2020 was a challenging year from a communication and collaboration standpoint as IT and telecoms managers had to move fast to transition end-users from the office to working from home.
Microsoft Teams is fast becoming the default platform for organizations world-wide to support their internal video conferencing and communication needs. However, the majority of Microsoft users do not deploy Teams in isolation. Many companies require multiple UC solutions in order to meet the needs of all their end-users, specifically for those with external communication requirements (communicating and collaborating with people from outside their own company).
As enterprises shape sustainable remote-ready strategies, they’re pairing the software stack down to tried and tested solutions that offer the exact combination of features they need to be productive and effective.
Telecoms and IT managers are shifting their focus from supporting a working from home environment to a hybrid working environment as end users start to work from the office as well as from home. The majority of MS Teams deployments do not have the ability to dial out to external parties such as customers, suppliers and partners. As well as consolidating their UCaaS environment to one single vendor, IT are also tasked with unifying their end user’s internal and external calling experience.
Bringing the best services together, to craft a bespoke solution
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Sion Lewis[/caption]
As Sion Lewis, VP & Managing Director, EMEA at LogMeIn, explained: The gap in MS Teams services for external calling was highlighted during the pandemic as end users relied on their personal mobiles and landlines to make calls as they worked from home. “ A disjointed calling experience made it challenging to maintain the same level of professionalism that end-users had when using their desk phones in the office” Lewis noted, as well as simply making it harder to reach people, it was clear that end-users needed a more unified calling experience.
With the new hybrid world, it is key to have the same calling experience whether users are in the office or working from home.
“GoToConnect bridges the external communications gap for MS Teams with external calling as well as full contact centre capabilities. We’re also best of breed when it comes to webinars for online events, which really sets us apart from other UCaaS vendors as IT move towards UC vendor consolidation”
Making Teams even better
“GoToConnect offers 99.99% availability with video conferencing capability. We offer MS Teams users a reliable and redundant back-up solution when MS experiences an outage - which has been a regular occurrence in the recent months’.
“When we integrate GoToConnect with Microsoft Teams, it's one interface for the end-user. We also have seamless integration with Microsoft Outlook and third-party apps like Salesforce, Google Zendesk. Internal and external communication should be fluid and easy,” Lewis continued. “Integrating GoToConnect provides a native calling experience within MS Teams, but with enhanced functionality from faxing to advanced IVR functions to contact center capabilities with advanced analytics.”
