Content updated to include new data from 2021.
Business today has been geographically and organizationally stretched. Distributed teams working from home offices are now a normal part of day-to-day operations. Where a year ago the communal office building held strong. You’ve probably heard it a million times by now, but we’ll say it again — the way we work and communicate has changed. Still, does this mean collaboration among teams can afford to suffer? Of course not.
Being reliably connected and able to communicate is what keeps businesses afloat in a diffused workspace. This is why all eyes have been on collaborative platforms like Microsoft Teams over the past year and a half. Notably, MS Teams reached 250 million monthly users as of July 2021. Exhibiting a 90 percent growth from the year prior. That’s not a usage trend that anyone can ignore — we certainly didn’t.
Offering more than just chat windows and virtual conference rooms, MS Teams is a vital resource for companies that need to keep inter-employee collaboration happening at the same rate it did before stay home orders became a reality. It’s a sweet deal; keep your employees at a safe distance while giving them the tools they need to maintain their normal activities. It really couldn’t get any better… could it?
Taking Teams to the Next Level
Despite its wide array of benefits, Microsoft Teams still may not be the complete solution. These communications platforms may be helping organizations maintain a previous idea of normality. But we don’t want to go back to the place we were before — we want to move forward. The truth is, as the business evolves, new solution sets are becoming more than just a ‘nice-to-have’ option. Innovative solutions are a necessity. Here’s the truth: Even in such a useful platform, there are still gaps to be filled, and competitive service providers need to know how to fill them.
Think of day-to-day chats and meetings as the foundation of a largely digital business. How do you build on that foundation to make a home for true productivity and innovation? Well, it starts with contact center services (the new customer-oriented face of an online organization), real-time analytics (which help businesses thrive instead of surviving), and increased mobility. With this in mind, it’s clear what’s needed now are the expanded capabilities that come with a full Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C) platform.
The Missing Link
Microsoft Teams is great from a collaborative perspective, but a holistic unified communications solution is what this platform needs to seamlessly support the diverse array of tools businesses are now utilizing. All of which are needed for the new working world. Furthermore, UC&C delivers a strategic focus on enabling voice capabilities beyond what standard platforms can offer. Allowing for an immersive in-office experience. Let’s face it — with voice capabilities serving as the new bedrock of modern digital business, organizations can’t afford to have this foundation (or anything built on it) be anything but totally solid.
The great news is that there’s an opportunity here to build on what MS Teams is offering to deliver a complete solution that meets the needs of today and tomorrow. Service providers can, with the right solution, complement MS Teams with additional capabilities where they’re needed. Embracing the platform’s extensive existing user base instead of competing against it. Here’s where NetSapiens can help. With our MS Teams integration, you can harness that currently unmet value and ensure both you and your customers are benefiting from it.
With us and our SNAPsolution, it’s as easy as providing a custom-branded NetSapiens portal within the Teams user interface; no new logins, no new windows, just more capabilities all around. Just think — a next-gen, mobile-first approach to call management and handling capabilities, admin ease, enhanced security systems, device management, and more, all in service of a unified experience across desktop, tablet, mobile, and beyond. A NetSapiens integration makes it easy to deliver what businesses want in addition to what they need. From video and chat to contact centers and ongoing monitoring.
It’s time to change our perspective on collaborative platforms. They don’t have to be a threat to existing communications service offerings. Instead, they can act as a springboard for complementary capabilities — if you have the right service to offer, that is. So, what do you say? Want to team up?
To learn more about how NetSapiens’ MS Teams integration can help you and your customers harness untapped value, click here.
