A Quick Guide: Navigating Voice Migrations for Enterprise Success

Business owners and IT decision-makers worldwide are understandably impressed with the communication and collaboration features of Microsoft Teams. It’s the most popular conferencing platform in more than 40 countries. With bundled and pay-as-you-go calling plans available from Microsoft and third-party providers, organizations of all sizes are determining if they’re equipped to manage voice migrations for enterprise-level connectivity.

For small- to mid-sized organizations, moving voice communication to Microsoft’s platform is relatively straightforward. Most features can be configured in the Teams Admin Center. Navigating voice migration for mid-to-enterprise level corporations, on the other hand, requires extensive planning.

Rather than struggling through the migration in-house, savvy decision-makers are enhancing their current and future communication needs by investing in enabling Teams for (enterprise) voice managed by a Microsoft-approved service provider.

Teams Voice Migrations for Enterprise Features Managed by a Microsoft Direct Partner

Teams is designed to work seamlessly with other Microsoft applications. Members can join meetings directly from their Outlook calendars, create and manage complex tasks in Microsoft Planner, and work collaboratively in Microsoft 365 applications. With the add-on calling features, your staff will also have access to cloud-hosted voicemail, call transcription, operator connect, and advanced control features, including auto attendants and call queues.

While Teams is impressive, enterprise-level organizations often have more complex requirements and consequently, find the need to enhance the core features to satisfy their needs. Instead of subscribing to Microsoft’s calling plans, they’re integrating Microsoft Teams into a more comprehensive communication solution.

This strategy bridges the gaps between what the platform offers and the features needed to streamline communication and optimize productivity. The following examples illustrate how the advantages of voice integration could be ideal for companies that wish Teams did more.

Enhanced Scalability & Flexibility

Microsoft-approved providers offer flexible, scalable, and highly customized solutions that give businesses far more control over their communication costs. They also have the expertise needed to augment Teams’ basic video conferencing, chat, and collaboration features with robust enterprise voice capabilities, including advanced call routing and queues, intercom capabilities, paging, and disaster recovery.

Advanced Call Center Features

Microsoft Teams does provide a limited number of call center features. However, end users can’t configure call queues or auto attendants without a resource account for each attendant and virtual user’s licensing. With the right provider, your call center attendants can be tasked with everything from forwarding messages and following leads to customer support.

Robust Security Features & Service Uptime

Communication channels in Microsoft Teams are encrypted by default. However, there are still advantages to having the entirety of your communication service integrated into a single platform. With Microsoft Teams integrated into a geo-redundant network with robust backup power systems, the risk of service downtime is minimal. For companies with a global reach, the ability to incorporate SD-WAN technology into the network provides an additional layer of security.

Teams Implementation and Top-Tier Support

Teams voice migrations for enterprises, when enabled by a Microsoft-approved partner, ensure a smooth, efficient transition. In addition, Microsoft partners are well-equipped to customize Teams technology to accommodate unique business needs, including industry-specific security standards.

Decision-makers opting for managed service also have the peace of mind that comes with having an experienced, knowledgeable team in their corner to provide training, support, system-wide security monitoring, and scalable solutions.

How to Ensure a Smooth Voice Migration for Enterprise-Level Organizations

Voice migrations for enterprises with multiple departments, reception areas, or branches spanning several geographic locations is a multi-step process. It requires an experienced IT team familiar with cloud-hosted services and the intricacies of the organization’s current network. Microsoft doesn’t provide the training or the level of support most IT departments need to ensure a smooth transition while navigating the following essentials.

Completing a Migration Readiness Assessment

Legacy business phone systems tend to expand over decades of business growth. Before initiating a successful migration, organizations should conduct a thorough evaluation of their network needs. That evaluation includes any analog fax machines, elevator phones, alarm systems, and after-hours services currently in use.

Related: Can Microsoft Teams Replace Your Phone System?

The personnel responsible for managing the migration also must be aware of any internet configurations that could interrupt (or slow) incoming or outbound calls, including any WAN optimizers or Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryptions.

Designing and Planning Phone System Configurations

Personnel tasked with cloud migration must select the dial plans and phone system configurations of each active user on the account. There are also site configurations, custom IPs, and subnets to consider. Before moving on to the next step, decision-makers should determine who will be their preferred provider of external voice services and connection to the outside world. .

Creating and Configuring Test Sites

Once the initial planning phase is complete, tech teams create a pilot site for several accounts using four to five “fake” telephone numbers in the admin center. This crucial step ensures E911, network settings, network sites, and analytic capabilities for selected services are properly configured.

At this point, many organizations start training their IT teams to track feature changes and begin familiarizing their staff with the many enterprise features included with their cloud-hosted phone service.

Developing a Migration Plan

For businesses with just a few employees in a single location, migrating the entire team in one shot is ideal. Voice migrations for enterprises that staff hundreds of employees, on the other hand, are better handled as a rolling approach. This approach is particularly effective for large organizations because it provides a systematic and organized migration process. The right process facilitates a phased integration, ensuring that each segment of the workforce experiences a smooth transition to the enhanced communication system.

Addressing Concerns Proactively

The end result of a successful migration: Teams members who feel prepared for the transition and pleased with the technical aspects of the services selected for their workplace. IT departments address concerns by proactively speaking with users who were migrated early in the process to help identify any technical issues. Addressing concerns from the beginning ensures that support teams won’t be overwhelmed with help desk requests.

Is Your Enterprise Ready for a Successful Teams Voice Migration?

Microsoft Teams is a powerful collaboration platform with over 300 million monthly active users. Voice migrations for enterprises bring modern business communication essentials to a single platform. Together, Microsoft and their communication partners offer advanced, customizable features for seamless collaboration, cost-effective services, and optimal productivity without altering the way end-users interact with Teams.

BCM One’s standing as a Direct Gold Partner ensures you can count on secure, efficient, end-to-end Teams deployment, enterprise-grade collaboration training, and exemplary support. We work with mid-enterprise, multi-site organizations across numerous industries to develop secure, compliant, cost-effective communication solutions that facilitate collaboration. To learn more about supporting your workforce with voice-enabled Microsoft Teams, contact us today.