Frequently Asked Questions

Microsoft 365 Business Voice is a bundled service offering designed to offer small business organizations a cost-effective way to deploy basic telephone/voice services for Microsoft Teams.

While Business Voice is a great solution for small businesses, many times organizations with more than 20 employees have needs that go beyond basic telephony features. BlueSky UC Direct Routing plans offer a cost-effective alternative to Microsoft 365 Business Voice and deliver high quality calls, premium support, flexible pricing featuring volume discounts, custom routing options, failover capabilities and more.

Enterprise Voice is designed for organizations with over 300 users and delivers the same features and services as Microsoft 365 Business Voice. It is the type of license your organization needs if it grows beyond 300 users. Contact us today for more information.

To add voice/telephony capabilities to your organization, you need to have a Microsoft 365 plan that includes Microsoft Teams. To that, you also need to add a Phone System license (unless your plan already includes that) and ultimately, PSTN connectivity via a Microsoft Dial Plan or a Direct Routing service like BlueSky UC. For best results, follow Microsoft’s guidelines to ensure quality of service and connectivity readiness in your site(s). Our team is available to answer any questions you may have to help you plan your Teams Voice deployment.

It is a phone number or DID (direct inbound dial number) assigned to your company or a user in your company. Microsoft Teams uses different telephone number types – such as users and services- depending on the purpose for which you want to use them.

Phone System is a licensed service that, when paired with Microsoft Calling Plans and/or Direct Routing, provides a full enterprise calling experience for Office 365 users in Microsoft Teams on a global scale.

Absolutely! Microsoft Teams has become an essential platform and the hub for collaboration and business communication since 2016. Through BlueSky UC Direct Routing, organizations enable their users to make and receive PSTN calls without leaving their Microsoft Teams environment. Microsoft Teams has been recognized as a Leader in Gartner UCaaS and Meetings Solutions Magic Quadrants.

Absolutely. We sell and support Microsoft Domestic Calling Plans in addition to our own premium service offerings. Our staff can also help you plan and deploy your company number porting, call routing and other custom configurations to seamlessly replace or upgrade your existing phone system.

Microsoft dial plans are a great way to get started with voice functionality for Microsoft Teams. Our premium voice services are designed for organizations replacing existing phone systems and who need more advanced features and enterprise-class carrier services. Our offerings include voice failover, advanced support and additional functionality such as volume discounts, Teams voice call recording, Teams contact center services and more.

Our BlueSky UC premium Direct Routing services have been designed to offer a no-commitment alternative to Microsoft Calling Plans. BlueSky UC client organizations enjoy benefits such as:

• Enterprise-class carrier support that delivers higher availability
• Advanced failover capabilities in the event of Teams or Microsoft Cloud outages
• A flexible pricing model based on volume featuring pay as you go options go as well as term discounts
• Available critical support featuring 30-minute response SLA

To get started with BlueSky UC Direct Routing all you need to do is contact us. One of our client specialists will reach out to you within 2 hours (office hours) to answer questions and plan your evaluation or deployment of Microsoft Teams Voice. You can count on us for expertise on Microsoft Teams licensing, project planning, Microsoft Teams Voice readiness, Microsoft Teams DID porting assistance, training, support and more.

Absolutely. Leveraging the benefit of our UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) model, many clients are up and running the same day. The length of your Teams Voice installation and complexity depends on your organization size and requirements.

You do not need to purchase any software or special equipment to deploy Microsoft Teams Voice. Our hosted plans deliver full UC/telephony functionality, including high availability and failover capabilities, without need of an SBA.

Yes. You can open ticket requests via our advanced support portal.

Yes, we offer both project work as well as advanced support plans for Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business.

We serve clients worldwide and are headquartered in beautiful Austin, Texas.

Yes, you can port your phone numbers from your current service provider to Teams voice. After we help you port your phone numbers over, Microsoft will become your service provider.

Yes, you can run simple reports to get insights into how users in your organization are using Teams. Through our built-in CDR, you will get detailed reporting of your Microsoft Teams PSTN calls without additional cost on our Direct Routing plans for Microsoft Teams.

