How long does it take for Microsoft Teams Phone System to install for a medium-large-size company?

Your company is looking into Microsoft Teams Phone System and you’re wondering how much lead time should you expect to allow, for the installation?

I’ve installed Teams Phone a lot. In this video, I’ll tell you how long it takes, and each step involved.

Want my recommendations on the best Teams Phone provider? Ask me today.

About Me

Mike Smith has been helping companies select the best telecom, WAN, security, and cloud services since 1999. He founded AeroCom in 2003, and has been the recipient of numerous business telecommunications industry awards, including being recognized as one of the top 40 business people in tech-heavy Orange County, CA. Follow Mike on YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit and SpiceWorks.

Transcript

Your company is in the market for a new phone system and you are considering Microsoft teams phone system. But one of the questions you’re wondering is how long does it take to install? How much time should you plan for the installation? Well, I’ve been working with Microsoft Teams phone system for several years since it came out in 2018. So I’ve overseen several installations for teams, phone systems. So in this video I’m going to tell you how long you can expect and each step in the process. I’m Mike Smith. I’m the president of Aero. Come, let’s put our heads together on this.

My recommendations

But before we get too far into it really quick, if you’d like my recommendation on the best vendors to quote for Microsoft teams, phone for operator connect or direct routing as a service, especially if you have a mid-sized company like I’d say 50 to 100 employees or more. Absolutely. Reach out, send me an email or give me a call (714.593.0011). I will help you make a lot better decision in a fraction of the time. More information on that at the end of the video. Also, don’t forget to hit the like button. Subscribe to the channel so you don’t miss any of my videos moving forward. I put out at least one video a week, so don’t miss any of them. Subscribe to the channel.

Installing Teams Phone

Well, how long does it take to install Microsoft teams phone system for your company? it’s a little different depending on the size of the company. Right. So if you have a brand new company and you’re one employee and you’re buying directly from Microsoft, that’s probably going to be a little different. So what I’m going to focus on is what my expertise is in, which is medium to large sized businesses. So we’re talking 100 employees to around maybe 10,000 employees using an operator connect provider for your dial tone, which is the way I recommend you purchase dial tone. If you’re a medium to large sized company buying Microsoft Teams phone system. For more information on that, reach out and contact me. But let’s talk about that.

How long does it take?

So if that’s the case, it’s going to take about two months. And what I’m going to do is I’ll tell you every single step along the way and how long each step takes.

Okay. Day one is when you sign up with your operator connect service provider for Microsoft Teams phone system, then your order goes into their order queue. So you’re not the only person ordering services from them. So you have to wait in line for a project manager to be assigned to your order. That usually happens around day ten and around day ten. You get an email from your project manager saying, Hi, my name is so-and-so, I’ve been assigned to your order. I will be your project manager. Moving forward, I’d like to schedule a day for a kickoff call with you to review all the details and set expectations. So the kickoff call typically happens maybe three or four business days after that. So let’s say day 14 is when you have your official kickoff call with your project manager. And then during that call they review all the details of your order and start requesting information from you. Like your list of phone numbers, your call flows, your list of employees, all that good stuff. But the most important information they’re going to request from you at that point in time is the list of phone numbers that your company needs to have ported from your existing service provider.

OC provider places port order

Okay. Well, let’s assume it takes you about a week to gather all of that information, which is usually the case. So around day 21 is when your project manager is going to place the port order with your existing service provider to port. All of your phone numbers over to the operator connect service provider porting numbers typically takes about 3 to 4 weeks. So after that port orders place, you have about three or four weeks to wait for those numbers to be ported in. Now during those three or four weeks, your project manager is working with you on all the other stuff, so they’re helping you set up your auto attendant with teams phone system, they’re helping you set up call queues, they’re programing all of your employees names into teams phone system and they’re associating them with which phone number they’re going to use. They’re going ahead and uploading wave files into teams phone system for things like the auto attendant message or on hold music, things like that. So all the little details, the call flows, the permissions, all that stuff is is what takes place during those 3 to 4 weeks while you’re waiting for your numbers to be ported around day 49, your numbers are ported and for about one week after that, you’re going to do some testing and just putting out any small fires that might be taking place, things like that. Maybe doing some additional training that you didn’t get to in the weeks prior leading up to your port date. That’s what takes place the week after your number is ported. And around day 56, your installation is complete.

