The leading VoIP and unified communications (UC) services provider Vonage and a cloud-native UC integration management company Qunifi have joined forces to provide a fully integrated Microsoft Teams calling feature for Vonage Business Communications customers. Based in the UK, Qunifi operates the Call2Teams Microsoft Office 365 voice integration service that connects Microsoft Teams to any PBX or SIP trunk within minutes, enabling businesses to make and receive calls on any device using the Microsoft Teams application.
Mark Herbert, Qunifi co-founder and CEO, said, “Customers are excited about using Microsoft Teams as a unified collaboration environment, but up to now, adding the Teams phone calling feature has been perceived as disruptive or costly. We have worked with Vonage to create a simple, per-user add-on to the Vonage Business Communications service, allowing customers to get all the benefits of Microsoft Teams while using the Vonage services they already have.”
“Call2Teams is a simple cloud service that acts as a bridge between Microsoft Teams and the Vonage platform. This means there’s no hardware or software for Vonage customers to install, and the dial pad simply appears in Microsoft Teams, so customers start using it with the same Vonage numbers and call features they have today,” explained Herbert.
Microsoft Teams provides a single user environment for communication and collaboration, including the ability to make regular phone calls. Vonage said that with this integration, its customers can use Call2Teams to enable the phone-calling feature in Microsoft Teams using their existing Vonage phone number, and at the same time continue to access all the key features and services that Vonage’s UC solution provides.
Bryan Stokes, VP of Product Management at Vonage, said they provide businesses with the tools to keep their employees and customers connected, both through product offerings and strategic partnerships. “We are ensuring Vonage customers can keep the services and features they rely on today, with the ability to add features and functionality in real time,” added Stokes.
This partnership addresses the growing demand for Microsoft Teams integration as an add-on to an existing UC service. Users have been pressing Microsoft for an Outlook tab to provide access to email from within the collaboration app, and this feature has been officially “under review” since the beginning of 2018.
