In the first edition of this series, we spoke about migration strategies to move from PBX to Microsoft Teams Phone. This second edition will describe the phases of making the move to Teams Phone.
Remote and hybrid working arrangements have made it challenging to maintain personal connections and enable opportunistic problem-solving that often happens in the office. Studies show that voice is the human signal that creates understanding and connection. Calling can help restore connections or build new ones with colleagues and customers.
Modern communications solutions for modern work requirements
With hybrid workspaces split between the office and home, users should be able to use the Microsoft Teams app to place and receive calls from any workplace, on any device, including mobile.
The exponential increase in remote work is forcing businesses to consider evolving calling scenarios. Modern work solutions need to enable modern capabilities and devices, while providing traditional features. This places more pressure on IT budgets and resources. Modern calling solutions must be uncomplicated and cost-effective to ensure widespread adoption.
Microsoft Teams Phone user experience
Because implementation of Microsoft Teams Phone can be complex, a highly specialised skill set is required and involves:
- network remediation
- telephone number provisioning and porting
- device deployment
Most organisations follow a phased approach to implementing Teams Calling while phasing out dependency on the existing PBX system. As the reliance on the PBX system diminishes, the functionality in Teams Calling increases.
Phase 1 – Implement Microsoft Teams
In the first phase of a migration project, the organisation will implement Microsoft Teams only for meetings and collaboration but with no calling features. Users will be able to use Teams to collaborate on content, meetings and Teams to Teams calling. In this phase, the traditional PBX is still the primary telephony service providing Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) calling and local extension dialling. A fair number of organisations are currently in this mode to support traditional contact centres, analogue services, and integrated solutions.
Phase 2 – Begin scaled migration from PBX to Microsoft Teams Phone
The second phase of a Teams implementation extends to Teams Phone with Calling plans and/or Direct Routing. The Operator Connect option closes the gap between Microsoft Calling plans and Direct Routing, allowing businesses to benefit from some of the cost savings that come from Direct Routing while choosing their own carrier. This extends the Teams Phone experience by adding call queues, auto attendant, delegation call controls, dial plans, policies and emergency calling. The organisation is able to provide telephony services to select groups of users during the migration, allowing a phased adoption of the new service.
The traditional PBX still allows separate systems to communicate via the PSTN network and support legacy telephony services during the migration phase.
Phase 3 – Call routing moves to Microsoft Teams Phone
In the third phase, the implementation of Teams Phone takes over the call routing responsibilities from the legacy systems by migrating those services to Teams Phone. The PBX is still in place for legacy integrations that can’t migrate, along with digital and analogue stations during the migration process.
Teams Calling is now able to provide extension dialling to resources remaining on the PBX, and make local PSTN services available for Microsoft Teams. Teams can also provide digital and analogue integrations into legacy systems.
Phase 4 – Microsoft Teams Phone becomes primary telephony service
The fourth and final phase of the adoption is the full implementation of Microsoft Teams Phone. Teams is the primary telephony service providing PSTN calling, local extension dialling, and contact centres while providing support for analogue devices and integrated solutions.
How Zetta improves the user experience while adopting Microsoft Teams Phone
Zetta has the Microsoft Advanced Specialisation for Calling for Microsoft Teams. This is for Microsoft Partners like Zetta who demonstrate deep knowledge, extensive experience, and proven success in deploying and managing the Microsoft 365 Phone System.
The Zetta team has successfully migrated Perth customers from PBX to Microsoft Teams Phone. We can partner with you during a change management project to:
- Determine the best migration path for your organisation
- Develop a migration plan
- Guide you through every phase of the Teams Phone migration process
- Manage the entire migration on your behalf.
How Zetta can help you with all your voice and telephony technology needs
Zetta can also provide a Simtex Microsoft Direct Route SIP Trunk that is usually the missing link between your Microsoft Teams tenancy and PSTN, allowing you to make and receive standard phone calls.
Simtex is a division of Zettagrid that specialises in providing flexible and reliable VoIP solutions for business. Simtex was born out of an early WA-based dial-up internet provider, and now spans the country with a business-grade SIP network and Cloud PBX platform.
If you’d like to discuss the benefits of migrating to Teams Phone or explore what it might look like for your organisation, please reach out to the team at Zetta.
