Salesforce App in Microsoft Teams
Microsoft and Salesforce have just become partners and Salesforce app and integration for Microsoft Teams will soon be available.
Microsoft Teams is the modern workplace currently chosen by many enterprises to collaborate and to communicate. An increasing number of companies are considering its adoption also as a Unified Communication system, as the platform of course is deeply integrated with Microsoft365 applications and allows to implement many integrations also with third-party apps, in a single platform.
Employees, in this way, are more productive and collaborative saving time without jumping from one platform to another. Microsoft knows its incredible potentials and pursues the road of integration as its business strategy against competitors.
Salesforce needs no introduction, as it is one of the biggest cloud-based software that provides CRM services to the enterprise. It helps more than 150,000 companies to drive results for sales, service, and marketing, providing insights on customers, prospects, and partners. Salesforce supports business growth providing companies with crucial information to use at the management level.
The integration of Salesforce in Microsoft Teams is a great news and a big opportunity for companies to better collaborate, and share numbers and records directly in chats, channels, and groups. The administrator of the Teams’ channels will define the level of visibility to keep privacy and security under control.
Sales and Service Cloud users could soon have the Salesforce app directly in their Teams panel without any additional costs if they have Enterprise or Unlimited editions of Teams. The app is downloadable in Microsoft’s AppSource or in the Microsoft Teams App Store.
This integration lets users focus on Salesforce data, organize them, collaborate, discuss, and create meetings to share them with other colleagues to create new business opportunities and reflect on sales and customer data.
"By connecting Salesforce CRM with Microsoft Teams, our joint customers can now benefit from a close connection of the chat and workspace capabilities of Teams alongside key information and actions from Salesforce – which makes team collaboration more focused and effective," said Doug Camplejohn, Salesforce's executive vice president and general manager of Sales Cloud, in this Microsoft official blog post.
In order to better create a strong and lasting relationship with customers, it’s also possible to share customer cards in the chats and pin them in the tab in a channel so colleagues can collaborate efficiently and can see with a click all the information about the customer they served.
Mida Solutions endorse the importance of CRM integration with customer service applications and for this reason, Mida Contact Center is already integrated with Salesforce and Dynamics, and on our roadmap, this is a development that will provide a more and more satisfactory user experience and advanced integration functionalities.
To know more about Mida products and their integration do not hesitate to contact us here.
Mida Contact Center soon certified for Microsoft Teams
Have you ever heard about Connected Contact Center for Microsoft Teams Certification Program? This is one of the most important objectives Mida Solutions is going to achieve in the upcoming months, another important step towards the complete integration of our Contact Center in Microsoft Teams and Microsoft365.
Microsoft Teams is the “new” workplace we all get to know very well in this unprecedented year, as favored our communications both in the lockdown weeks and in the remote working/hybrid working phases.
We had opened up the way to a contact center for Microsoft Teams long before the pandemic and the recent worldwide massive diffusion of the platform it’s a confirmation that we were moving in the right direction. An intuitive and user-friendly interface and a number of third-parties integrations allow users to be more productive and companies to count on integrated solutions. Calling with Microsoft Teams has become an experience!
The solution we have designed for Microsoft Teams adds to its basic calling functions, many more call managing functions, that are required in the daily operations of a professional contact center. That’s the reason why Microsoft supports its partners in a specific certification process of their contact center solutions.
This certification program represents an assurance for our customers and future customers that our Contact Center for Microsoft Teams is compliant with the maximum quality standards of Microsoft: our solution is now being tested and verified by Microsoft engineers to provide the quality, compatibility, and reliability they expect from Microsoft solutions.
Our contact center for Teams has been also mentioned by Microsoft in the session “Calling and meeting extensibility for Microsoft Teams” at Ignite 2020: “...they are going through the certification process, certification testing, along with Microsoft. They work with Microsoft on joint support and provide the best experience and success for our customers.” explained Srividhya Chandrasekaran, Principal Lead Product Program Manager at Microsoft.
Obtaining Microsoft Teams Connected Contact Center Certification will be an added value to our products. In addition, working closely with Microsoft is a very stimulating experience that increases our desire to work hard and continuously improve to guarantee Microsoft users the best experience through products and solutions always connected and integrated into the Microsoft365 ecosystem.
