Why Microsoft Is a Leader in Business Communication Services

Whether you are on a team of two or 200,000, you need the right communication solutions to help you organize, collaborate and achieve your strategic goals. Microsoft has long played a major role in business technical operations and productivity. With the launch of Teams and related solutions, it has positioned itself as a leader in business communication services.

Gartner Recognizes Microsoft as a Leader in Business Communication Services

In October 2021, Gartner recognized Microsoft as a leader in unified communication as a service and meeting solutions. The research firm’s report on UCaaS also highlighted other communication solutions providers such as Zoom, Cisco and Google. However, it placed Microsoft in the top position of mixing ability to execute and completeness of vision. This was the third year that Gartner recognized Microsoft as a leader in UCaaS, and the 15^th year it recognized the brand for meeting solutions.

Unified Communication Built Into Workflows

Microsoft Teams can easily be used with other Office 365 products and a wide variety of popular business applications from other publishers. The result is that you can incorporate Teams directly into your existing workflows. For example, your customer records can be pulled into chats or meetings to discuss. The same is true for operations, HR and other data.

For many organizations, Teams can become a central hub for work. Others may incorporate the Teams functionality in their workflows using the many integration options offered by Microsoft. Furthermore, Outlook is already a major part of many teams’ workflows and joins forces perfectly with Teams. In short, while many others have built unified communication solutions, Microsoft is unique in how comprehensive its approach is.

Ability To Integrate With Traditional Telephony

Impressively, Microsoft has gone beyond the digital realm with its unified communication strategy with the release of Microsoft Teams Phone. This adds phone call functionality into the workflow mix. It has popular features such as spam identification, Apple CarPlay support, and the ability to transfer calls between devices. With the ability to connect traditional telephony with Microsoft’s digital communication through Teams, the platform brings together an impressive array of communication options for businesses.

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Powerful Tools for Collaboration During Meetings

Another key focus for Microsoft has been bringing collaborative tools into digital meetings. Remote work and global communication have become increasingly important in recent years, especially with the increase in work-from-home environments during the COVID-19 pandemic. Microsoft Teams makes many of these interactions easier with powerful integrations and useful convenience features.

• Live Presentations: PowerPoint and Teams work seamlessly together to make it easy to present digitally. This goes beyond just screen-sharing. You can use presenter mode and the built-in PowerPoint support to bring your presentation into your Teams meeting. You can even customize how and when your camera feed will appear during the presentation.
• Video Enhancements: Teams offers some software-based video enhancements to make meetings clearer. For example, if you connect from a low-light setting, Teams will brighten your video. You can also apply filters and other settings to get the optimal, distraction-free video feed.
• Digital Whiteboards: Many teams miss whiteboards when they start having more digital meetings. Fortunately, Microsoft has this issue covered with a digital whiteboard app that can be accessed directly from Teams. This makes it easy to communicate visually during meetings.
• Presentation Coaching: If you aren’t the strongest or most confident presenter, you can use Microsoft’s AI-based coaching. This will let you know if you are on pace, interrupting someone, or need to check in with your audience through private notifications in Teams.

Integration of Physical and Digital Spaces

Office 365 helps to bring physical and digital workspaces closer together. With Teams Rooms, Microsoft’s business communication services for conference and meeting rooms, you can enhance the experience of virtual meetings in which some participants are in the same space.

For example, intelligent speaker detection helps to clarify the voice of the person speaking while reducing other noises. Anyone who has had to lean unceremoniously into a table-mounted microphone knows the value of this. Teams Rooms also allows for multiple video streams with automatic switching. With the Teams mobile app, participants in the room can also access controls so that everyone can take part actively.

Leverage the Microsoft Cloud for Better Business Communication Services

Microsoft has established itself as a leader in business communication services. If you want to take advantage of these solutions for your business, you will need to move to the Microsoft Cloud. Cloudficient can help you successfully manage your migration. Contact us today to learn about how our services can empower your business.

With unmatched next generation migration technology, Cloudficient is revolutionizing the way businesses retire legacy systems and transform their organization into the cloud. Our business constantly remains focused on client needs and creating product offerings that match them. We provide affordable services that are scalable, fast and seamless.

If you would like to learn more about how to bring Cloudficiency to your migration project, visit our website, or contact us.