From discussions with customers and partners, we realized that there is still quite a lot of confusion about how a contact center can be integrated with Microsoft Teams. Over the last couple of years, many UC companies have launched on the market their contact center solutions for Microsoft Teams and some common adjectives used in their products’ presentation are “fully integrated”, or“native” to Microsoft Teams.

This is definitely one of the aspects that generate confusion and ambiguity as, despite the fact that contact center solutions use different integration approaches, they all (or almost all) claim to be “completely” integrated into Teams.

Integration models: Connect, Extend, Power

Yet there is a classification, defined by Microsoft itself on this page which is a good starting point in shedding light on the different approaches and their main differences. 

Microsoft differentiates contact centers in Connect, Extend, and Power depending on how contact center solutions can be integrated with Teams. It should be noted, however, that on this official page Microsoft lists all the providers offering contact center solutions “that are integrated into Teams using one of the Connect, Extend, or Power integration models”, without specifying which type of integration each of them uses. Probably in the future, Microsoft would make a distinction between providers using one or another approach, which would definitely help clear up any remaining doubts.

In this article, we want to unfold the different approaches and highlight the peculiar pros and cons for customers.

Connect: the certified approach that uses SIP connectivity

Contact centers developed using the Connect model leverage Direct Routing to connect the contact center solution to the PSTN and to Microsoft Teams. In terms of technology they then use SIP connectivity and Graph APIs to retrieve the presence from Teams.

There is not just a single way in which connected contact centers integrate into Teams. To our knowledge, here are the different possibilities:

• Third-party client: the connection to Teams is used to retrieve just users’ presence status and the contact center solution is a third-party client or website, managing in a proprietary mode voice communications, video, screen share etc.
• Microsoft Teams client: the contact center leverages Teams as a telephony solution, which means that Teams becomes actually the PBX within the architecture managing communications. In this case, providers may also offer the opportunity to manage calls via a third-party app within Teams.

This last approach is the one we have decided to adopt in Mida Solutions’ C³ Cloud Contact Center for Microsoft Teams, as in our opinion, from a business perspective, it provides several crucial advantages for enterprises (see the following paragraph). Moreover, the SIP connectivity allowed our customers to count on a MS Teams integrated contact center solution since 2019, long before Teams became so popular as UC platform.

Business advantages

• INTEGRATION WITH OTHER PLATFORMS

Among the advantages of the Connect approach probably the most remarkable advantage is that customers can use an existing contact center solution and integrate it with any other communication platform or telephony system besides Teams (eg. Cisco phone system, Skype for Business, Avaya etc.), in a relatively simple and quick way. This is a consistent pro for companies using multiple communications and telephony systems, who want to gather in a single solution multiple contact center departments. The connected contact center uses the same advanced functionalities across all the communication platforms, providing users with these same contact center functionalities.

• AGENTS CAN ROUTE CONTACT CENTER CALLS TO ANY EMPLOYEE

Another key aspect is that any employee can receive contact center calls (using Microsoft Teams client). When an external call is routed via SIP trunk to the SBC and then to the contact center, then it is served by a contact center agent who can route the call to any Teams’ user, no matter what kind of license is associated with that user (i.e. no need to purchase Microsoft E5 or Phone System licenses for all the employees).

With the Connect approach call handling differ according to the contact center integration:

• With third-party client – The contact center software routes the incoming call to an available agent in the standalone contact center client using any modality that the solution offers (e.g. voice, video, chat, screenshare). From the user-perspective this option does not differ much from a non-Teams call handling.
• With Microsoft Teams – The contact center software routes the incoming call to Teams using Direct Routing – the agent receives a normal Teams call and manages it via the standard Teams UX. Optionally the solution provider might provide additional data and functionalities, available through a dedicated Teams app (e.g. operator’s dashboard). From the user perspective, this option does not differ much from a standard Teams call, making it very easy and straightforward for any employees to manage contact center incoming calls.

Mida C ³ Cloud Contact Center actually allows both options, so incoming calls can be managed in our standalone contact center, or they can be managed by agents (i.e. Teams users) using Teams native options or our Attendant Console App for MS Teams. 

