In a move designed to deliver a completely integrated unified communication solution, Vox, through its Braintree consulting and integration division, has introduced Microsoft TeamsVOICE, bringing phone calling to the Microsoft Teams platform.

“With this new feature, Microsoft 365 will become the unified communication environment of choice for organisations, irrespective of size or industry sector. It completes the digital telephony value chain delivered by Vox that includes connectivity, break-out access, and software licensing across a range of innovative cloud services,” says Heath Huxtable, Executive Head of Braintree by Vox.

According to a study done by Forrester by 2023, 40% of new enterprise telephony purchases will be based on a cloud office suite. Furthermore, the Teams Calling environment provided through the Microsoft 365 value proposition is predicted to result in a return on investment of 261% over a three-year period.

A rapidly evolving market

“The recent focus on remote working will only accelerate this as more companies realise the importance of empowering their employees with the solutions required to become digitally-led in a rapidly evolving market. Prior to this, people might have felt obliged to spend time in the office just to have access to their business landline.

However, with TeamsVOICE it is now a matter of simply connecting your Bluetooth headset or handset into a computer or installing an app on a smartphone and having all the basic functionality of a PBX. You can receive a call, make a call, put a call on hold, qualify a call, transfer a call, record a message and play music when a call is put on hold”, adds Huxtable.

Such has the impact of the pandemic been on remote working, that Microsoft Teams grew from 32 million users to more than 75 million in a three-month period.

Microsoft continues to add new features in Teams that make virtual interactions more natural, more engaging, and ultimately, more human.

“This reflects the importance of unified communication in business today. But TeamsVOICE does not only cater to phone calls, but it also supports the receiving of faxes (that are automatically converted to PDF documents within Teams). Companies can easily integrate TeamsVOICE into their contact centres and still use their existing telephony investments,” says  Huxtable.

Digitally-enhanced engagement

TeamsVOICE facilitates making calls from anywhere in the world using any smart device. It breaks the shackles of on-premise PBX solutions and enables companies to engage with customers in a more digitally-enhanced way.

Being built on Microsoft technology ensures that security remains a critical component to meet all compliance requirements, essential at a time when the Protection of Personal Information Act (Popi) has come into effect.

“Vox provides organisations with a number of cost-effective call rates that scale according to the number of licences. Using Teams Voice, companies can save up to 20% on their monthly telephone bills, a significant cost during these uncertain economic times. We have now put in place the final piece of the unified communication puzzle to realise a technology vision that has been promised to the world more than two decades ago,” concludes Huxtable.