Stay tuned to know more about the certification and our activities in the news section on our site.
Mida and FVC: a new opportunity in the Middle East
Mida Solutions is ready to sign a new strategic collaboration that will help strengthen its positioning in the Middle East and Africa markets: FVC - First Video Communications will soon be a new business partner. Mida is proud to work with such a leading value-added distributor (VAD) with more than 19 years of experience.
FVC provides solutions applied to Unified Communications, unified collaboration, audio-visual, information security and infrastructure in over 50 countries. With its global network of partners, FVC creates value for enterprises combining the best technologies and services with professional full support. The company’s main aim is to accelerate the customers’ digital transformation processes through innovative solutions to differentiate themselves in the market and skyrocket their business.
FVC, conveniently located in Dubai and Riyadh, supports more than 300 enterprises in different sectors as -for example- oil & gas, education, healthcare, government & defense, banking & finance, Service Providers, and hospitality.
Mida and FVC have been in contact for one year now and both are ready to officialize this collaboration and become official partners.
An additional plus of this collaboration is that both FVC and Mida are Ribbon Communications partners, so FVC commercial offerings could benefit from the full integration of Mida’s UC applications with Ribbon’s SBC. This scenario can be quite common when selling Direct Routing and contact center solutions for Microsoft Teams.
To know more about Mida Solutions’ products and business partnerships visit our website or contact us directly.
Microsoft Ignite 2020 in a nutshell
Microsoft Ignite 2020 has just finished and there are some fantastic features coming soon in Microsoft Teams that highlight the deep integration of this communication platform with other Microsoft tools and services. The pandemic has undoubtedly accelerated Teams worldwide adoption, and it is now the platform chosen by a wide number of companies, universities, and schools.
Employee’s well-being at work
After Covid-19, the work-life balance has changed and people now have more virtual meetings during the day. This can be a remarkable source of stress that we need to be aware of, and that we should keep control of because taking care of the people first means taking care of the business accordingly. At Ignite Microsoft announced new well-being and productivity insights powered by MyAnalytics and Workplace Analytics that will be integrated with Microsoft Teams.
“When you focus on wellbeing and bringing in mindfulness at all levels, it can change the whole business. It can change business outcomes and how every employee feels” says Janardhan, general manager of MyAnalytics and Workplace Analytics.
These improvements will help people create boundaries between the different parts of the day, especially as smart working dissolved the ones we were used to having between work and home. The virtual commute experience in Teams will help people be more productive during working hours and to be mindful and disconnected in the evening. Microsoft also announced the partnership with Headspace, which will be the official mindfulness and meditation program for Microsoft employees, reducing employee’s stress by 32%.
New features for Teams Meetings
Microsoft announced some smart tools that can help people make work a more pleasant experience.
Together mode is the main news in Teams meetings: it creates an immersive meeting experience, putting all participants on the screen, with a customized background (e.g. a coffee shop or an auditorium) that help them feel closer.
Custom layouts help presenters to customize their meeting and define how contents appear on the screen. This includes, for example, making PowerPoint slides available as background, while the presenter will speak in the foreground!
Thanks to Webinar registration and reporting organizers will also have the possibility to organize an event, like a webinar or a meeting, using registration with automated emails. After the meeting, they will have access to a reporting dashboard to analyze engagement data.
Breakout Rooms will have a massive impact on conferences with a high number of participants, as organizers will be able to divide people into smaller groups, for private discussions or brainstorming sessions. The organizers have full control of all breakout rooms and can decide whether to make public announcements (public in all rooms) or private communications. This will be available in October.
A meeting recap will be available soon in Outlook calendar events, it will include shared files, meeting recording, and real-time transcript. This option will be essential for people that couldn’t attend the meeting and still want to stay updated.
Collaborative calling will help Teams’ users to connect a queue to a Teams channel. Thanks to this feature operators will have the possibility to share information and files in the channel while serving the calls in the queue. This tool is designed to help desks and hotlines.
CPaaS: Microsoft launches Azure Communication Services
Another interesting announcement during Microsoft Ignite 2020 was Azure Communication Services, a fully managed cloud communications platform that makes it easier for enterprises to create their own customized communications channel with the customers. This service is very similar to others (like Twilio, Telnyx) but - as it leverages on the complete integration with the other Microsoft 365 products and tools- it has got both the cover and the chops to become a leading CPaaS solution. Only time will tell!
