Virtual PBX and Microsoft Teams. The definitive integration in communications

Microsoft Teams is the communication platform released by the giant technology company in 2016, which has been gaining followers by huge strides in lately, leaving behind other more common tools.

This element, included in most Microsoft 365 and Office 365 packs, now has a free version containing its main functionalities.

The popularity of Microsoft Teams in recent years is primarily due to its versatility and wide range of services. It is a unified communication and collaboration platform that combines chat, video meetings, file storage and integration of applications.

This last characteristic possibility is not only possible with other products of the company, but Teams also integrates with third-party applications.

Thus, one of the most interesting peculiarities of this platform is the ability to integrate with our virtual switchboard. Through this implementation, enterprises can access a comprehensive communication system, representing a step forward in the optimization of customer services.

Microsoft Teams functionality integrated into the virtual PBX

The duality of Teams and the virtual PBX allows enterprises to access a vast number of highly valuable features. Among them stand out the most useful functions to achieve an efficient and easy to use communication platform:

• Calls: Make calls from or to any phone, whether fixed, mobile, national or international, in an affordable way and from any device connected to the Internet.
• Chats: quickly and simply communicating via live chats with all members of the same group, either collectively or individually.
• Call queues: call queues can be configured, choosing the type of greeting, music on hold or behaviour when the agent is busy.
• Collect group calls and redirect to group: incoming calls can be shared between groups. So, if one member of the group is not available, the call can be automatically answered by another member of the group who is free.
• Transfer to the mailbox: during a call, it is possible to forward users to the mailbox.
• Caller ID: for external calls, identification will be performed using the provider’s data, but for internal calls, the caller’s identity is extracted from the corporate directory data.
• Call Routing: thanks to this function, calls can be automatically redirected, saving a lot of time and improving the service.
• Dial pad: it allows making a call by typing in the search bar by name or number, and carrying out the dialling directly from the customer or user’s card.

 Call redirect and simultaneous calls: it’s possible to define the rules to be applied to call redirect.

• Voice mail in-cloud: when a user receives a voice message, this is sent in an email as an attachment. This allows them to be stored and even transcribed, in addition to listening.

On the other hand, it should not be forgotten that voice mail messages can be configured, rules can be created for the answering system and the language used can be modified, among other functions.

• Call blocking: Teams allows you to add numbers in the blocking list, so the next time a call is received, it won’t ring to the user.

 Benefits of using Microsoft Teams and Virtual PBX integration

The tandem of the virtual PBX and Microsoft Teams offers a number of benefits to enterprises, making it very attractive to adopt this communication system.

These are the two most important:

Firstly, thanks to this complementary work, enterprises can connect their existing telecommunication infrastructure for local PSTN connectivity, through direct routing.

Furthermore, since the entire system is in the cloud, it provides incredible flexibility, so that the virtual PBX can be used from anywhere in the world, where there is an Internet connection, with the advantages for business and employees that this brings.

In addition, with Microsoft Teams and our CRM/ERP system, this integration makes it easy to manage customer information and reduce the number of applications on your computers.

In conclusion, the greatest value of Teams is that it allows companies, managers and employees to successfully meet the challenge of teleworking. Not only now, in the difficult times we are living to defeat the coronavirus, but in the future.

In fact, everything indicates that remote work has come to stay, and while Spain was one of the countries that were behind in allowing its employees to do their jobs from home, it seems that when this crisis passes, we will increase jobs and telework will be part of our lives more than before.

And for this, technology and new solutions in business communication are our best allies.