The race to capitalise on Microsoft Teams continues to intensify. Cavell predicts the total addressable market for Teams telephony is approximately 214 million users, with current Microsoft statistics showing only 20 million users on Teams Phone.
There is an enormous market opportunity for Teams telephony and service providers and resellers can make meaningful progress now while also positioning themselves for long-term success.
What do customers need?
As leader in the collaboration space, Microsoft continues the development of Teams at pace, with a wide range of new features constantly being released. According to Cavell this year, the speed of change, and integration challenges make up two of the three biggest concerns that businesses have about using Teams. The third is price increases!
Alongside these concerns, many business users have an expectation and a requirement for a level of call and recording analytics features that are comparable to those available for their traditional telephony solutions. This could potentially present a barrier to Teams telephony entry, since many businesses are unaware of the latest analytical capabilities on Teams.
How can you best market new services on Teams?
Adding value to a Teams proposition is achieved by finding software products and services that complement the overall offering and most importantly, meet the customers’ needs.
Channel providers need access to sales and marketing resources that educate them on the benefits of their chosen solutions, and where possible, can easily be shared with end customers. Therefore, it is important to work with software providers that offer a wide range of materials in different formats, such as webinars, inspirational short-form marketing videos, as well as tutorials in sales craft and product usage. Also look for providers that deliver these via an API to a partners’ own portal to ensure they are always up-to-date and available at any time.
How can you effectively identify strong software partners?
Selected software vendors should have a proven track record of balancing current market needs whilst anticipating future demands. This will enable service providers and resellers to position themselves for both immediate and long-term success. Look out for:
- Software vendors that stay attuned to Microsoft's developments and the market
- Technical expertise, online support and proven experience in their specialised remit
- A focus on quality and security (ISO certification is a great indication of commitment)
- Comprehensive go-to-market strategies and resources
- API framework to facilitate integration and easy provisioning
How can Tollring help?
We have delivered analytics and recording solutions for a wide range of telephony platforms for many years and are intimately familiar with the breadth of insights that companies expect.
We have also invested heavily in technical R&D and market research. This means we can adapt to new technologies and changing customer demands, whilst always maintaining simplicity of sale, deployment and usage throughout. Our focus is always on delivering features that add real value, making the complex simple and delivering the magic of insight so our customers can make faster and better decisions.
Most importantly, our close working relationship with Microsoft gives us access to their expertise and, as leaders in our field, we know how to leverage the powerful data generated by Teams. This enables us to transform the raw data into actionable insights that drive business success. Our latest call, collaboration and recording analytics on Teams now replicate and often improve upon the experience customers are accustomed to on other more traditional platforms. We create state-of-the-art products that leverage the latest features that are available via API today and will continue evolve to leverage the data that is available tomorrow.
To conclude, the opportunity within the Microsoft Teams telephony market is vast and growing. By partnering with vendors (like Tollring) who stay attuned to Microsoft's developments and the market, service providers and resellers can position themselves for both immediate and long-term success. Emphasising actionable insights, value-driven features, and comprehensive support structures will enable partners to navigate this dynamic landscape effectively.
Tollring’s analytics offers tangible differentiation within a provider’s Microsoft Teams Direct Routing and Operator Connect offerings, whilst making it easy to implement using the familiar interface of Tollring’s traditional cloud-based analytics platforms.
For further information, visit Tollring.