“Azure Communication Services makes it easy to add voice and video calling, chat, and SMS text message capabilities to mobile apps, desktop applications, and websites with just a few lines of code” says Scott Van Vliet, Corporate Vice President, Intelligent Communications at Microsoft. Reference on Microsoft Azure website for the whole interview.
To find out more about all the announcements made at Microsoft Ignite 2020 read this article on Microsoft’s blog.
Google Cloud Business Application Platform: no-code applications
As Covid-19 Pandemic is massively accelerating digital transformation, there is an increasing interest from enterprises to build applications, integrate them, digitalize or improve the existing systems, or automate processes.
As a response to this new tendency, Google Cloud is opening up the opportunity for companies to leverage on no-code app development and automation capabilities in the Google Cloud Business Application Platform.
“That has been driving a lot of the thinking at Google for quite a few of years already,” said Amit Zavery, VP, GM and head of platform at Google Cloud. “We’re bringing a lot of … things together in an offering so that customers can take advantage of a lot of the innovation in this space and improve the digital transformation — and innovate quickly as well.”
With Business Application Platform also people with no particular background in coding can create applications and basic automation processes: this is going to be a huge step forward in enterprises with small or burdened technology departments, as they’ll be able to modernize systems very quickly and easily. “The innovation is happening very fast,” says Zavery “They can point, click and start building an application and be effectively [producing] something.” You can see the entire interview to Zavery at this link.
Since Covid-19 happened employees have changed the way they work - being forced to do part-time or full-time smart working - consequently many enterprises are taking that as a chance to accelerate and improve their digitalization processes. This situation also affected the Unified Communications market, making it crucial for UC companies to deliver their solutions also in the cloud.
Mida Solutions made its UC solutions available in the cloud quite a long time ago, with the publication of its contact center, attendant console, and recorder solutions in Microsoft Azure Marketplace.
We are now in the process of entering into other marketplaces, like for example Google Cloud Platform, so get in touch with us if you stay up to date with any news regarding Mida Solutions Cloud UC applications.
Contact Center for Microsoft Teams: all you need to know!
Contact Center for Microsoft Teams: all you need to know!
Microsoft Teams is currently one of the most popular applications for collaboration in enterprise contexts hence many companies worldwide are now considering its adoption as a Unified Communication system.
But when it comes to advanced UC, some additional functionalities for professional contact centers may be required (at least to date!).
This is the reason why some of the major players in the field of UC applications are proposing contact center solutions for Microsoft Teams. From the architecture point of view, there are currently few options available for Independent Software Vendors that want their contact center applications to integrate with Microsoft Teams to manage incoming calls.
Premise: Teams Client API for call control
We are realizing from questions coming from our customers and prospects that there is a common misconception about what a contact center solution can and can’t do in Microsoft Teams client. Most of the misunderstanding comes from the fact that Teams is so appreciated by enterprises that use it as a hub for teamwork, that they expect it to be as performing from the call center point of view.
Microsoft has released some API for the integration of the console with third-party applications, but call management APIs have not been shared yet. That means that currently, third party applications cannot manage Teams incoming calls directly; as queue management is among the key features of a professional contact center, this implies that without Teams client APIs for call control a contact center has limited fields of action.
In brief, having a contact center integrated into Microsoft Teams console is possible but currently, all UC Independent Software Vendors are facing the same situation: they can offer contact center solutions integrated into Teams with basic call management functionalities. This is still an option suitable for small companies, dealing with one or a few operators, but for large enterprises, it is definitely not profitable.
Does this mean that you cannot have a professional contact center in Microsoft Teams?
Of course, you can!
Simply, the advanced contact center solutions available on the market cannot be integrated into Microsoft Teams client - as per the reason just mentioned, the lack of call control APIs limits the functionality they can technically perform.
Today the only option to deliver a full Contact center for Microsoft Teams is through a UC software that leverages the session Border Controller Direct Routing integration to manage incoming calls. Calls will then be dispatched to agents using a Teams client or a Teams compatible device. Queue status and calls statistics will be visible on a specific browser page that can be integrated into a Teams client tab.
