What's Next for the Microsoft Teams WFH Experience?

WFH buyers need better Teams audio and devices as AudioCodes expands Microsoft Teams deskphones, C450HD trials and C470HD bundles. Published on UC Today.

Ian Taylor

Microsoft Teams work-from-home experience future

With the number of people who work from home on a steady rise, largely due to the Coronavirus pandemic, Andy Elliot, VP Marketing EMEA, AudioCodes, said collaboration offerings like Microsoft Teams, paired with integrated Teams features on deskphones are enhancing the home working experience.

"The two play key roles in WFH and AudioCodes is at the center of helping our customers through this challenge"

According to Elliot, as working from home replaces the office environment for many employees, the desire to recreate a familiar working experience remains at the forefront of their needs. "Desk phones have become more commonplace in home offices too," he said, “They can run on WiFi, so no cabling is required, and they provide high-quality audio for calls as well as allow users to join a Teams conference call with a single touch - leaving their laptop free for other tasks.”

[caption id="attachment_25264" align="alignright" width="150"] Andy Elliot[/caption]

Devices are key to the Teams user experience, which is why, he said, that AudioCodes is running a promotion to offer enterprise customers a C450HD Teams phone to try free of charge through December 31, 2020. The AudioCodes C450HD, much like its range of native Microsoft Teams phones and room solutions, makes for seamless integration with Microsoft Teams.

Elliot also said that AudioCodes will introduce more bundled packages for its brand new C470HD Teams phone, too. "Our C470HD Teams phone is geared toward executive business phone users." I learned even more about the C470HD, which is a full touch screen device with a 5.5" color screen that interacts with the onboard Microsoft Teams client.

It supports WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, and is available as a part of the company's managed IP phone solution for lifecycle management. Elliot said that AudioCodes wanted to make the Teams WFH experience felt as it would in an office, which is what prompted AudioCodes to package the C470HD (pictured, above) Teams phone with an HD camera to enhance the integrated collaboration experience.

Though Microsoft introduced a series of low-cost phones earlier this year, Elliot said there is still a market for those looking for more enhanced experiences. It merely boils down to budget and the quality of experience they want to have. He noted - AudioCodes covers the entire spectrum from entry to executive-level phones for Microsoft Teams.

This strategy makes sense given that Microsoft Teams continues to dominate the work from the home market, while the likes of Zoom and Slack hold their weight in the market as well. When it comes to user and customer experience, Microsoft Teams has pretty much figured that out, though. AudioCodes views itself as an enhancer of Microsoft's abilities - and there is a market for that, with Microsoft Teams recently reporting having over 115 million daily active users.

We can expect that number to grow as companies further realize the value that team collaboration solutions can bring to employees on a global scale. In the end, like most things nowadays, it comes down to user expectations and the experiences they hope to foster. If organizations want employees to have the best experiences and to be as productive working from home as they are in an office, they will invest more to ensure that that is a possibility.

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