Organizations using Microsoft Teams and Teams Phone can maximize their investment by integrating a contact center solution. Connecting a Unified Communication solution (UCaaS) like Teams with a Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) platform allows organizations to unify their telephony infrastructure, streamline data management, and unlock the full potential of AI-driven capabilities.
Microsoft provides three contact center integration options for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs): Connect, Extend, and Unify. These offer varying depths of integration.
| Connect | Extend | Unify | |
| Summary | Contact center solution connects to Teams phone system infrastructure using SIP connectivity | Contact center integrates with the Teams client through the Cloud Communications API in Microsoft Graph | Contact center directly accesses Teams functionality using Teams Phone extensibility. |
| Integration | SIP trunking, presence API | Cloud Communications API in Microsoft Graph | Teams phone extensibility via ACS Call Automation and Calling SDK, OpenAI and other Microsoft tools |
| User client | Standalone client or third-party app in Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Teams | Application of choice or Microsoft Teams |
| Call connectivity/ PSTN | Direct routing (SBC) | Direct Routing, Operator Connect, and Calling Plans | Direct Routing, Operator Connect, and Calling Plans |
| Call handling | The call arrives in the contact center solution via the SBC. The contact center solution locates the right user in Teams and sends the call to Teams via a SIP trunk. | The call comes directly into Teams and stays within the customer's Teams tenant. The contact center doesn't handle the call; it simply tells Teams which user to send the call to. | The call comes directly into Teams and stays in the customer's Teams tenant. The contact center solution can access all call functionality directly in Teams and connect callers to the right user. |
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Connected contact centers, which connect to Teams through direct routing and certified SBCs, are a quick and easy way to quickly integrate an existing contact center solution with Teams. Such contact centers often act like a conductor orchestrating a symphony and are a good option for organizations that want to harmonize different communication systems such as Teams and other communication platforms or telephony systems in a single solution. Connected contact centers can take one of two forms:
Because Conntected contact centers provide only a single point of connection between the contact center solution and Teams, the call first arrives at the contact center solution, which then retrieves the presence status of employees in Teams. The call can then be handled in one of two ways, depending on whether it is a standalone client or a third-party application.
In a standalone client, the contact center solution routes the customer interaction to an available employee in the standalone contact center client. Any modality that the solution offers (e.g. voice, video, chat, screenshare) can be used. These are not Teams-modalities but proprietary interactions within the contact center solution. Standalone clients are most often seen in traditional contact centers.
In third-party applications in Teams, the contact center solution sends the customer interaction to Teams using Direct Routing. The employee receives a normal Teams call. This is especially useful for informal agents, such as internal help desk or call groups, who receive customer calls on an irregular basis. Optionally, the solution provider can provide a dedicated Teams application for users with additional functionality, such as information about the current call, a streamlined user interface, or a 360-degree customer view.
In both cases, the call, and therefore the audio stream, first arrives at the contact center solution (managed by the solution provider) and either stays there (standalone solution) or is sent to Teams (third-party application). The solution provider must provide security and encryption for the calls on its solution. It's also important where the solution provider has hosted its service geographically, which should be considered in terms of GDPR, internal data policies, and voice quality.
In standalone clients, the communication platforms are independent of each other. As a result, users can receive a contact center call and a Teams call at the same time. Solution providers can provide a better user experience with a third-party application. In this scenario, employees use Teams as their only client and can only receive calls through Teams, eliminating the possibility of multiple calls. But whether you use a standalone client or a Teams application, call handling is managed by the contact center solution and routed through multiple systems and locations. This can lead to latency and poor call quality, such as delays and jitter. Connected contact centers with third-party applications also can't switch modalities to video calls or use chat or screen sharing from within Teams; interactions are limited to voice calls.
Extended contact center solutions streamline the admin and user experience in Microsoft Teams. This includes single sign-on, call handling, and presence status. Everything is consolidated within the familiar Teams environment, which means little to no training is required. Users can make normal Teams calls and easily switch between communication modes, moving seamlessly from a voice call to screen sharing.
With the Unify model, contact center solutions can leverage the Teams calling infrastructure directly in their applications. Using Teams Phone extensibility via Azure Communication Services (ACS) Call Automation and Calling SDKs enables a full consolidation of the two systems. This means organizations benefit from the full power of both UCaaS and CCaaS solutions and can directly access services from Azure such as the Cognitive Services. This opens up the possibility to serve more customer service use case scenarios, such as latency-free real-time translation. Think of a contact center built with Teams Phone extensibility as a tandem bike, with two riders pedaling in perfect sync. Organizations only have to manage a single application of their choice and benefit from two powerful systems.
Luware Nimbus Power is our first-gen Unified contact center solution.
The Unify model makes call handling seamless. While contact centers integrated using the Extend model experience minimal time delays, contact centers integrated with Unify can leverage ACS directly. Consequently, native Teams features such as voice streaming and voice recording can be processed in real time with no time lag.
As Azure AI services such as text-to-speech and Gen AI integrations can be used directly, features like transcription, summarization and simultaneous translation can be used without a time lag. This makes communication much more seamless.
Contact centers built with the Unify model allow organizations to manage a single, unified phone system within their preferred application. This could be Microsoft Teams or a CRM or ERP like Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics. By seamlessly integrating UCaaS and CCaaS capabilities, businesses can streamline communications and increase efficiency. The result is a smooth, intuitive, and cohesive communication experience.