Direct Routing? Yes, but through certified SBCs
Direct Routing is an alternative to Microsoft Calling Plans, allowing you to make calls to external landlines and mobile phones from Microsoft Teams using a Session Border Controller. The SBC allows organizations to connect external phone lines and use Teams as an office phone system. In the Countries/regions where Microsoft Calling Plan is not available, this is the only solution that allows the connection to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).
There is an official list of the Session Border Controllers certified by Microsoft for Direct Routing in Teams. Here’s the list of certified SBCs.
Microsoft 365 Calling Plans
In order to be able to call external numbers directly from Microsoft Teams, you can use Microsoft itself as your telephony carrier. This is possible adding to your corporate Microsoft 365 accounts a Phone System add-on license and then a calling plan license (you can choose between domestic or international according to your needs).
Calling Plans are not available in every country/region, so you should refer to Microsoft official availability list.
Should you have any doubts about using Microsoft Teams as your UC platform, please reach out! We’ve been working on the integration of our products with Microsoft Teams for 2 years, and we integrate with most of Microsoft Teams certified SBCs.
Microsoft Ignite 2020- Digital Edition
Microsoft Ignite, one of Microsoft’s biggest digital event experience in the IT market, is approaching and Mida Solutions has already registered its team for following experts’ training and sessions.
This year, in light of the impacts of the Coronavirus, Microsoft Ignite takes place virtually on September 22-24, 2020 and is going to be a free event. It’s the second online event by Microsoft this year and for sure it’s not the last one: most of its events in 2020 and through June 2021 will be digital-only.
Microsoft Ignite was originally supposed to be a week-long in-person event in New Orleans, but after COVID-19 diffusion, Microsoft decided to reschedule the event in two digital appointments. The first one will be September 22-24 and the second will be scheduled for the beginning of 2021.
The event is a great opportunity for companies to connect with experts and technology leaders, working in the Microsoft ecosystem and Furthermore it’s totally free.
Chris Capossela - Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer- commented on Ignite 2020 “We now have the opportunity to bring the whole global community together in one place to create a truly worldwide event” he highlighted that Ignite “...will have language localization, and participants will also be able to get skill building with Microsoft Learn and certifications.”
This edition is the place to be as - thanks to the virtual format - it will replace also all the Microsoft Ignite Tour events in different cities around the world this year.
Join this professional community and register now for Microsoft Ignite!
What will be new in Teams and Microsoft365 after MS Inspire?
During Microsoft Inspire 2020 Edition, Microsoft experts announced some exciting updates of Microsoft Teams.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the way people communicate and collaborate is changed and remote and hybrid work increase exponentially.
“We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months.”
said Satya Nadella, CEO Microsoft
People now search for innovative cloud solutions and choose Microsoft Teams as a communication and collaboration platform because it is efficient, flexible, suitable to be used in business and educational environments and also for everyday life.
“We will cover the unprecedented opportunity for partners with Teams and Microsoft 365”
said Nicole Herskowitz, General Manager in Microsoft
Here are some of the next updates announced by Microsoft: :
- Data protection will be enhanced and the user will be able to visualize the data without leaving Teams;
- Third-party applications and services in Teams meetings will be better integrated into Teams. This will enable more interesting and engaging virtual meetings and a more efficient file sharing and workflow management of data and documents. Apps like Power Platform, Power BI (for better collaborate with reports and insight), Dataflex and Power Virtual Agent will be much easier for users to utilize.
- Developers and independent software vendors will be able to integrate directly their apps into Teams. The pioneer partners that will access this opportunity will be Poly, Open Agora, Miro, iCIMS and HireVue;
- new chatbots and bot will be improved. Responsa recently announced that the integration of its chatbots with Microsoft Teams will enable a more efficient and immediate response to users’ frequently asked questions;
- more dynamic views, video filter, multi-window in virtual meetings and calls have been announced. The new video experience will include a new background changing option and the possibility to remove distracting background noises. This gives the possibility to see better the reactions of the users during the sessions and to catch live reactions. Teams will be more inclusive with live captions with speakers attribution.
- Microsoft Lists for Teams will allow you to track information and organize your work, with your custom view. Workers will easily track issues, assets, routines, contacts, inventory and more using custom views and smart rules and alerts to keep other colleagues in the team synchronized.
