Remote working has been on the rise for some time, but the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated this trend. A recent survey conducted by 451 Research found that 67% of organisations expect remote working policies to remain in place either permanently or for the long-term. Many large international companies are considering closing some of their office locations and shifting to a permanent remote working model. Great communication has always been at the heart of successful organisations, and in the new normal, having the right technology to support effective collaboration has never been more important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the last few months we\u2019ve seen rapid growth in the use of\nMicrosoft Teams, with daily active users rising by 70% to 75 million<\/a>. At present it is used mainly for internal\ncollaboration, with few firms using Teams for external communication. However, this\nis expected to change over the next two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Microsoft Phone System<\/a> turns Teams into a full enterprise telephony solution. Users can make and receive external calls directly from Teams on any device from anywhere in the world. Microsoft\u2019s own Calling Plans<\/a> offer a quick and easy way for smaller firms to connect to the PSTN network, but larger firms typically use a third-party managed service provider. This approach, called \u2018Direct Routing\u2019, offers greater flexibility, wider geographic coverage, lower rates and increased levels of support. Industry analysts forecast that by 2022, as many as 90% of large enterprises using Teams for telephony will use Direct Routing for PSTN connectivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While large enterprises typically maintain a consistent set of IT solutions for all users globally, telephony is often the exception. It\u2019s common to find a disparate range of PBX equipment across offices, and a different carrier in each country. By moving telephony into the cloud, businesses can standardise their approach across all offices, leading to reduced complexity and cost, and improved control, flexibility and compliance. Specific benefits include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n By using Microsoft cloud telephony for voice calling, users are able to communicate and collaborate more effectively when working remotely. Specific benefits include:<\/p>\n\n\n\nMicrosoft cloud telephony benefits for IT teams and users<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
A fully managed cloud telephony solution <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n