Microsoft Teams has quite rightly established itself as a powerful collaboration tool that greatly enhances organizational productivity, particularly in the hybrid workplace.
Thanks to its voice calling functionality, users can make and receive calls directly within the Teams client, allowing organizations to streamline their communication systems and cut the costs associated with traditional phone systems.
However, migrating to Teams voice calling demands meticulous planning and execution to guarantee a seamless shift.
Watch Out for These Pitfalls
In this blog post, we’ll explore the five most common mistakes that organizations make during the migration process to Teams voice calling. Our aim is to help you avoid these pitfalls so you can confidently achieve your migration objectives and reap the many benefits of Teams voice calling.
1
Not Assessing Network Readiness
Because Teams voice calling requires a stable internet connection capable of handling voice and video calls without compromising call quality, the success of your migration is closely tied to the level of preparation that you undertake beforehand. Prior to starting the migration process, it's imperative to conduct a thorough network readiness assessment, which includes evaluating your network's capacity, bandwidth and latency. After completing the assessment, it's vital to make any necessary changes to optimize network performance before you begin the migration process.
2
Not Selecting the Right PSTN Connectivity Method
To make voice calls, you need to connect your Teams deployment to the PSTN. There are three ways to do this, each with its own advantages and disadvantages, and careful consideration is needed since your choice can dramatically impact the success of your migration project:
- Microsoft Calling Plans allows for making and receiving calls directly from Teams, but may not be the most cost-effective option.
- Direct Routing uses a Microsoft-certified session border controller to mediate between your current provider and Teams, offering more flexibility and cost savings.
- Operator Connect lets you choose your preferred operator from a list of qualified providers, giving you phone numbers for users or allowing you to keep your existing ones.
3
Not Thinking About Solution Monitoring and Analytics
End-to-end analytics is an essential element of a successful Teams voice calling deployment. It provides valuable insights that enable you to optimize your communication experience, and should be a priority in your migration plans for three main reasons. Firstly, analytics helps you monitor and measure call quality, enabling you to identify potential issues and take corrective action proactively. Secondly, it allows you to optimize your communications environment by analyzing call data, identifying patterns in call usage and directing calls to the right teams or individuals. Thirdly, it can also highlight areas where additional resources may be needed to improve overall call handling efficiency.
4
Not Considering Other Voice Applications
When migrating to Teams voice calling, it's important to identify the additional voice applications you may need – such as interactions recording, IVR, contact centers and fax servers – and integrate them into your deployment. The goal here is to select applications that will work as seamlessly as possible with each other and with your wider Teams deployment, and also be easy to manage and maintain.
5
Not Dealing with User Management Effectively
Managing user access and permissions for Teams voice calling can be a challenging and time-consuming task. It often requires PowerShell expertise, and IT teams may struggle to keep up with the demands of user management while handling their other day-to-day tasks. Simplifying the management of your Teams deployment can help minimize the effort required for user management and also reduce your IT wage bill.
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The Top 5 Things to Avoid When Migrating to
Microsoft Teams Voice Calling
Now for the RIGHT Way to Do It
Because not every organization has the in-house tech know-how to manage a full Teams voice calling deployment from start to finish, we created AudioCodes Live for Microsoft Teams.
This innovative managed service eliminates the complexity of integrating team collaboration, unified communications and enterprise telephony. We plan the deployment, install the hardware and oversee the entire solution on a day-to-day basis, including Teams tenant and user management, with support given 24/7.
To complete the picture, we also offer business phones, meeting room solutions, interactions recording and our unique Meeting Insights solution, all available on a per-user per-month basis.
