I’ve been deploying VoIP phone systems for over a decade now and so have a broad knowledge of many of the leading systems available today. Microsoft Teams is top-of-list for the most refined, easy to use, easy to deployed system available today.
The Pros
- By far the easiest phone system to deploy physical phones on. Any user that can use Teams can setup their own phone because the phone interface is identical.
- Soft phone quality is excellent. I’ve used a lot of softphone in the last 10 years. Teams is simple to use, reliable and the best audio performance available
- Video Conferencing is top notch. Its easy to send out invites for a meeting and its easy to join from a request. Quality is excellend
Important Missing Features
To this point, we’ve been using Microsoft Teams Phone System for six months now. The experience has been good. There are key missing features that are simply not there.
- BLF, Busy lamp field. BLF is a common and core feature of all other phone systems. It allows you to place a speed dial button on your phone to reach other extensions, easily transfer to other extension and most importantly, see whether that extension is on a call, not on a call or has a ringing call. This feature is simply not available on Microsoft Teams
- More than one Direct DID assigned to a ring group, user, queue, auto attendant. We often have multiple phone number assigned for inbound number for regional reasons or just to park an un used extension for a vacant position. This is not available in Teams. Each extension can only have phone number. Full stop.
- Routing calls from a ring group/queue to an external number. We often route calls to a external receptionist so they can be answered when we’re out of office. Routing calls to outside parties from a ring group or queue do not work.
- No Dashboard for calls. Its common to have a interface to see active calls on the system and see who is talking to who. This is important for a manager or installer to keep an eye on the performance of the system. With Teams, there simply is no similar portal to see active calls.
- Softphone app is awesome but a bit glitchy. When I want to dial a number, I click “Calls” then “dial” and when I go to the field to put the number in, the entire panel disappears and I need to click the “Calls” tab again.
- Costs. In addition to the regular line and calling costs, there is a ~$10 surcharge on each extension with Team. Auto attendants and Queues also bear a “Resource” charge and call usage is also billed. In addition you must have a Office 365 E3 License which is ~$25 / month.
If you are considering a migration to Microsoft Teams, we would like to help you with deployment. We have experience with the various Microsoft Teams conference devices and desk phones and deployment of phone lines via direct routing or the Microsoft calling plan.
