Microsoft Teams Calling: Unified Communications

Microsoft Teams has become almost synonymous with how businesses communicate and collaborate between staff. It’s a network encompassing all departments and all levels of your team – where the day gets organised, meetings happen, and documents are worked on.

What about external business communications? Can you dial out to external mobile and landline numbers using Microsoft Teams?

You can, with a cloud-based phone service called Microsoft Teams Calling.

What is Microsoft Teams Calling?

Microsoft Teams Calling takes the Teams platform that you use for internal communications and supercharges it with a full business phone system. You can make calls to phone numbers within Australia and internationally and also receive calls coming in from outside the business… all done through the Microsoft Teams app.

Teams Calling creates a consistent communication experience that removes any need to switch between desk phones, softphones or meeting apps. It’s a simple way for businesses to modernise and manage how they communicate both internally and externally.

How External Calling Works

Your standard Teams app is perfect for internal calling and meetings, but if you’re going to place a call to an external number, you need a connection to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). This is what Teams Calling brings to the platform, and it does this in one of three ways:

Internal calls in Teams work immediately. External calling requires a connection to the public phone network. There are three ways to do that.

Microsoft Calling Plans: Under this setup Microsoft becomes your phone provider who connects you to the PSTN. Pricing is simple and inclusions are clear, which helps make this a favourite option amongst Aussie businesses.

Direct Routing: This is a flexible option where you can keep your existing carriers or SIP trunks. Businesses with complex call flows, such as a telesales centre, or those with specific compliance requirements often make use of direct routing.

Operator Connect: A certified telecom provider manages your numbers while you control everything inside Teams. Reliable and low-maintenance, this is well-suited to growing businesses.

Why Businesses Are Turning to Teams Calling

The rise of remote work has changed how businesses need to communicate. With staff working from home, from different sites, in the office, internationally or interstate, having a phone number tied to a single desk just doesn’t cut it anymore.

Teams Calling gives your staff one business number that follows them everywhere. They can answer calls on their laptop, mobile or a certified desk phone. They can jump from a call straight into a meeting without switching platforms.

There is also the challenge of older PBX systems. Many are reaching end of life or need constant maintenance. Support gets expensive, and parts harder to find as the hardware becomes dated. With Teams Calling, everything is in the cloud. Updates happen seamlessly, new staff can be easily onboarded and your business can scale as fast as it wants to.

Businesses are also attracted to the cost consolidation of having internal and external communications within one platform. You’re not paying for the same features twice, making budgeting simpler.

Teams Calling Features

What we love about Teams calling is its practicality. It seamlessly integrates with your existing Teams App and the rest of your Microsoft 365 stack, bringing with it a bunch of features to improve how you communicate with external parties. If you use Microsoft 365 in your business, your team

Here are some of those features:

Easy integration: If you use Microsoft 365 in your business, your team already knows how to use Teams.  There is very little training or adaptation – Teams Calling integrates into your current use of the Teams suite.

Reliable call handling: Call holding, forwarding and transferring helps staff connect the external call to the right person with ease.

Auto attendants and call queues: Guided menus and call queues help customers reach the right person faster. Additionally, high call volumes are managed efficiently.

Smarter voicemail: Voicemail transcriptions add another layer of practicality to your phone system.

Compliance call recording: Certified add-ons support compliant automatic call recording when your industry or workflow requires it, such as in the healthcare industry. Manual call recording can also be initiated if a conversation requires it.

Teams Calling Devices and Hardware

If you’re attached to a desk phone setup you can make use of certain models that are certified for use with Teams Calling. There are also conference phones and speaker phones for meeting rooms and headsets for open-plan offices. Your team can mix and match whatever fits their workflow.

If you have a very mobile team, they might only need to go down the softphone route. If everybody is a bit more stationary or you have a busy reception area, physical handset can still be an option.

This kind of flexibility makes rollout easier. You can modernise hardware at your own pace without having to replace everything at once.

The Teams Calling Setup

Getting Teams Calling running is a structured process that an organisation like SmileTel is able to guide you through. Broken down into basic steps, the setup process would look like this:

Step 1: Review the current phone environment

Look at extensions, call flows and any special routing requirements that would need to be integrated into the Teams Calling setup.

Step 2: Select licences and connectivity

Choosing the licensing model and connectivity setup, based on the needs of your business. This is where you need to think about whether Calling Plans, Operator Connect or Direct Routing is right for your business.

Step 3: Port or assign numbers

If you want to keep your existing business numbers they need to be ported into Teams, and any new ones required need to be allocated.

Step 4: Configure users and call flows

Set up policies, queues, auto attendants and permissions inside the Teams admin centre.

Step 5: Testing and rollout

Stable and solid call quality is the call, which may take a bit of testing and adjusting to achieve. Staff need to be notified and trained about the new external calling process too. The switchover needs to come with minimal disruption.

Where Teams Calling Fits in Real Australian Businesses

Many businesses across a wide range of industries are adopting Teams Calling because it suits modern workflows. It may be a touch more expensive than traditional VOIP solutions, but there’s the benefit of countless add-ons to provide reporting and call flow insights. Plus, growth-focused Australian businesses love that it’s a scalable solution.

Here are some examples of how it fits into the Australian business landscape:

Multi-site and distributed teams

Retailers, franchise groups and large organisations need consistent communication across multiple locations. Teams Calling provides that.

Mobile and field-based staff

Trades, real estate agents and service teams benefit from a business number that follows them everywhere.

Professional services

Law firms, accounting practices and consulting teams like the reliability and advanced features of Teams Calling.

Health and Medical

Reception teams can manage call queues, transfers and appointment-related communication more easily.

Remote and regional operations

Companies supporting mining, agriculture or remote sites can keep teams connected without relying on office-bound systems.

How SmileTel Supports Your Teams Calling Journey

Setting Teams Calling up correctly doesn’t just happen. It takes knowledge and experience to get it done right and ensure your switch over to the cloud-based external calling system is a seamless one.

SmileTel is here to guide you through this process. We help you choose the right licensing, connection method and hardware (if required). We manage number porting, configuration and user setup so the change is simple for your staff. Any adjustments and troubleshooting will be done by qualified professionals, saving you the unnecessary headache of trying to figure it out yourself.

Once you’re all set up, we’ll be there to support you, handle updates and onboard staff as your business grows.

With SmileTel and Teams Calling, there’s no unnecessary complexity. Just a reliable and modern communication system that fits how your business operates.

Get in touch for more information today.