Royal Academy of Engineering
Case Study
Voice enabling Microsoft Teams
"Formation made our transition to voice enabling Teams a simple one. It’s saved us money, removed the heavy lifting and our staff now have access to voice within the Teams app."
Executive Summary
The Royal Academy of Engineering is a charity that harnesses the power of engineering to build a sustainable society and an inclusive economy that works for everyone.
With the rapid adoption of Microsoft Teams by employees and demand for remote and flexible working brought about the Global Covid 19 Pandemic, Formation teamed up with the Academy to unlock the voice calling capabilities of Teams using Direct routing by allowing external calling and phone user functionality for its users from the Teams applications (Desktop and Mobile devices).
Challenges
The Academy had several challenges with its existing system. For starters, the very old on-premise kit was expensive to maintain and lacked any modern telephony functionality. Remote working was unavailable and maintaining ISDN meant it offered a very rigid and poor performing platform.
There was no managed service to speak of.
Academy’s existing platform could not offer flexible working capabilities, a key requirement for them in order to stay ahead of their competition and operate during the pandemic.
"Our users were already well used to Teams as a collaboration tool. Formation took that one step further by providing the voice integration and in doing so helped us take advantage of the full Teams stack."
How Microsoft Teams Helped
The Academy offers an important service for the engineering community – they need to maintain and offer consistent communications, support and services to their Fellows. They needed to create a “modern, attractive workplace which allows people to work in a way that suits them best. Formation helped the Academy accomplish this to create a truly ‘hybrid’ office with tech enabling teams to collaborate internally whilst communicating with customers externally. From anywhere, on any device and delivered within a managed service on a platform that could allow the Academy to scale up and down during seasonal peaks.
Results, Return on Investment and Future Plans
The Academy’s new voice-enabled Microsoft Teams solution offers them a truly connected workforce. One that is highly collaborative when it needs to be, but one that also lets the task at hand dictate where the individual chooses to work. Unshackling users from their desks and unleashing the Academy team’s full potential with reports of increased productivity.
Testimonial
“Our existing phone system lacked any modern functionality and being end of life it was expensive to maintain. We’d already deployed Microsoft Teams internally so integrating the voice felt like a natural route to take. Formation Tech have managed that transition for us seamlessly and in doing so they have provided us with access to the full Teams stack, connecting our workforce in a way that truly modernises how we communicate regardless of location and device.”
What people are saying
