Microsoft Teams Phone System: Don’t buy it direct from Microsoft

Your company should not buy Microsoft Teams Phone System, direct from Microsoft.

In this short video below, Mike Smith explains the different features required for Microsoft Teams Phone System, and which of them you should buy from Microsoft directly… and which you should not (and why).

Want to know which vendors your company should quote for the stuff you don’t want to buy from Microsoft, directly? Call Mike (714.593.0011), or click the button below, to ask Mike today.

About Mike
Mike Smith is the Founder and President of AeroCom and has been helping companies with telecom and cloud services since 1999. He has been the recipient of numerous business telecommunications industry awards and in 2011, he was honored as one of the top 40 business people in Orange County, CA., under 40 years old. You can also hear him as the host of the popular Information Technology podcast, ITsmiths with Mike Smith. Follow Mike on LinkedIn, Twitter or SpiceWorks.

Transcript

Your company is looking for a new phone system, and Microsoft Teams Phone System is one of the things you’re thinking about that might be a good fit.

Well, I’m going to tell you right now, don’t buy Microsoft Teams Phone System directly from Microsoft.

I know that sounds really weird, but what I’m actually talking about is the calling plan portion.

The portion you can’t avoid buying from Microsoft

Now, the one thing you do have to buy from Microsoft directly is the “phone system” feature (a.k.a. “Business Voice”).

So if you have a business level license, you have to get the Business Voice package without a calling plan.

And if you have the enterprise-size license, you can either get “Business Voice” without a calling plan… or  you can get the phone system feature or possibly the conferencing feature too (a la carte), if you want some of your users to have a conference bridge.

But in addition to that, you also need a calling plan for all of your users, regardless of your license level.

This is what you shouldn’t buy from Microsoft, direct

But instead of buying the calling plan directly from Microsoft, in my opinion, you should buy that call calling plan from a direct routing as a service provider, or some type of third-party VoIP provider that offers Microsoft Teams Phone System direct routing.

And I’ll tell you why.

Better Price, Better Customer Service

Number one is a lot of times it’s the same price or less, but you get a better customer service experience.

So by going through a third-party, they’re going to demo Microsoft Teams Phone System for you, listen to your company’s needs, lay out a plan of implementation for you.

Once you sign up with them, they’ll help you with porting all your phone numbers, and all that stuff. So… they help you with the implementation, which I know you don’t want to do on your own.

And in addition to that, long-term you get free, unlimited, live, 24/7 support on the dial tone. So, if you ever have an outage or things like that, you get free live support… as opposed to, if you go direct through Microsoft, you have to pay for that support… and you don’t get all that implementation help and all that demo stuff and all that stuff to begin with.

So, if you’re going to pay the same price, get more for your money. That’s first and foremost.

More Features

In addition to that, some service providers who offer Teams direct routing as a service give you even more features than Microsoft Teams Phone System can give you natively, (if you go direct to Microsoft). And the reason they could do that is because they’re integrating Teams Phone System with their cloud PBX applications. So you’re getting their cloud PBX applications features, but you’re getting to use Microsoft Teams as the soft phone and the interface.

So all in all, at the end of the day, you have to buy your “phone system” feature through your Microsoft office licensing, but you don’t have to buy the Calling Plan direct through Microsoft.

And it’s actually better, in my opinion, for you not to do so.

Who are the best vendors to quote for a Calling Plan?

If you want to know which vendors are the best vendors to use for Teams Phone System calling plan or direct routing as a service, don’t Google it… you’ll find the wrong ones.

There’s dozens of them out there. And based on your company’s needs, if you call (714.593.0011), or email me, I can match you up with the best vendors that offer direct routing as a service and make sure you get demos… and introduce you to the right people there and get you quotes on it. So don’t Google it on your own. There’s no reason to do that. My company will do it for you and we don’t charge you any fee to do it. There’s no excuse not to reach out and contact me.

So I hope this video helped a little bit, hope it cleared some things up. If you found it useful to you, don’t forget to click the like button down below, and I will catch you on the next video!

Questions? Click the button below to ask Mike today.