What is perhaps not immediate and deserves an ad hoc clarification is the fact that the Mida approach does not simply replace the PBX with Teams. This integration via Direct Routing allows enterprises to obtain advanced features and additional integration for their Teams contact center:

• leverage on the integrations of the Mida contact center with the main CRM applications on the market (Salesforce, Dynamics);
• define and change, when needed, the logics behind call routing in the contact center
• define and change, when needed, IVR in Microsoft Teams;
• collect any data related to the conversations passing through the SBC for KPI analysis (available in different formats, including Power BI reports);
• provide supervisors with real-time and historical advanced reports on operators’ activities and performances of the services managed;
• provide agents with basic real-time and historical reports on their performances.

Another key aspect to analyze in the Connect approach regards the compliance with Privacy regulations: de facto the call is managed by the contact center solution and either stays there (third-party client) or is sent to Teams (Microsoft Teams client). So in terms of security and encryption of conversations the solution provider must directly ensure the adequate management of these aspects.

According to some privacy regulations, like GDPR, it is also important to define where the solution provider hosts the service geographically. Regarding this aspect, we can either host the solution at the customer’s premises (in the cloud or locally) or at our premises (again, in the cloud or locally).

Extend: integration via Cloud Communications API

This approach allows the integration to MS Teams via Cloud Communication API (part of Graph APIs) for presence status, call functionality, and call handling. Extend Contact Centers are entirely built on and exclusively for MS Teams: agents use Teams as their client application.

Call connectivity is managed via Direct Routing, as per the connect approach, or MS Calling Plans. Call handling is very straightforward: the call and media stream stay inside the customer’s Teams tenant so everything from security to encryption is covered by Microsoft itself. Conversations stay in the same location as the customer’s Teams tenant so, as a consequence, call handling is also compliant with the business’ approved GDPR and internal data policies.

Business perspective

Relying on a service provider offering an extended contact center is the option for enterprises willing to fully leverage their investment in the Microsoft ecosystem, thus accepting – to date- substantial compromises in terms of call management functionalities and integration with other applications.

“How come we have these limitations if the Extend model is an API-based integration?” This is a legitimate question, companies may ask themselves when scouting for this type of solution.

Being developed exclusively for Teams, and having the aim to adopt Teams as a single experience hub, the extended contact center is not conceived to be integrated with any other communication or telephony platform. This is a major deterrent for companies having currently in place multiple systems, which they do not want or are not ready to replace at once with Microsoft Teams.

Secondly, the dependency on Microsoft to release APIs is a double-edged sword for service providers offering the Extend approach: on the one hand, the integration with MS Teams is ‘native’ by definition, but on the other hand, it is binding for everything concerning the product development.

Furthermore, being developed from scratch, from the pricing point of view an extended contact center may have higher market prices than a connected solution, as it is logical to assume since service providers have had to deal with larger initial investments into the solution’s design and development.

Mida Solutions’ philosophy towards the Extend model is very pragmatic: we constantly and carefully monitor Microsoft Cloud Communication API updates and new releases, as improving the customer experience within our contact center for Teams is one of our goals. 

We will evaluate the Extend model as soon as we perceive that it allows us to deliver extra value to customers, compared to the current contact center solution built on the Connect model.

The way we see it, “Native” is nothing more than a label, if that does not imply that the solution provides all the call management features you expect from a professional contact center solution.

Power: Teams functionality in the contact center through SDKs (not available yet)

The Power approach will allow service providers to use Microsoft Teams SDKs to bring Teams functionality into their contact center solution. This third integration approach is the more complex and complete one and will make it possible for agents to manage calls directly from the Teams tenant: thanks to MS SDKs the contact center does not have to guide Teams on what to do with incoming calls – the contact center logics will already be present in Teams.

‘Power’ is not available yet, and there is no planned release date available – about this integration approach Microsoft’s official source still shows a date in the past – end of 2021.

Do you want to know more about the Connected contact center solution we have developed for Microsoft Teams and how it works? Please visit the product page or contact us directly through this form!