In our Essentials eBook series, we talk about how you can supercharge Microsoft Teams with global telephony to save money and make employees more productive.

I’m here to tell you it’s even easier than you think.

Eliminating complexity

Now, I’m not going to talk about PowerShell scripts or SBC configs because with 8x8 Voice for Microsoft Teams, you don’t need to know how to do those complicated things - we take care of that in the background. Besides, I’m not as knowledgeable about those topics as my expert colleagues. They recently shared their insights, thoughts about Teams trends in this webcast - check it out, especially if you’re planning to add telephony to Teams.

As I described in various posts, if your organization doesn’t need complex telephony features beyond what Microsoft includes with its phone system, then those calling capabilities will do just fine. But, if you need more advanced phone functions or your users need calling plans where Microsoft does not offer its own calling capabilities in a particular country, then a direct routing solution is the way to go.

Simplifying direct routing

With so many direct routing providers promising to “light up” your Teams dial pad, choosing the right one can be overwhelming and, in many cases, complex. Most providers cobble together a solution that includes an SIP trunk provider, a different calling plan, a session border controller (on-premises or in the cloud), and they expect that you have some knowledge of how to configure it all.

8x8 Voice for Microsoft Teams is a cloud-based service that takes away all the complexity of setting up a direct routing integration with Teams. It is also one of the fastest-growing direct routing providers globally, with unlimited calling plans for Teams in 47 countries and full PSTN replacement services in 42 countries.

PSTN calls from Teams

Getting started with 8x8 Voice for Microsoft Teams is easy – not enterprise easy or easy for an engineer easy – it’s one, two, three easy. Customers simply authorize 8x8 to connect to their Microsoft Phone System environment and connect your 8x8 PBX to the Microsoft domain. Typically, the process takes about an hour from start to finish. It also depends on the number of Teams users that need to be added to the 8x8 network. That’s it, and when complete, Teams users can start to make and receive PSTN calls right from their Teams app on the desktop, tablet, or smartphone.

If you’re looking to add PSTN voice services for your Teams users, consider 8x8 Voice for Microsoft Teams. Hundreds of organizations with tens of thousands of users globally rely on 8x8 for advanced communications for Teams. And if your contact center agents want to use Teams and their preferred calling endpoint, take a look at the Microsoft Teams Contact Center page or visit 8x8’s Microsoft Teams certified contact center to learn more. You can even join our live demo to see 8x8 Voice for Microsoft Teams in action.