Longer Installations can happen if:

Can your installation take longer than two months? Yes. If you look at that list, there’s definitely ways that you’re installing the installation might end up taking a longer period of time, like, for instance. So you place your order at the very end of the year when a bunch of other people are also placing their orders for their company. Well, there’s a big logjam of orders, so it’s going to take your project manager longer to get assigned your order because there’s a lot of orders coming through at the same time. So if there’s a logjam of orders, obviously it’s going to take longer. That’s something you can ask your service provider before you sign up as, Hey, how long is it taking right now to get assigned to a project manager? Another thing that may take some time is if you take a long time to get your project manager the information they need about call flows, auto attendance users, phone numbers to port, all that good stuff. So that’s something if that takes a long time, that’s going to delay things. Another thing that can delay things is holidays, especially during the major holiday season. A lot of people are taking time off so service providers have less people to work with. So timelines get extended a little bit. And also to your existing provider that they’re porting numbers from, they might take an extra day or two or a week or two depending on what their situation is with holidays and logjams of orders and things like that.

Faster Installation if:

If they’re backlogged on porting numbers, it might take an extra week or two from them. So there are ways that it could take a little bit longer than two months. So I always recommend to customers that you should place your order around 90 days before you’d like everything installed and working. That gives you a month of cushion for just in case.

Now, could you get everything installed faster? Absolutely. So if you look again at that list, some things on there that, you know, you could speed things up is if, hey, number one, if you don’t have any numbers to port, that’s obviously a big chunk of time right there. Right. So maybe you start with new numbers and get everything installed with temporary numbers and then port over phone numbers at a later date or maybe just get all new phone numbers, which for a lot of medium size to large size companies, that’s not really realistic usually. Maybe start with some temporary numbers, maybe run dual phone systems with your existing phone system in place at the same time. So that’s a way to save some time off that timeline. Also, have all of your stuff prepared in advance. So you know, right away, as soon as you place that order, you’ve already got your list of phone numbers that need to be ported.

Faster Installation

You’ve already got all your call flows down. You’ve already got your auto tenant sequences, you’ve got all the recordings that they can upload. You’ve got all that information ready for them right away so that they’re not waiting on you at all. Obviously, also making sure you’re placing your order at a time that there’s not a big logjam of orders like in the middle of the month. That’s a great time to place an order because you’re not getting the logjam at the end of the beginning of a month.

And lastly, service providers often have something called an expedite fee that they charge you with. That is that pushes your order to the top of the logjam of lists. When you got to remember how it said that you’re waiting for a project manager to get assigned because there’s other orders that are coming in a little bit before you.

Well, if you pay a service provider expedite fee, they’ll put your order to the top of the list, which usually saves you about a week on the installation timeline. Not usually costs around $1,000. So it depends on if you’re in a really big rush, it’s worth $1,000 to save a week. If you’re not in that big of a rush, I’d say it’s not worth the money.

Still confused? Reach out and contact me

I hope that was helpful. If so, don’t forget to hit the like button down below and leave me a comment. I’d love to hear your, you know, your thoughts on the video or what other questions you might have. And also, hey, reach out and let me know if you’d like my recommendation on the best operator Connect service providers to quote for your business.

If you reach out, send me an email or give me a call (714.593.0011). I’ll ask you a few questions about your company, especially if you’re a medium sized company to a large sized company. That’s really my sweet spot. Based on your answers to those questions, I’ll tell you which providers you should be quoting that I’d quote if I were in your situation. And why? Also, introduce you to the best sales reps to work with at those service providers and oversee the quoting process and demo to make sure everything goes smoothly. And the nice thing is, on top of all that, your company doesn’t have to pay me a dime for my broker services. The service providers actually pay me my broker fee, but I’ve been doing this for over 20 years. I know the service providers inside and out, so reach out and contact me. I’d love to help you. I love talking about this stuff and it’s the reason why I do these videos. So send me an email, Give me a call. Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss any of my future videos. Thank you for watching and I will catch you on the next one.