The accelerating rise of Microsoft Teams and its potential to impact hosted VoIP providers is a development that can no longer be ignored, warn experts.
The tight integration and significant footprint of Office365 makes Teams a ‘compelling proposition’, according to Gradwell CTO Peter Gradwell.
“Our interaction with Microsoft leads us to believe that there is a strong and rapidly advancing feature roadmap, and over the next year it will start to handle some of the more advanced needs of SMB,” he said. “It’s not perfect, but it is moving quickly.
“The hosted telephony industry can respond to the growing use of Teams by offering synergistic products that complement rather than compete.”
Paul Taylor, Sales & Marketing Director at Voiceflex, warned: “Teams is a massive threat. A high percentage of hosted providers still push voice as the de facto app’ for a hosted comms platform, but voice is just one of many communication methods.”
Every power player is a ‘real threat’ to channel resellers, says Iain Sinnott, Sales & Marketing Director, VanillaIP. “You must move the battle to the environment that favours you and for our resellers that is local support with a cautionary voice about the motivation and security of global giants,” he stated.
Jola MD Andrew Dickinson added: “Teams is one of Microsoft’s fastest selling products. If people are accustomed to using Office apps, Teams is a natural progression. Hosted voice suppliers must be prepared.”