With 320 million monthly active users as of Q4 2023, that’s close to 80% of the overall number for Office 365 monthly active users Microsoft Teams is one of the most popular communication and collaboration tools for businesses of all sizes. The application integrates seamlessly with the larger Microsoft ecosystem (e.g., you can pull up files from Word or Excel without leaving the application) to make collaboration as frictionless as possible.
Teams also supports numerous integrations and add-ons for their meetings and messaging capabilities, allowing businesses to customize how they use the powerful platform to streamline workflows, enhance the employee experience, and deliver better customer service. Such flexibility and scalability are even more essential for businesses seeking to grow while needing to satisfy rising customer expectations.
The majority of phone-enabled businesses will choose a 3rd party phone system provider to integrate with their Microsoft Teams experience, this is primarily to avail of the specialist providers’ advanced phone capabilities and boost their customer communication capabilities.
Businesses that want to modernize their phone and customer communications have multiple ways in which they can integrate vendors like GoTo directly within their Microsoft Teams environment:
1. Direct Routing – GoTo Teams Connector
Businesses can use the native Microsoft Teams call experience by routing calls straight to Teams, the business will need to purchase an Microsoft Teams Calling plan to activate this. The routing of the call is handled between the PTSN (handled by GoTo) and Teams enabling users to make and receive calls using the Teams app, while controlling routing via GoTo (Dial Plans, Find Me Follow Me etc).
This offers the most native experience with GoTo operating in the background however the Teams phone system is quite limited and often this has a higher total cost of ownership needing multiple Team license and/or if long distance calls are needed.
2. Hybrid Integration – GoTo Phone App
Enjoy the native Microsoft Teams call experience while the dial pad uses the phone app add-on on offering the business more phone control and enhanced features available. The full phone directory is easily accessible, all calls, voicemails and contacts are logged within the phone app and you get improved search call history and it supports Microsoft teams mobile.
This provides a basic integration between GoTo’s phone system and Teams that still has some feature limitations. Businesses do not need an Microsoft Teams Calling Plan to avail of this but will need to have a Business/Enterprise Microsoft License. With this integration you can access advanced PBX features via GoTo’s admin portal while keeping a simplified calling experience within Teams.
3. NEW – Full Integration – GoTo Embedded App
GoTo’s newest integration is the first single UC+CC platform to fully integrate with Teams, not only that but this can be done with ANY Microsoft Teams license without the need for any additional Teams Calling plans.
This is not only the most cost-effective option but it is also packed with the most capabilities, channels and reporting of any of the other integration options.
The app can be easily downloaded HERE and integrates all of your GoTo services into Teams for free with our GoTo Desktop plug in app.
Businesses can enjoy all of the greatness of GoTo with our fully embedded phone system and customer communication tools now directly within Microsoft Teams. Enhance staff productivity and foster seamless collaboration by harnessing the power and features of GoTo within a new intuitive navigation panel that sits right within the familiar Microsoft Teams, so everything you need is now available in a single, convenient view – eliminating the need to switch between app.
Phone System - 100s of advanced phone features such as call queues, call recording, ring groups, dial plan editor, SMS, attendant console and more are all easily managed through GoTo’s admin portal. View your call history at a glance, true presence shown for colleagues as well as our new attendant console capabilities now included.
Customer Engagement Tools - Elevate your customer interactions by integrating new communication channels like webchat, SMS and social media, all managed through a shared, unified inbox. Gather customer feedback through new survey capabilities.
Contact Center - Our innovative contact center experience complete with softphone offers advanced features, dashboards and reporting for both agents and supervisors. Enjoy streamlined call management with built-in wrap-up times for superior call handling and enjoy the benefits of having the entire team on one platform for both internal and external communication.
GoTo can also act as a stand-alone solution should Microsoft Teams experience any downtime and comes with our #1 rated customer support and 99.999% uptime
Find out how you can access all of the greatness of GoTo Connect from within Microsoft Teams