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Teams Collaboration + Avaya Calling = Innovation Without Disruption

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Teams exploded in recent years as companies adopted meeting and collaboration communications solutions en masse, but what about calling? There’s no built-in PSTN calling with the Microsoft 365 E3 Plan, which many organizations leveraged as a subscription freebie. Without some kind of workaround, employees must use a separate desk phone, soft phone, or their personal mobile device to make and take calls. This is an annoyance at best. At worst, it affects productivity, experiences, and revenue. Avaya connects employees (and customers) throughout their journey effortlessly and consistently through whatever digital or voice channels they choose.

Microsoft offers workarounds for enabling calling via Teams, but these options may not be ideal depending on an organization’s needs. For example, you can purchase a calling plan offered by Microsoft to connect to PSTN phone numbers with Microsoft as your provider (at an added cost per user). Or, if you want to keep your preferred operator and contracts or choose a new one from a selection of participating operators, you can buy a calling plan from a participant in the Microsoft Operator Connect Program.

If you want to add calling to Teams using your existing voice infrastructure, Microsoft does offer direct routing via a third-party Microsoft-certified Session Border Controller (SBC). Avaya’s Microsoft-certified SBC provides integration with the direct routing features of Teams so users can seamlessly call anyone from their Teams app, but this is only available under the Microsoft 365 E5 plan.

What if you want to add PSTN calling to Teams by configuring interoperability with your existing telephony equipment and stay on your E3 plan? Avaya’s click-to-call integration only requires Microsoft E3 licensing, giving you the calling functionality you want without added expenses or contract complications. You’ll get the best of both worlds without disrupting what’s already in place. It’s innovation without disruption at its finest.

Our Teams integration options give you the ability to call anyone from your office phone number without adding any existing services to your Microsoft 365 Subscription.

Whether you’re using an Avaya on-premises, hybrid, or full cloud solution, you can maintain business continuity by adding your existing calling solution to Teams with these amazing benefits:

  • Major cost savings, from hundreds to hundreds of thousands per year depending on your organization’s size. Our click-to-call integration saves customers anywhere from $15 to $21 per user per month – it adds up fast! Improve your TCO and avoid disruption to existing on-premises solutions.
  • Consistency and control with existing telephony infrastructure and carrier contracts. You’ll get a pure Teams environment with a fully functioning Avaya phone system behind it. If Teams goes down for any reason, your users can continue with their Avaya applications.
  • Industry-leading reliability with 5-9’s uptimes (5 minutes of outage per year) versus 99.9% uptime with Teams.
  • Teams integration while embracing innovation. Avaya subscription allows on-premises users to integrate their voice with Teams with low monthly or annual payments that unlock rights to the latest software – including all security, compliance, and E911 enhancements unlocked with the latest releases – while maintaining their communications software on-premises with full management control.
  • Seamless and secure work-from-anywhere with a consistent calling experience for all users.

Keep using Teams with the reliability, security, and cost savings of your Avaya voice solution.

Integrating Avaya voice into Teams is right for you if…

  • You currently use Avaya Aura, Avaya IP Office, Avaya Cloud Office, or Avaya Enterprise Cloud
  • You want flexible integration options for both the Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 Plan
  • You want to maintain your Avaya service(s) and contract(s)
  • You want to ensure business continuity by keeping existing softphone and video meeting entitlements
  • You want a native user experience in a pure Teams environment
  • You want to minimize potential downtime or have experienced uptime challenges or outages with Teams
  • You want maximum control over your telephony environment
  • You want to decrease your TCO

Learn more about the specifics of our Teams integration options with this brochure. If you’re ready to start saving and innovating, get in touch with Avaya’s experts here.