In today’s digital-first economy, meaningful human connection remains a top driver for innovation and business growth. Whether empowering hybrid teams or supporting frontline workers in industries like retail and healthcare, organizations thrive when communication tools enhance every interaction. By facilitating secure, seamless collaboration, businesses can build trust, strengthen customer relationships, and drive measurable impact. Unified communication The post Unify communications and enrich collaboration with AI appeared first on Microsoft in Business Blogs.
In today’s digital-first economy, meaningful human connection remains a top driver for innovation and business growth. Whether empowering hybrid teams or supporting frontline workers in industries like retail and healthcare, organizations thrive when communication tools enhance every interaction. By facilitating secure, seamless collaboration, businesses can build trust, strengthen customer relationships, and drive measurable impact.
Unified communication solutions such as Microsoft Teams Phone can remove traditional barriers, like language and geographic dispersion, to help today’s global workforce foster meaningful connections. By equipping employees with collaboration tools that prioritize flexibility and security, businesses are building stronger teams, driving efficiency, and enriching customer experiences with AI-driven capabilities.
And it all starts with the power of a phone call.
Reimagining communication for a mobile, global workforce
Today’s employees are no longer tied to a desk. A mobile workforce needs reliable calling and video solutions that empower staff to work from almost any location, with virtually any device. With Microsoft Teams Phone, employees can move seamlessly and securely between devices and formats, including chats, calls, and meetings, instead of juggling between multiple apps.
For businesses with a regional or global footprint, the ease of collaboration is fostering new relationships and promoting a more cohesive workplace culture. Energy company SLB uses Microsoft Teams Phone to facilitate communication between employees in more than 120 countries and in working environments ranging from corporate offices to operational locations in the Gulf of Mexico.
“SLB employees work in some very challenging environments, including remote areas of the world where it’s not easy to establish communication,” says Brett Walton, Global Infrastructure Services Manager at SLB. “We have used Teams and now Teams Phone to help us keep our employees well connected, wherever they are.”
By incorporating the generative AI capabilities of Microsoft 365 Copilot, employees and customer service representatives can document and share insights from calls with the ease of a prompt. Imagine an employee who receives a call about a complex issue. The employee can use Copilot to capture the conversation—freeing them from taking notes—and receive an AI-generated summary to share with colleagues.
Inclusivity and accessibility are defining principles for Microsoft. With translation services and accommodations for persons with disabilities, Microsoft Teams Phone and Teams Premium create deeper interpersonal connections and lay the foundation for workforce innovation. The Interpreter agent acts as a translator in Microsoft Teams meetings, and participants with a Copilot license can listen to meetings in their chosen language. Interpreter listens to the spoken language in the meeting and translates it into another language in real time so that participants can collaborate effectively.
Discover real-world use cases that empower employees on the go
- Government entity The UK Home Office ensures all employees, including those with hearing disabilities, can fully participate in meetings through inclusive video communication
- Family-owned Berryessa Gap Vineyards empowers its mobile workforce and enhances the customer experience with Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams
- Learn more about Microsoft Teams and Teams Premium
Driving efficiency and resilience with cloud communications
Companies that move away from traditional landlines and desk phones are creating new opportunities to boost productivity, resilience, and security. And retiring redundant, on-premises landlines can help companies of all sizes realize significant cost savings while simplifying IT management.
For example, midsize management consulting firm ScottMadden is saving an impressive $7,500 every month using Microsoft Teams Phone compared with its previous solution. The company has also elevated its overall security posture with the built-in security of Microsoft Teams, including end-to-end encryption, retention policies, and audit logs.
“By mandating the use of Microsoft’s secure apps for accessing firm data, we’ve significantly reduced the risk of data breaches and unauthorized access, providing peace of mind for both our firm and our clients,” says Clinton Miller, Director of IT at ScottMadden.
REI Co-op, a leading retailer of outdoor clothing, equipment, and services, used Microsoft Teams and Teams Phone to create a hybrid call center supporting a new business unit offering customers guided services for travel adventure. “We initially thought that we’d have to set up a whole new contact center solution to manage incoming customer calls for this business, and then we discovered that Teams could do the job just as effectively,” says Ted Fagerness, Manager, Voice and Video for IT Infrastructure Engineering, at REI Co-op.
Consolidated, cloud-based communication tools are also driving increased resilience compared with on-premises systems. If a company’s Private Branch Exchange—a private network for managing internal and external calls—is affected by a natural disaster, the company can’t communicate by phone.
By contrast, a cloud-based solution has built-in disaster recovery and empowers business continuity. With a high volume of emergency calls especially in their maternity department, Maternal and Family Health Services (MFHS) needed a solution that ensured reliable, always-on connectivity. By choosing Verizon Mobile for Microsoft Teams, they gained the network resilience required to stay responsive in critical moments. This investment empowers their staff to deliver timely care and provides peace of mind for both providers and patients. “You can go to sleep at night knowing that if something happens, your users are still able to make and take calls, especially in an emergency,” Henry Mues, Microsoft Teams Specialist, Verizon.
Explore opportunities to realize cost savings with cloud-based communications and AI
- Learn more about enhancing efficiency with AI automation and insights
- Explore how Microsoft security features protect your communications
Enriching the customer experience with the power of AI
Imagine a world where call center operations are no longer a pain point for customers or employees. Customer service representatives can harness AI for customer insights without moving between apps. And customers receive efficient, personalized services without waiting in long queues or experiencing multiple transfers to new representatives. It’s already possible.
Organizations already using Microsoft Teams Phone can streamline onboarding and simplify pricing by leveraging globally available capabilities such as Calling Plans, Direct Routing, and Operator Connect—without the need to configure a new phone system. Now, they can extend these capabilities to agents working in Dynamics 365 Contact Center (currently in public preview). When customers choose to call, they can hear personalized product and service recommendations during wait times—transforming hold time into an opportunity to deliver added value.
Dynamics 365 Contact Center also works seamlessly with existing customer relationship management software to give call center representatives personalized, AI-driven customer insights without closing the Microsoft Teams Phone interface. Autonomous, AI-powered agents can now manage full workflows, make decisions, and resolve issues for customers, reducing some of the administrative burden on call center representatives. Organizations can rebalance and unlock dynamic capacity by automating routine tasks while upskilling representatives to focus on high-value, human-led interactions that foster customer satisfaction and trust.
According to a forthcoming commissioned Total Economic Impact™ study conducted by Forrester Consulting, organizations that embrace Dynamics 365 Contact Center with Teams Phone extensibility are projected to reduce integration service fees and telephony consumption costs. These businesses could also cut the time they spend on infrastructure management by at least 10%. More importantly, customers and service representatives can enjoy a seamless, personalized experience that builds customer trust and engagement.
Equipping your organization with seamless, unified communication solutions creates the personal connections that drive collaboration and customer trust. With its commitment to secure, integrated communication solutions, Microsoft can help guide or accelerate your communication revolution.
Learn more about Dynamics 365 Contact Center and how unified communication solutions are redefining work
- Explore practical tips and solutions for empowering employees with enhanced communications
- Read more about Microsoft Teams Phone extensibility for Dynamics 365 Contact Center and certified independent-software-vendor solutions
- Discover how AI is impacting customer service in our blog, AI-powered proactive engagement and conversational journeys with Microsoft Dynamics 365 in public preview
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