8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams Review: Gain Global Reach

With around 250 million monthly active users as of July 2021, Microsoft Teams has quickly emerged as the go-to choice for today’s remote and hybrid working landscape. The Teams environment is packed with everything employees need to be their most productive, from the screen and file-sharing tools to solutions for video calling.  

However, most of the users accessing Microsoft Teams today feel it’s important to implement an additional solution for business voice. While Teams has its own voice offerings, they can be somewhat limited compared to dedicated solutions from leading UCaaS providers. Fortunately, that’s where 8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams steps in.  

Created to offer contact centre and advanced telephony tools to Teams users, 8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams can help to empower your teams and drive better customer experiences. Here’s what you need to know about this fantastic service. 

8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams: Features 

8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams gives businesses in the new world of hybrid and remote work access to a single cloud platform with advanced features for calling. You can access tools for communicating with clients and connect colleagues wherever they are. Thanks to 8×8’s easy-to-use interface, it couldn’t be simpler for business employees to make and receive global calls with their native Teams dialler. Global direct routing ensures excellent calls anywhere.  

The Microsoft Teams 8×8 Voice solution comes with support for crystal-clear calling with phone numbers in more than 120 countries, unlimited calling plans in 47 countries, and a full PSTN replacement solution in 43 countries. Features include: 

• Native access to Microsoft Teams  
• All the familiar features of Teams, like chat and video conferencing 
• Microsoft Teams cloud contact centre  
• Call routing and management for contact centre agents 
• Advanced telephony with global numbers 
• Contact centre analytics and real-time dashboards for Teams 
• Pre-built integrations for major business productivity and CRM apps 
• App access to tools and bots in Microsoft Teams 
• Self-service access to 8×8 telephony settings 
• Faxes, MMS, and SMS access with Teams 
• Omni-channel interactions across video, voice, and messaging 
• Call recording and storage for compliance 
• Support for phone numbers across 120 countries 
• Industry-leading speech analytics 
• Performance, usage, and reporting dashboards 
• HIPAA, CPNI, FISMA, ISO 9001, ISO 27001, and other compliance 
• TLS and SRTP security 
• Calling features like ring groups, call queues, voicemail, and transfers 

The 8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams solution offers a seamless and efficient user experience for calling, integrated messaging, and various other forms of communication. With this all-in-one solution from 8×8, companies can have access to all of the innovative Microsoft Teams tools they love, while accessing the crucial contact centre and communication tools they need.  

8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams: Benefits 

Built for an environment where contact centre employees are already spending a significant amount of time collaborating in tools like Teams, 8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams can improve employee engagement and enhance customer experience. The 8×8 solution eliminates the need to train your employees on how to use new contact centre tools, with a familiar app that already feels comfortable to your remote and in-office staff.  

The 8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams technology automatically routes calls directly to the Teams-powered support staff in your company, improving customer service and enhancing omnichannel interactions. The analytics environment also provides an insightful range of reports available at your fingertips in seconds. Benefits include: 

• Excellent for adoption: 8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams offers a simple and effective native Teams experience. The solution empowers contact centre agents to make or receive PSTN calls in Teams, without the need for extensive training or complex configuration. 8×8 ensures companies can give their employees the single pane of glass they need for better productivity
• Global reach: The certified 8×8 contact centre solution for Microsoft Teams makes it easy for employees to connect with customers around the world. Teams can make and receive global calls in Teams, tracking important information in real-time. The 8×8 solution provides crystal-clear calls with phone numbers in 120 countries, full PSTN replacement in 43 countries, and calling plans (unlimited) in 47 countries
• Integrations and extensibility: 8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams can integrate seamlessly with a host of popular apps and business tools like Salesforce for CRM. You can extend your communications environment however you choose and maintain a consistent customer experience across every channel where you interact with customers
• Security and compliance: 8×8 go above and beyond to offer peace of mind to today’s teams, with a host of compliance and security certifications, including HIPAA, EU standard contractual clauses, GDPR, UK Cyber essentials plus, and data-in-motion encryption. You’ll also have the option to set your own controls for who has access to what information so you can stick to crucial business policies
• Insightful analytics: Track the performance of your team and keep an eye on the customer journey in real-time with a host of tools for reporting and analytics. You can access AI-enhanced tools for plucking intent and sentiment from conversations. There’s also access to a host of AI systems for pinpointing patterns in service. Once you understand the customer journey, you can train your employees to deliver better experiences

To make accessing Microsoft Teams contact centre technology even easier, 8×8 even ensures the burden on your IT team is as low as possible, with no installs or downloads required. You don’t even have to change any elements of the native Microsoft Teams user experience for your team. 

8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams: Verdict 

If you’re already using Microsoft Teams to empower and connect your employees in a digital environment, it makes sense to unlock the power of Teams for the contact centre too. A comprehensive environment built with scalability in mind, 8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams will help you get more out of your Microsoft investment.  

With everything from immersive analytics to integrations and extra features to help you deliver more meaningful moments to customers around the globe, the 8×8 Voice for Microsoft Teams offering has it all. It’s definitely worth your consideration.