The best Teams-based CCaaS providers: An overview

Why choose Microsoft Teams – the Advantages

The benefits of Teams are quite clear. A Teams-native Contact Center can help businesses to streamline their workflows with automations and integrations, and it keeps all information within the secure Teams platform. Depending on which solution you choose, a Teams-native Contact Center can reduce the need for additional vendors, enable total scalability, and is accessed via a familiar UI that reduces the need for training or retraining. Finally, the price tag can be very attractive as many of the required elements are already available within the Microsoft 365 plan. 

 

Which Contact Center features are Microsoft Teams-native?

Microsoft Teams is not designed as a total Contact Center solution, despite offering many of the familiar features you would expect to see in a well-equipped Call Center. For example, Teams already includes a native auto-attendant, which helps connect customer queries with the right person or team. The platform also features multiple call-queues, background music or custom messages. Teams also includes a basic call reporting capability which provides a summary of historical auto attendant stats, queue performance and agent timelines.

These are useful tools, but not enough for the modern Contact Center. What about Social messaging, Webchats, and other channels? How can you easily integrate with your CRM to have a total 360-degree view of the customer journey as soon as you’re connected? To give Teams the required capabilities, a CCaaS provider can extend the native functions of Teams using one of three models, detailed in this article.

 

Features of a modern contact center – how to compare and choose

There is no single solution that offers the perfect match for every business. A full spectrum of capabilities might be desirable, but the price tag also needs to match the scale of business and return-on-investment. Inevitably, many companies will need to identify which features are mandatory, which are useful, and which are ‘nice-to-have’, optional extras. The specifics of this will vary from one business to another, so it really depends on which features matter most for your situation. 

Unfortunately, CCaaS providers don’t make it easy to compare features or price. What’s included isn’t always clear, and many providers talk glowingly about what’s possible, without spelling out what it would cost to have it all. Certain features like Auto-attendant and Skills Based Routing should come as a standard, but other features (like integrations and social messaging) are typically add-on’s that businesses can choose to pay extra for. Some providers don’t offer these at all. For this reason, it’s important to determine which features are essential and which provider offers them.

Essential features for a Contact Center

There are some features that almost all CCaaS providers seem to recognize as being mandatory for a modern contact center. 

Essential Contact Center features include:

• Reporting

• Enterprise software integrations

• Skills-based routing (SBR)

• Ability for supervisors to monitor and join a conversation

There are additional features that are swiftly becoming essential, and these should be considered carefully.

Contact Center Features to Consider 

CRM and ERP integrations

Who’s calling? Integration with your CRM can help agents give the best possible service. As soon as a call or message comes through, a ‘card’ will pop up directly in Teams (if using the ‘Extend model’) with the caller’s information. With this integration, the agent has immediate access to the entire contact history without needing to switch between screens or apps. It should also be possible to directly update details from the Teams UI. If you can’t find a vendor that can integrate with your CRM, then look for one that can integrate with any CRM or ERP or help you do this.

 

Futureproofing and custom integrations

Your communications must keep pace with your developing business. A contact center must service all the needs of today, and have the potential to adapt to the requirements of the future. Adding new channels or custom integrations, therefore, must be easy. With the ability to customize workflows with the Power platform, companies can add automated processes using bots. They can also easily send information automatically to other apps with Webhooks, while APIs can enable deeper integrations with other software such as third-party Interactive Voice Response (IVR) solutions or Voice Recognition. Customizability is a distinguishing factor, as not all providers offer this versatility.

 

Multi-channel Support (Social, SMS, Webchats, etc.)

Customers expect the ability to interact with your company using whichever channel suits them. When they do so, your agents need to have the same capabilities to serve their enquiries as if they called on the phone.

A good CCaaS package should offer the channels your customers use today, including social messaging, webchats, and SMS.

 

Interactive Voice Response (IVR)/Conversational AI/Natural Language Processing (NLP)

IVR is relatively common, but voice-recognition capability is less so. Many businesses will see this feature as an optional extra, but it can save a lot of effort for human agents, and this cuts costs.Conversational AI can serve up to 10% of contact center queries, using voice recognition and natural language processing. This means you can quickly answer the most common queries without any human intervention, while reducingcall abandonment by 50%. Thankfully, you don’t need to select a vendor that includes this as part of the deal. Provided you can customize and add your own integrations, there are several third-party providers who can provide this service.

Chatbots

Chatbots massively reduce the cost of human agents by fielding many common queries, and forwarding the rest to the right department via webchat or another channel. More sophisticated Chatbots can also trigger actions directly.