Yes, when both parties in a 1:1 VoIP call turn on E2EE, the communication between them in the call is encrypted from end-to-end. No other party, including Microsoft, has access to the decrypted conversation.

The BlueSky Contact Center for Microsoft Teams was built natively, using the Microsoft Teams technology stack. No additional software to install or integrate is needed, which makes it simpler to learn and deploy when compared to other platforms.

The BlueSky Contact Center was built using the native Microsoft Communication APIs (Application Programming Interface), consequently it performs naturally within the Microsoft Teams environment, which makes collaboration between team members more effective and seamless.

The BlueSky Contact Center is a native solution that offers a modern communication management experience through a set of core features, including:

• Cloud auto attendants
• Cloud call queues
• Presence-based call routing
• Music on hold
• Auto attendant bypass
• Transfer to voicemail during a call
• ACD (Automatic Call Distribution)
• Score-based routing
• Discrete presence-based routing
• Call x-ray
• Core reporting
• Live Call Wallboard
• Track abandoned calls
• Not handled calls
• Dropped calls
• Call back & voicemail capabilities
• Desktop notifications
• Skill Opt in/out
• Native Teams compatibility
• PSTN call-recording
• Screen pop with application integration
• Custom configuration/services

These are just some of the most requested features available at the moment. Nevertheless, the BlueSky Contact Center is an always evolving platform, so please expect the release of more advanced features in the near future.

Standardizing all company communications will lead to only one platform to learn and manage, as well as to a reduction in overhead costs, increased workforce efficiency, detailed insights, and enhanced customer experience.

The BlueSky Contact Center Sidekick is an optional desktop application included in the BlueSky Contact Center which enables agents to have a clearer view of the incoming call activity via Microsoft Teams Screen pop. You can integrate incoming call data with backend systems such as CRM, Helpdesk, and other lines of business applications to offer the agent greater insight and better customer experience.

The following data will be visible for agents through the BlueSky Contact Center Sidekick:

• Call History
• Callbacks
• Caller ID
• Leads
• Tickets
• Opportunities

The BlueSky Contact Center Sidekick is included in all BlueSky Contact Center plans, at no additional cost.

The BlueSky Contact Center main communication channel at the moment is voice, nevertheless, the BlueSky Contact Center is an always evolving platform, so please expect the release of more options like chat, SMS, email, etc. in the near future.

To get started with BlueSky Contact Center all you need to do is contact us. One of our client specialists will reach out to you to answer questions and plan your evaluation and deployment of Microsoft Teams Contact Center.

All of our Teams premium voice (direct routing) plans require proper Microsoft 365 licensing. Contact us today for licensing guidance and more information.

Absolutely! Our Microsoft services feature packaged offerings to help you plan and migrate your workloads and data to Microsoft 365 and Azure! Contact us to schedule a free consultation today

We offer complete lifecycle services including planning, migration/porting, end user training and adoption and help desk services. We also help you leverage software assurance, FastTrack and existing non-published Microsoft resources to ensure the success of your Microsoft Teams deployment.

Yes. We require a minimum of 250 users to support BYOT (bring your own trunk) plans.

Good call quality with Teams is often the result of many factors including bandwidth availability and quality, firewall settings, local network conditions, internet traffic conditions and especially the endpoints you use. For Microsoft guidance specific to QOS make sure you read this article or contact us for direct support.

No.

When compared to other services, Microsoft Teams is thrifty on bandwidth requirements with great audio calls requiring as little as 30 kbps. Read this article for more information on bandwidth requirements and network preparation.

We work with the best UC hardware partners in the business to consult on recommended gear depending on your needs, including desk phones, all types of headsets, conference rooms, etc., as well as custom installation services anywhere in North America. Contact us today for more information.

We do have a great Partner Program and work with Partner and Agent companies succeed with Microsoft Cloud and Voice solutions. Contact us for more information.

Devices certified for Teams provide seamless Teams experience on desk phones, conference phones, and meeting room systems.
To deliver a high-quality and reliable Microsoft Teams experience on phones, Microsoft is partnering and actively working with Yealink, Crestron, Lenovo, Polycom, and Audiocodes to develop and certify a wide portfolio of desk phones and conference room audio devices. To get the latest information on Teams devices, please contact us.