CxC Connectivity by Convergia

Convergia Cloud Voice for Microsoft Teams: Adding phone calls to Microsoft Teams

CCV-for-Microsoft-Teams

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No collaboration or teamwork tool is complete if one of the team members cannot be called directly by a regular phone. 

 

The needs of calling by phone can respond to different scenarios, from the simple fact of working on the field where the only way to contact the customers is by calling directly by phone. Or, we must invite a client who has not yet implemented Teams to a meeting, and the only way to get her valuable input is to call her. 

 

Convergia Cloud Voice for Microsoft Teams adds to Teams the ability to make phone calls, allowing you to communicate with almost any destination.

 

Requirements to deploy CCV Teams

The first thing you need is to have an Office 365 subscription; without it, you can’t have Teams. Now, the ability to add voice is part of the Office 365 Enterprise-type subscriptions, that is, we need E1, E3 or E5 subscriptions for making phone calls. The E5 subscription includes everything, but with E1 and E3 subscriptions, you need an added license from Teams Voice, which has its own cost.

 

Over the Convergia telephone communications infrastructure we deploy the connection functionality between Office 365 and the telephone network. For that, Convergia must implement in the cloud a device known as an SBC (Session Border Controler). Microsoft Teams, relay the voice to the SBC, and it passes it to Convergia’s infrastructure. From there, the voice may go to an extension, another city, or the other side of the planet.

Voice Features in Microsoft Teams

We can now call and speak directly to another phone with Convergia Cloud Voice for Microsoft Teams. As seen in the following image we have a keyboard to dial within Teams: 

 

In addition to simple dialing, we have more advanced features within Teams. For instance, it’s easy now to start a call with another Team member and add a participant directly by calling his phone number.  The following screen shows that. I was in a call with Pamela and needed to add one or more customers to the conversation, but to contact them, I must call a phone number. 

 

I can add multiple participants to the meeting using the same way. 

 

It’s also possible to make ring the call on several clients at the same time or to forward my call to a pool of clients if I don’t answer the call, that way no communication is lost. Teams can save the call in a voicemail if it’s not answered. Teams will send an email with all the information of the lost call, including the transcript of the call. 

 

All that functionality can be configured directly on the client: 

 

Like any useful phone device with Teams I can blacklist unwanted phone numbers.

Call other extensions and some other possibilities

The call, once in the infrastructure of Convergia, can be routed to an HP-PBX. That way, everyone can be reached by a voice call from Teams. The reverse is also true; we can, from any extension call any Teams client.
With desk and conference phones you can join calls and participate in audio conferences, increasing collaboration and productivity. Having the same Teams UI on desk and conferencing phones delivers a seamless experience.

Teams is a business application

Like any business application, the Teams administration console keeps track of the use of voice resources, success statistics, and problems that have arisen. As well as the reallocation of accounts when there are changes in the company’s staff.
Since everything is centralized and in the Cloud, administrators can manage telephone services from anywhere on the Internet

 

Teams + Voice the winning combination that expands communications

Being able to communicate independently of whether or not the other side has access to a computer facilitates business, the flow of ideas and in general the work between team members. The digital transformation in which many companies around the world have embarked always needs excellent ways of communication. Convergia Cloud Voice Teams allows one of the best collaboration tools to expand its functionality.
Joanna
Author: Joanna

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