Digital Transformation is the use of new, fast, and frequently changing digital technology to solve problems. It’s also about making smart choices.
Our thinking is that our partners know the Microsoft suite better than we ever will, so we’re treating Microsoft Teams like any other third-party PBX.
We provide the Session Border Controllers that integrate our VoIP platform with Teams, the configuration and management of the Teams environment are yours to own, creating a great opportunity for you to add value and consequent revenue growth to occur.
This model creates a lot of opportunities for you to build services around Teams Phone. Think design, implementation, training, ongoing support andrecordings of voice messages, with Lightwire only providing a smaller (yet crucial) component of a far more extensive offering.
Here is a summary of the key things you should be focusing on as an MSP:
Scope work
Spending some time with your customer discovering how they use their current phone system is a critical part of any phone migration project.
Often the client’s calls flows and overall design haven’t been reviewed for years and are far from optimal. However, there is so much opportunity with Teams Phone to improve the way people work and interact with their clients and co-workers.
One of the key things you may have picked up is that a move to Teams Phone will involve Microsoft licencing changes for some.
When conducting your scope, it’s a great opportunity to see what other services and value you could provide, as that may offset some of the costs in licencing.
While scoping the move to Teams Phone, consider how licence changes could further enhance the experience or security and tie in with your other offerings to drive value and profitability further.
Take an E5 licence; it offers many security, threat, identity and compliance management tools. The identity and access management functions included in an E5 licence could also address concerns about securing the phone system through the Risk-based Conditional Access policies you could implement.
When scoping, you’ll need to work out how the customer is currently using their phones. Likely, smaller businesses may not have an Auto Attendant functionality at present, and this concept is unfamiliar to them. This alone creates an excellent opportunity for you to educate them on new advanced functions during this phase of your project, deepening the trust you build as their advisor.
Design
When designing the Auto Attendants and Calling Queues, create easy to understand documentation for the customer.
A call flow diagram created in Visio is a great way to visually represent the design for users who have perhaps previously not had an Auto Attendant/IVR in the past or call queues.
We recommend having the existing call flows documented and reviewed alongside the proposed call flow so you can ensure all functionality is addressed, and those documents can then be distributed to stakeholders for review and, all going to plan, buy-in.
This leads to accurate handover of documentation at the completion of a project, as all changes will have been identified prior.
functionality is addressed, and those documents can then be distributed to stakeholders for review and, all going to plan, buy-in.
This leads to accurate handover of documentation at the completion of a project, as all changes will have been identified prior.
Ongoing support & feature releases
Ongoing support and management of Teams Phone functions will need someone to ensure business hour calling schedules are adapted as holidays and business hours change.
The provisioning of new users and training them on the system, along with any changes to Auto Attendants, Calling Queues and membership groups as people move around and/or teams sizes change, will require a solid process to manage.
With all Microsoft products, plenty of opportunities exist for continuous training and feature releases which you can apply to the services you have delivered to your clients.
Keep an eye on the Microsoft product roadmap website to stay up to date with the latest additions to Teams Phone and if you’re looking to upskill ahead of rolling out Teams, or more specifically Teams Phone, check out the Microsoft IT Admin Readiness guide for Direct routing
Implementation
Implementing a new phone system is an excellent opportunity to run a few cleanup projects for your customers. A few quick ideas we have for you while you remove the old desk phones are:
- Tidy up all the cabling under the desk
- Replace cat5 and damaged cables
- E-recycle the old phones
- Train the user on the new phone system
- Deploy a Microsoft SIP Gateway. This lets you reuse any compatible SIP devices with Teams and extend the clients investment in existing hardware.
Get the free eBook that walks you through all of Teams Phone without the sales pitch. No forms, no spam, no cold calls. The Teams Phone Playbook is 100% free.
