Unless you’ve been living under a rock, by now you’ll be aware that Microsoft Teams is one of the most vital business tools for intra-office communications. Though many businesses were using it beforehand, the Covid-19 pandemic and the mass shift to working from home has forced the hand of managers and business owners, necessitating a full-power use of the software’s capability.
Teams is now Microsoft’s biggest-selling product ever. Though many businesses use it primarily for its instant messaging and video conferencing services, the application has some superb uses beyond that. Chief among them is the use of Teams as your Private Branch Exchange (PBX) – your own business telephone system. The Killer App add-in is it can integrate with your existing phone system. Therefore you get all the benefits of Teams with all the benefits of your current phone system.
Consider the possibilities and the benefits:
No expensive office equipment
Buying the hardware for your office PBX can be costly. Estimates vary, but at the top end, you can look at £50 per person. But the PBX system within Microsoft Teams comes as part of the package, not as an extra. So if you’re paying for Teams, you’re already paying for a PBX, at least for intra-office use. Organising external calls – say, to potential sales clients – is also an option with Microsoft Teams, giving you the tools to organise virtual meetings with participants both inside and outside your organisation.
Call your team anywhere
Of course, that expensive hardware you’ve got in your office has been – we’re guessing- sitting unused for at least half the year, and may continue to go unused for the time being. The Teams PBX system allows you to get in touch with your team from anywhere on any device, be it a computer, a mobile device or the physical office phone.
Unified communications
In terms of speed and detail, intra-office communication goes something like this: instant chat, email, phone call, video call – with the former being the quickest and simplest, the latter usually taking longer and requiring more detail. Nobody wants to use a video-call to answer a question that can be answered in one sentence via chat or email. Equally, using chat to discuss elements that would be more efficiently done via phone or video is heavy-handed. Unifying all these communication systems under one branch is ideal for your business – giving you and your employees full control over their comms without the disruption and inefficiency of moving between systems – Zoom for video calls, Slack for instant messaging, then Outlook for emails.
A Single Bill
Finally, using Teams as your PBX system has the added bonus of making tracking bills and overheads that little bit easier, with your intra-office communications systems functioning under one software. Add in the flexibility of outside calls with the add-on, also with Microsoft, and you can see immediately how much of your company’s outgoings are going on telecommunications. You can even use all your free pooled minutes from your existing telephone system / VOIP Supplier with Teams.
Installing and ensuring a functioning and secure PBX system within your Microsoft Teams application is a reasonably simple process. However, it still requires an experienced technical hand – and that’s where we come in at Intalect. Interested in demo-ing your Microsoft Teams PBX? Give us a call.
Compatability
This system Intalect works with will do so on its own.
Or can easily integrate into existing PBX’s such as
FreePBX
Asterix
Sangoma
Yeastar
Avaya Aura
Avaya IP Office
3CX
Panasonic KX-NS and NSX Series
Wildix
Vonage Business Cloud
Mitel MiVoice Business and Office 400
As well as many more.