Dedicated Apps/Dashboards for Agent and Supervisor

Managing and optimizing a Contact Center isn’t just a matter of luck – it takes care and attention. With dedicated Agent and Supervisor apps/dashboards, every team member can get insights and functionalities that matter the most to them. At a glance, Agents should be able to see how well they’re performing, and Supervisors can gain a real-time overview, get actionable insights, and have the ability to intervene when needed.

Reporting and Live insights

While Teams already has historical reporting available, this is no substitute to a detailed report that comes with insights. Similarly, a historical perspective has limited application, whereas live queue insights and statistics can be used right now.

Price: per user, per usage, or per queue?

Pricing is rarely transparent or simple. Most vendors only provide full functionality at the highest subscription level. This makes it hard to compare, especially when  not all the features are needed. There’s also the question of how subscriptions are charged. Many CCaaS providers charge a monthly rate per user. This means that cost is tied to the number of specific authorized agents, which can make these solutions comparatively expensive as your company grows. Per-user pricing also doesn’t account for seasonal variability which affects most businesses on some level.

By contrast, some providers give pricing based on the number of queues (for voice calls) and/or conversations (for social channels) – this is often better balanced against the actual rate of use. Costs based on actual usage can be hard to estimate in advance, whereas a per-queue tariff can become more cost effective over time. Provided the package is affordable from the start, a ‘per-queue’ pricing system becomes increasingly better value-for-money as your company grows and hires more customer service agents. This is especially important when seasonal demand surges.

As a rule, it should be possible to have all the available Contact Center features (including social channels) for less than one thousand euros per month, and in some cases much less.

Comparison: The best Teams-based CCaaS providers

Luware

Luware Nimbus Contact Center is an extend-model solution. Luware Nimbus is based on their original ‘voice-only’ concept, and still lacks some of the more advanced features that are available. Other integrations are theoretically possible, using Teams standard connectors (REST API), but the onus is on the user to build this themselves.

Highlights

Nimbus Contact Center is the highest level of the Nimbus subscriptions – offering customized workflows, real-time reporting, and Power BI. Skill-based routing is also available.

Core features

• CRM integration (Salesforce, Dynamics, some others)
• Simple IVR (text to speech only)
• Skills-based routing
• Reporting and analytics

Cons

Currently no multi-channel support, chatbots or social messaging. Some additional features (like Attendant, Remote assistance, and Video calls available as extra cost modules.

Price

Per named user/month.

 

ROGER365.io

ROGER365.io is tailor-made for Microsoft Teams as a certified extend-model solution. Designed for growing businesses, ROGER365.io offers many of the ‘more advanced’ features - even in the most basic package. It consists of a Contact Center module and a Social Messaging Module, which can be selected at different subscription levels.

Highlights

With both the Contact Center and Social Messaging modules, ROGER365.io can equip a Teams based contact center with every possible functionality. Advanced ‘optional’ features such as voice recognition can be added using APIs, and this can be facilitated on your behalf using one of their integration partners.

The reporting is exceptional and in-depth, using speech and text recognition to gauge sentiment and satisfaction. Supervisors have a constant snapshot view of the live queues, agent statistics, agent and call status, and have the ability to listen in, whisper, or join challenging calls. ROGER365.io can calculate your specific ROI for their solution on request.

Core features

• Native integrated Teams App

• Azure Active Directory Integrated

• Omnichannel Solution (Voice, Social Messaging, & Chatbots)

• Agent, Supervisor & Reporting interface

• Automated Attendant / IVR

• Live queue insights

• Blind & Consultative Transfer

• Calendar Integration & Callback Requests

• Outbound dialing

• Advanced Graphical Call Flow Editor

• CRM Integrations

• Powerframe for custom apps

• APIs for custom development

Cons

Contact Center and Social Messaging is bundled into a single subscription, so you cannot purchase them separately. Contact Center is charged per queue, but social messaging is priced based on your usage, which sometimes can be hard to estimate in advance.

Pricing

The ROGER365.io solution is available via a worldwide partner network, with a transparent pricing system that makes scaling-up very cost effective. Subscription for the Contact Center is priced per configured queue (or can be based on consumption/use). The Social Messaging module is priced per conversation (based on actual consumption/use). The Enterprise subscription includes 15,000 conversations per year.

 

8x8

8x8 is a VoIP company that provides communication solutions for businesses, including a direct routed Teams-based voice contact center.  

SMS, MMS and Fax via Teams

Some CRM and ERP integrations available

Highlights

8x8 has offered their own Contact Center solutions for several years already, and the move to connect this with Teams shows how respected the Microsoft Teams platform is. This solution appears to operate as a connect model, with voice calls being directed to Teams, while the rest of the Contact Center operations are managed with the 8x8 interface.

