere

Article: 5 Keys to UC Success

Chapter four covers the ROI of cloud communications and provides tips on making the business case for moving away from legacy, on-premises-based systems.