What MSPs Need to Know About Microsoft Teams Calling

Nathan Hill-Haimes

Over the past two years, Microsoft Teams has joined Zoom and other prominent voice over IP (VoIP) services as a household name. It filled a need for thousands of businesses worldwide during the pandemic in a time of crisis, and is still growing its offerings. For this reason, managed service providers must understand the ins and outs of Teams Calling, as it seems set to remain a vital part of company communication and infrastructure for the foreseeable future.

To provide clients with the best service, you need to know the best software for the job, and Teams can meet the criteria for this. Learn more about how Teams Calling can provide a modern solution to your communication needs.

Capabilities of Teams Calling

Teams Calling can perform most tasks required by a company’s communication system with the right plan, but it also has additional features. Teams Calling allows the cloud network to manage voicemail and transfers the audio to the recipient’s email – users can calibrate this using their out-of-office settings.

The service offers plenty of flexibility, with calls able to be routed across the company and across multiple queues. For instance, a person can “park” a call, putting it on hold and creating a unique code that they can later use to return to that call. If someone else is better suited for the call, they can give them the code to handle the call themselves.

• Microsoft Teams uses complex analytics to monitor the system’s performance and quality for each call. It also implements Caller ID, providing as much information as possible about the person on the other end. These functions improve productivity and make it easier to administer communications on the fly.
• To set up Teams Calling, a business must first purchase a phone system license from Microsoft – its Microsoft 365 plan may already include this. After this, calling plans are purchased for each user, as detailed below. You can order phone numbers using Microsoft Teams or port existing phone numbers from the company’s previous provider.

Each number must be associated with a user, with their emergency address as a requirement. Once this is active, and the employee knows their new number, the setup process is complete. They can now use Teams Calling to enhance their productivity and efficiency.

• Consider whether Teams Calling best suits your business, as its features work best in certain circumstances. Microsoft Teams excels with a business that deals with multiple customers and vendors, as many of its features are similar to leased lines and include call routing and call queues.

The security options of Microsoft Teams also make it popular with sensitive and regulated businesses. Any data shared on Teams servers are kept as safe as possible, with authentication and access-control features to protect against data loss and similar issues.

• Two calling plans are available for Teams Calling, Domestic and Domestic & International. As the names indicate, the former is only able to call within the country, while the latter can make international calls. The Domestic & International plan is somewhat more costly but useful if the company has significant dealings overseas.

Companies can purchase plans according to their needs, which grants some flexibility – not every user will have to make international calls, and this function can be reserved for those who need it. Each plan that an organisation purchases will have a set number of minutes based upon the plan’s number of users. If the users collectively exceed this, then Teams will bill the company for the additional minutes.

Microsoft Teams can overhaul a company’s communication infrastructure with a number of benefits, all while being easy to use for admins, MSPs and the average employee.

Nathan Hill-Haimes is co-founder at data network and hosted phone system provider Amvia, a serial telecoms entrepreneur and inbound marketing expert. He works with a portfolio of technology, property and sports investments through his fund Croyde Bay Ventures. You may follow him on LinkedIn or @amviauk on Twitter.