Core features

• Voice calls via Teams (other functionalities via integrations with 8x8 platform)
• Voicemail transcription
• Selected CRM/ERP integrations(Salesforce, Hubspot, Dynamics)
• Multi-channel support (Chat, email, SMS, Social media, messaging apps)
• Internet Fax Post-call survey
• Media storage Skills-based routing
• Supervisor analytics
• Hotdesking

Price

8x8 is priced based on a per-user/month subscription. At the top subscription, you get all the available features, but not the cheapest option. If you don’t need every possible feature, then a lower subscription level might suffice.

Cons

As their main products are business communication solutions, the Contact Center is an add-on to this package. This means you may be paying for something you don’t need – especially if you’re already using teams. Teams functionality comes as an integration, so training with the 8x8 platform is still needed.

 

Landis Technologies

Landis Technologies is a US-based IT and technology company that offers a wide range of solutions including communications tools. Their Teams Contact Center solution is a relatively new addition.

Highlights

The lightweight Contact Center app uses the Extend model to offer many of the functionalities you can expect, plus some of the more advanced features too. Attendant Console now available as an add-on.

Core features

• Call recording
• Live and Historical reports
• Monitor, whisper, and join Live wallboards
• Speech to Text call monitoring
• CRM integration (Salesforce, Dynamics, ServiceNow, some others)
• Power BI, Automate and Power apps
• Skills Based Routing
• Sentiment analysis

Price

The cost of this solution is not clear.

Cons

Social messaging and multi-channel support not yet available. May not offer the full depth of functionality or ability to easily make custom integrations. Details provided by Landis are few, including cost and subscription options.

 

Genesys

Genesys offers a range of apps and products for customer experience and engagement. Their Cloud CX product works using the Connect model to integrate with Teams. It is a standalone contact center solution that can integrate with Teams using the Connect model.

Highlights

Genesys announced recently that they were discontinuing their legacy PureConnect software in favor of a cloud-based alternative: Genesys Cloud CX.

This is still a connect-model solution, but it’s an ‘all in one’ package offering a confusingly wide array of features. Access to these depends on subscription level, and everything is managed via the Cloud CX interface – not directly with Teams.

 

Core features

• CRM/ERP integration (including Salesforce, Dynamics 365, and other integrations)
• Prebuilt integrations available (your developers can create custom integrations using REST APIs)
• Social messaging and multi-channel support (Webchat, Email, SMS)
• Voice recognition/NLP(depends on subscription)
• Chatbots (depends on subscription)
• Skills based routing
• Live insights (depends on subscription)
• Reporting (depends on subscription)

Price

Offers 5 subscription levels, based on a per-user/month pricing. Further subscriptions may be needed for add-on services. Additional components like AI, chatbots, digital channels, and reporting can also be added to lower subscription levels.

Cons

Using the Connect model can be a disadvantage in terms of data compliance and latency. Teams is no longer the secure hub of all communications, and vendor lock-in may be a concern.

 

Microsoft Digital Contact Center Platform

Microsoft is known for stable and secure software products, including many third-party apps that have been bought and harmonized with their ecosystem. After several years, Microsoft has now launched their own solution based on Teams. This solution has many of the features you would want in a modern contact center, but lacks the flexibility that growing companies might want. 

Highlights

Microsoft’s Digital Contact Center Platform is essentially a bundle of their pre-existing services, including voice recognition modules from Nuance Communications (which was acquired by Microsoft in early 2022). In theory, it would be possible to assemble and integrate these independently, but this is unnecessary as they have been packaged for you into a convenient bundle. Includes integration with Teams, Dynamics 365 and AI/Voicebot capabilities from Nuance.

Core features

• CRM integration (Dynamics 365)

• Multi-channel Support (Webchat, Social messaging, SMS)

• Voice recognition/NLP with Nuance (including biometric authentication)

• Chatbots

• Intelligent routing (including skills)

• IVR

• Customer and Channel Analytics/Reports

• Dedicated Agent/Supervisor Apps and features

• Sentiment analysis

• Other integration possibilities using APIs.

Cons

It’s hard to find faults with Microsoft’s products. This one is still in its infancy, so there’s no track record to go on but all the components are mature and well-supported products. Perhaps the only obvious drawback is for those companies already using a CRM that isn’t Dynamics 365. You then face the possibility of needing to migrate to Dynamics, or create a custom integration. It is possible to build custom integrations, however flexibility is not a ‘headline feature’ of this solution as it is set-up with a prescribed configuration in mind.