Microsoft Teams
- & The Elegance of Direct Routing
Designed to change the way that employees from all backgrounds embrace the collaboration environment, Microsoft Teams is your hub for teamwork, which brings together everything a team needs: chat and threaded conversations, meetings and video conferencing, calling, content collaboration with the power of Microsoft 365 applications, and the ability to create and integrate apps and workflows that your business relies on.
With specially designed unified suite of tools Microsoft Teams offers more ways to be a team and simplify your workday.
At its heart, Microsoft Teams is a team collaboration tool. However, it’s also the most popular and highly-adopted tool on the market. So what are the advantages of Microsoft Teams?
Video conferencing
Video conferencing makes meetings more personal and encourages teamwork. Real-time collaboration in Microsoft Teams can help you achieve more together, from wherever you are.
Host secure online meetings with the ability to mute, remove uninvited attendees, and designate presenters and participants. Allow people to join automatically or have them wait in the virtual lobby.
Screen sharing
Even when you’re apart by sharing your screen you can look at content collectively, so everyone can see the same content at the same time and be on the same page.
Whether training a new employee, brainstorming with the digital whiteboard, or presenting at a company-wide town hall, screen sharing improves communication and helps keep meetings focused.
Custom backgrounds
Create the perfect virtual setting by choosing, uploading, or blurring your background. Show or hide what’s around you during video calls to help safeguard your privacy.
Together mode
Digitally sit in a shared background, making it feel like you’re in the same room with everyone else.
File sharing
Easily work on all your documents and share files without ever leaving Teams. Store, share, and edit files within Teams in a familiar experience with built-in access to SharePoint, OneDrive, OneNote, and productivity apps. Boost productivity, increase focus, and streamline collaboration. You can also control what you share, limit who can access, view, or edit files, inside and outside your organisation.
Apps and workflows
Choose from over 600 apps for Teams that help you stay connected, engaged, and productive while working remotely. Streamline tasks and critical business processes by integrating apps and workflows.
Productivity apps
Increase your team’s productivity with workflow automation apps to simplify how work gets done.
Project management apps
Easily navigate complex projects using process automation apps and tools.
Industry-specific apps
Address industry-specific needs with custom-built apps.
Business department apps
Execute everyday responsibilities with job-specific apps.
Market availability
Available in 53 languages and 181 markets. Connect across iOS, Android, Windows, Mac and Linux.
Privacy and security
Now more than ever, people need to know their virtual conversations are private and secure. Collaborate without compromising privacy and security with Microsoft Teams. Meet regulatory, legal, and organisational needs with industry-leading compliance offerings.
Cloud voice is how Microsoft Teams offers private branch exchange capabilities to businesses, and options for connectivity to the Public Switched Telephone Network.
Teams is increasingly becoming the defacto communications application used by SME’s and Enterprises alike. Whilst a vast number of businesses rely on the Teams application every day for IM, video and collaboration, many still run their voice through a separate PBX. For some businesses there may be a good strategic reason why they have decided not to incorporate voice into Teams, however for many the efficiencies gained by having a single communication platform is compelling.
By bringing voice into your Teams application you can call from and to Teams, Outlook, or a mobile device, let others know when you’re available, on a call, or out of the office.
Direct Routing is a Teams feature developed by Microsoft and allows specialised partners like Formation to do the heavy lifting to migrate businesses voice solutions to Teams and provide ongoing support.
A lot of companies assume that if they want to embrace all the benefits of a new collaborative environment, then they need to commit to ripping and replacing their entire system. However, when Microsoft chose to make its collaboration application stand out with call functionality, the company also decided to give businesses more options.
With Microsoft Teams, companies of all sizes and verticals can make, receive, and transfer calls to and from landlines and mobile phones using the public switched telephone network. More importantly, you don’t have to be stuck with the Microsoft Phone System and calling plans if you feel that those strategies aren’t suitable for you. With direct routing, you get to enjoy best-of-breed calling tools that you love and are used to, with the leading collaboration app on the market.
The value of Direct Routing is not just about cost, although it is often a cheaper option than using Microsoft directly for voice connectivity. By opting for Direct Routing you can often avoid complex and disruptive number porting, you can bring your own trunks, or we can provide them. Whilst we host in Azure, we can also separate the voice element from the Microsoft environment and provide local or AWS redundancy in the event of a Teams outage.
Formation were early adopters to Teams, and have also spent many years incorporating voice solutions into Skype for Business and other cloud platforms alike.
With Direct Routing, you can connect your SBC to almost any telephony trunk or interconnect with third-party PSTN equipment. Direct Routing enables you to:
• Use virtually any PSTN trunk with Microsoft Phone System.
• Configure interoperability between customer-owned telephony equipment, such as a third-party private branch exchange (PBX), analog devices, and Microsoft Phone System.
Microsoft also offers all-in-the-cloud voice solutions, such as its Calling Plan. However, a hybrid voice solution might be best for your organisation if:
• Your organisation requires connection to third-party analog devices, contact centres, and so on.
• Your organisation has an existing contract with a PSTN carrier.
Whilst we believe the future for most is likely to be Teams, we also know the feature sets sometimes aren’t suitable for all departments or business functions. Using Direct Routing we can overcome these challenges.
By controlling inbound calls in the cloud we can route to a variety of platforms and provide an integrated user experience. This can be useful if planning a staged migration for sites or users, or if a certain workflow such as a Contact Centre needs to run as a silo application long term.
We can help you to design, install and maintain Microsoft Teams rooms.
In order to achieve greater workplace and business productivity companies invest in collaboration tools such as Microsoft whiteboards for virtual sketching, brainstorming, and other forms of visual communication.
If you plan on setting up Microsoft Teams meeting rooms or huddle rooms for your workers, then you might need an entire room setup, complete with cameras, a display for your teams, and a speakerphone.
Formation Tech can help you to transform meeting spaces ranging from small huddle areas to large conference rooms with a rich, collaborative Teams experience that’s simple to use, deploy, and manage.
Teams is an alternate to a PBX, but is also a progressive platform with its own unique ways of working. A successful voice migration to Teams needs to ensure your users are consulted and taken along on the journey. The end result of having a single platform for all communication channels will bring efficiencies across all areas of the business.
Formation can support you on the whole end to end journey to move your voice to Teams.
As a provider of cloud communications, we not only understand the technical requirements, but more importantly the user requirements.
Microsoft Teams gives today’s businesses the central environment that their teams have been looking for to access truly aligned collaboration and communication services. If you’re ready to reduce the complexity of your communication stack with one of the most comprehensive approaches to unified communications and collaboration on the market, Microsoft Teams and Formation Tech as a business partner could be just what you need.
In the tech space, there’s always a suspicion that your suppliers have hidden incentives. How do you know you’re getting the solution that’s right for you, not them? Formation is entirely independent. We partner with best of breed vendors to architect the perfect set-up for our clients.
We’re interested in how the new model can help you change the way you communicate with clients, colleagues and suppliers.
This is our mission. Unlike traditional managed service providers, we don’t want to merely sell you a subscription. We want to show you how software-based comms can change the way you work.
Obviously, we appreciate that moving to the cloud is a journey for many enterprises. That’s why, with Formation, you can take it one step at a time or as a single migration project.
Get in touch and we’ll tell you more.
GET IN TOUCH SO WE CAN CHAT THROUGH THE SOLUTIONS, ARCHITECTURE AND INTRODUCE THE TEAM.