User experience is always fundamental for Microsoft and this is the reason for continuous updates and improvements. All these recently announced updates will improve the engagement of users on the platform.
Contact us to understand how our contact center solution can help your company customize also voice communications in Microsoft Teams...
Microsoft Inspire: feedback from virtual event
Microsoft Inspire, the annual conference held for the Microsoft Corporation partner community has ended just a few days ago. Due to Covid-19 Pandemic, Microsoft Inspire this year was a three days online event with 532 sessions about product innovations, business applications, leadership and trends.
Our staff has booked some interesting inspirational lessons to stay up to date on Microsoft news, especially on the ones regarding the changes that happened during and because of the Covid pandemic. This is important for the business’s growth.
During this pandemic, Microsoft and his partners played a central role in adapting digital technologies to reinvent productivity, helping customers in everyday life.
The scenario shaped by the current global emergency highlights that now there’s a new way to work together, to collaborate, to get to know each other, and also customers’ behaviors are changed:
- People need to remote everything and look to online solutions for innovation
- Companies need to be flexible and transform and reimagine their business inspiring customers in sustainable and inclusive ways
- Companies need to engage customers with new practices
- There is a cloud migration of information, skills, culture, data and content
- Data security and privacy are fundamental to have people’s trust
- Companies need to optimize organization to keep customers and employees safe
With responsible artificial intelligence, people will see the world differently. There are a new revolution and many new challenges for companies.
Microsoft Teams is a hub of collaboration and represents for enterprises the possibility to integrate a professional collaboration platform with Microsoft 365 and the Azure Cloud. As explained also by the opportunity to create collaborations for connections and collaborations related also with Microsoft 365 and Azure to reorganize the work and be more productive in the cloud. There are many tools to collaborate with a team no matter where they are.
We’re a Microsoft partner with more than 15 years of experience in Unified Communications solutions and we’re proud to have some of our solutions integrated also with Microsoft Teams, as providing turnkey communications applications for Microsoft ecosystem represents our commitment to evolution and innovation.
Contact us, we’ll help you integrate Teams into your company as a UC platform with our solutions.
Commsverse: feedback from the Teams online conference
Commsverse, the biggest independent Microsoft Teams Conference & Exhibition organized by experts in the Microsoft Collaboration and Communication platform Teams has just ended.
Commsverse was really one of a kind event with over 200 sessions, 35 exhibitors, …. and the event was totally done in the dedicated Commsverse Microsoft Teams account. During the 3-days event, covering 3 time zones, the speakers shared with attendees both inspiring suggestions on Teams’ adoption, integration and usage, and the new technologies integrated with Microsoft Teams.
Like other IT companies, we had the chance to present to more than 2000 attendees our Unified Communications solutions for Microsoft Teams and chat directly with them and with other exhibiting companies.
This year, unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the in-person conference could not take place, but we enthusiastically came aboard this challenging new type of online conference, as we felt that was just the thing to do!
The event was organized completely using Microsoft Teams, arranging the different macro-topic in different Team (i.e. Conference information, Auditorium Voice, Auditorium Automation, Auditorium Collaboration etc). and giving each exhibitor its own booth, inside a dedicated Team channel. Interesting was also the opportunity to book 1:1 consultation with our team for any questions and doubts.
There was also the virtual expo Hall in Altspace VR, recreating a real in-person venue, in which exhibitors and attendees could walk around booths, meeting each others’ avatars and also taking advantage of a private room for each vendor, to continue more private conversations with attendees.
Summarizing the overall numbers of the event:
- 2200 participants
- 200 sessions
- 72 hours of meetings
- 35 exhibitors
- 100 speakers
Our sessions were focused on Mida Attendant Console and on how to migrate seamlessly a contact center from a legacy environment to Microsoft Teams.
Our Business Development Manager Giovanni Nieddu was also co-speaker in one of Fuse2 Communications’ sessions about Direct Routing and he took part also in a roundtable with Ribbon Communications, about the integration between their Teams certified Session Border Controllers and our UC solutions.
If you didn’t get into this awesome event, contact us to know more about our UC products for Microsoft Teams. We’re happy to answer any questions you may have.
Looking forward to meeting next years’ attendees at the in-person event at Mercedes-Benz World March 8th-9th, stay tuned for more updates!