Evolve IP Integrates Business Messaging Into Microsoft Teams; Enhances Microsoft’s Direct Routing Solution

By BCStrategies

17 Sep 2020

Enables Business Users To Text Message Directly From Their Company Phone Number On Any Device

Evolve IP, the world’s leading provider of Work Anywhere™ solutions, today announced that it has launched a fully-integrated SMS / business messaging platform for its Microsoft Teams Direct Routing solution. The short message service (SMS/MMS) / texting feature enables users to text anyone via their business phone number directly from within Microsoft Teams or via a Web browser. Since Evolve IP’s Work Anywhere solutions, including Microsoft Teams Direct Routing, run natively on every device, employees can text from their business line regardless if they are using a personal, or company issued, tablet, laptop / desktop or mobile device.

With the majority of employees working from home, organizations have increasingly found their employees relying on personal mobile numbers to text with clients, prospects, and other associates. In addition to opening the company to security and compliance risks, the lack of oversight has hindered businesses as they attempt to keep user experience in focus, drive revenue, and reduce churn while providing a unified brand and communications presence. The ability to text from a business line inside of Microsoft Teams mitigates these issues and delivers numerous benefits to the business, including:

Provide faster response times as text notifications are delivered in the Microsoft Teams app.
Drive sales velocity with more client touchpoints and reporting for sales management.
Cut and paste official corporate communications in Teams and quickly communicate updates to groups and individuals.
Reduce corporate liability for fraud, inappropriate use, and “lost” communications
Added high-availability to access the messaging app via a web-portal from tablets, smartphones, and in the event of MS Teams application issues

“As convenient as it may be, businesses would prefer that their employees weren’t texting clients, prospects, and other associates about company business on personal mobile devices. Unfortunately, with the situation that most businesses are in today, that has become a mainstay for how business gets done,” said Scott Kinka, Chief Technology Officer of Evolve IP. “Evolve IP’s business texting solution, integrated directly into our Microsoft Teams, enables organizations to take advantage of the speed and convenience of texting,while providing the oversight and security that’s required by enterprise businesses.”

Evolve IP’s unique Microsoft Teams Direct Routing and Cisco VoIP communications platform enables seamless Teams collaboration with advanced voices services, including forwarding calls off-network, crystal-clear voice quality, and a proven history of 99.999 reliability. The combination provides all of the features employers need to take advantage of Microsoft Teams, while delivering business continuity — ultimately making their business and employees more productive, mobile, and secure.

In addition to Business Texting, Major Benefits Include:

Maximize Current Hardware Assets – Evolve Teams with Enterprise Voice works seamlessly on a business’s current SIP phones so organizations can leverage previous investments.
Single Solution For All Employees – The platform unifies Teams and non-Teams users, including contact center and support agents. This allows organizations to deliver a unified experience for users while dramatically simplifying management for IT.
Improved IT and Management Oversight – Evolve IP’s intellectual property for user management, including single-sign-on (Clearlogin) and simplified user provisioning (OSSmosis), make IT more productive and users more secure. Management can also easily evaluate usage reports and see advanced voice quality dashboards.
Platform-Level Solution – Unlike apps or bots which can be used to loosely connect services, Evolve Teams with Enterprise Voice is a platform-level solution ensuring users can fully-leverage all of the features of both Teams and Cisco voice. The solution not only improves reliability, it also alleviates the risks associated with relying on untested 3rd parties and unplanned updates made to browsers.
Enterprise Voice Features – All of the call control functions and features businesses need, such as multi-level auto-attendants, advanced hunt groups, call recording (both for Teams and non-Teams users), overhead paging, receptionist clients, and more are fully enabled.
Real-time Business Intelligence – RECAP, Evolve IP’s AI-driven natural language and voice analytics service, records and transcribes Teams PSTN calls. Users can then quickly see evaluations for sentiment, share for training, and trigger automatic functions like Teams notifications.
Gain availability and business continuity – Using Cisco, the world’s largest cloud communications software provider, should a businesses’ Teams solution or network go down, or should employees need to work remotely for an extended period of time, calls can be configured and delivered wherever employees are.
Rely On A Microsoft Gold Partner – Evolve IP has demonstrated core competencies and its associates have completed Microsoft certification programs that ensure clients have an optimal experience implementing Microsoft Teams, O365 and other hosted Microsoft solutions.