Automated Transcript
Jack Carr, Team Leader Solutions Consultant at Gamma:
We live in a challenge-focused world, right? Challenges are what design our solutions, and it’s only a solution if it solves the problem. Unfortunately, it can be seen that several major service providers might not necessarily focus on the challenges affecting the main market. It’s something that we do see, and we understand that some of our propositions are designed with strong points to help address those challenges for SMEs.
Now, what we’re going to be honing in on is Microsoft Operator Connect and how that can address some of the challenges we’ve seen, getting feedback from real businesses within the SME space. First of all, in these smaller organisations, it’s not uncommon for users to wear multiple hats. They might not have a designated job role, and if they do, there’s a good chance they fulfil other duties outside of that.
If you’re living that kind of professional lifestyle, you probably need a really simple toolset right in front of you that’s easy to pick up, easy to scale, and that you can use on the move or at a desk, however you need to, because you’re probably fulfilling multiple roles, and that can impact where you’re working and how you’re doing so.
Tom Hunter, Solutions Consultant at Gamma:
I absolutely agree with you. So, Operator Connect specifically for the SME market is a brilliant tool. Exactly as you say, these are small businesses, people with multiple hats within these organisations. They don’t want a solution that’s going to take countless numbers of people managing it. So, with Operator Connect, it’s as simple as saying, “Hello, can I please be enabled for Operator Connect? Here is a contract for you.”
And it’s just a case of clicking a button to have numbers that they may have on another solution shared onto the admin centre, and with a couple of clicks on a great interface, assign those numbers. You’re up and running with the Microsoft licences. The solution itself is exactly what these sorts of customers need in terms of ease of use.
Jack Carr:
And what about the end users? I mean, if I’m moving away from an old phone system, and I use Teams as a regular day-to-day application, how simple is it for me to pick it up? Is it going to be something that disrupts my actual working day?
Tom Hunter:
The short answer is no, not at all. But let’s be honest, people do not like change. The good news is that the Operator Connect experience is seamless. As you say, people are using Teams day in, day out, and, to be honest, they’re likely using the calls for internal purposes every day. All Operator Connect will do from an end-user experience perspective is provide that functionality but with a dial pad so they can make and receive internal and external calls.
So, user experience-wise, it’s very straightforward. If you looked at the Operator Connect interface and generally the Teams phone interface, you’d notice a lot of similarities with most modern phones or any sort of telephony solution. The actual user adoption and ease of use are brilliant because it’s a really familiar interface.
For the SME market, another big factor is the cost. Obviously, the funds for these businesses are limited because they’re a lot smaller. You don’t want a solution with a lot of professional services involved, ongoing management costs, or change costs, etc. You just want something that’s simple—per user, per month, as a service solution that’s super easy and cost-effective to implement.
And that’s where Operator Connect comes in. It’s not like some of our other products, which have a lot more complex functionality in terms of integrations. Operator Connect is as simple as coming to us, we give you the permissions on the admin centre to set it up, and you’re basically good to go on a per-user, per-month cost. Is there anything else cost-wise that you think would be beneficial to the SME market or anything around this point?
Jack Carr:
I think just a few things to pull out. One would be the fact that an OpEx model over a CapEx model is clearly beneficial when companies might not have the ability to purchase a lot of hardware. In some alternative solutions, you need to implement that, and it’s heavily front-loaded rather than spread across the contract level with a per-user, per-month charge.
The other thing would be that Microsoft Teams is an application that’s probably already used in many SME businesses, and your licensing spend may already include some elements of Teams Phone that you’re not even aware of. If not, there is an uplift to that licensing fee, but it’s probably much smaller than you might think when you look at the grand scheme of your total Microsoft licensing spend.
So, if you’re going to go ahead and leverage that, using Microsoft Teams can be quite a cost-effective way to maximise your return on investment. You’re not investing in standalone technology; you’re not buying something new. It’s just making sure you get the maximum return from what you’re already using and spending.
Tom Hunter:
Yes, that’s the thing—it’s not only the cost side of it, but it’s also the single pane of glass approach. I mean, again, everyone likes an easy life. You don’t want a million applications—one for your phone, one for your messages, one for your meetings, whatever it may be. So, you’re absolutely right—utilising the existing Microsoft licences that you currently have is a huge point.
Jack Carr:
Yes, and you touched on it a little bit before, but one of the things that we see within these SME organisations, or even in micro-businesses, is that they might not have a designated IT function. There might not be someone who is solely in charge of it. This might be performed by a director, an owner, or just someone who is maybe a bit more technically versed than the rest of the business, and they inherited that role. So, making sure that life is much easier and backing it with things like a managed service from Gamma with SLAs behind the scenes so that if we do have any issues, they are resolved appropriately. That’s a really powerful thing. And Operator Connect leverages that really well. It uses a familiar toolset in the Teams admin centre.
And when you look at it, as opposed to things like directory syncing, you can leverage a much more graphical-based approach. You don’t need to go down the path of PowerShell. You’ve got much more visibility of your phone numbers within the Teams tenancy. And yes, as you say, streamlining it, removing those barriers to entry—I think that’s something Microsoft really focused on in the SME space with Operator Connect.
Tom Hunter:
Yes, definitely. You’ve hit the nail on the head in terms of usability, and you’re right—the likelihood is it will be somebody who’s just adopted a general IT role as opposed to a specific IT function, and even more specifically, a telephony function. So, yes, with Operator Connect, especially as you say, with the GUI in the Teams admin centre to manage users, and also that familiar feel with other parts of it, leveraging those licences is almost a no-brainer.
Jack Carr:
Totally agree. And one other thing to consider is that it’s quite a scalable solution, right? I mean, OpEx-based, built on a consumption model, you’re not installing kit into your premises. So, there’s no real ceiling to how far you can take the solution. By going down this model, leveraging cloud-based applications, leveraging Microsoft Teams—SMEs don’t want to stay SMEs forever, right? That’s never their goal. They want to grow; they want to have success. And with that, they need the right tools and the right infrastructure to support them. Now, you could do that on a short-term basis, saying, “We’re going to use this technology now, but when we get to a point, we’ll have to reassess everything.” But with Microsoft Teams, you don’t have to do that. It can scale with your business, and as you grow, there’s a whole lot of functionality within Teams that can help you do that.
Tom Hunter:
Yes, absolutely. As you say, leveraging a cloud-based application for a business sector where one of their primary goals is growth, the last thing you want is for anything to take your mind off that. For example, a really complex on-premise telephony system. You just want something that’s out-of-the-box, cloud-based, out-of-sight, out-of-mind, and it just works. And it’s scalable at the same time. So as you grow, it’s just a simple case of adding more users. There’s absolutely no need to upgrade equipment, etc. It’s just a case of, do you have an internet connection? Do you have access to Microsoft Teams? Then you can use this solution.
Jack Carr:
I like that as an advert for Microsoft Teams and Operator Connect. “It works. It works.”
Tom Hunter:
One more thing to add with the Operator Connect to Microsoft solutions—it doesn’t matter whether you are an SME or a massive global corporation. Ultimately, the functionality is exactly the same in the product itself. It really levels the playing field in terms of business functionality. What one person will have will be exactly the same as what a smaller business will have as well.
Jack Carr:
Absolutely. And, you know, we’re not the only people looking at this kind of thing in the SME market, so do keep a lookout. Expect more from us in the SME space.
