Lockdown has been an education for all businesses in every sector. As ourselves and our customers rapidly set up remote working it has placed a huge magnifying glass over the systems that we use, and how we use them, and perhaps even more about the systems that others use. A great many businesses have also realised that working from home isn’t so bad – provided they can provide their teams with the right tools to do their job.
Here’s where you come in as trusted advisors as many companies have had to rely on short term, ad-hoc solutions where they took the view that lockdown wouldn’t last long and this was a temporary position. The reality that is evolving is that businesses need to prepare for long term remote working, a potential second wave and needing better tools to manage a disparate workforce.
There’s an opportunity now to sell the dream of a unified experience, setting a standard across businesses and cutting out the noise. The core of a good remote working solution is the ability to deliver intuitive, reliable and secure access to business applications and data. Your customers will be looking to achieve the same experience in and out of the office, and this can be achieved in the cloud using 8×8.
Teams has been rapidly rolled out across many businesses, and its great for team collaboration, video conferencing and messaging – but Teams is not great at voice. It has a nasty habit of conflicting with some other services, analytics are non-existent, and calling externally doesn’t come cheap, either. Ever get that feeling that Microsoft would rather someone else did the voice element?
One question has been asked repeatedly by our partners over the past year: “Does 8×8 integrate with Microsoft Teams?”
Finally, this summer, it will. As a result, you’ll have all the connectivity and integration of Teams, coupled with the enhanced telephony, cheaper (or inclusive) calls, integration with many leading CRMs, analytics… and most importantly, you’ll be able to make those calls from within your existing Teams environment.
The product is really good, the integration that everyone has been asking for, and will genuinely change how we work for the better.
The great news is it launches this summer. Look out for more info, and demo availability, in the coming weeks.
In the meantime start those conversations with your customers about how they have coped in lockdown and identify the pain points they have been experiencing. We have created campaigns for you to start those conversations on the portal with e-casts, blogs and social assets available top start your campaign today.
As ever, if you need support with these campaigns, speak to your channel manager – we are here to help.
Zest4