"We have long recommended that organizations in need of a new telephony solution consider switching to Teams Calling, especially if they have already invested in Teams and more generally in the M365 environment," notes Vanderstraeten. According to him, Microsoft's cloud telephony offerings are now so mature that they can serve as a full-fledged replacement for the traditional call center that most customers previously had locally somewhere in the company.

Where a standard solution fails, an add-on can provide a solution. “This allows you to add extra functionality tailored to your specific needs for both a traditional telephone exchange and cloud telephony.” Tendfor, a Swedish Microsoft partner, fills in those gaps in Teams Calling for an often-overlooked yet significant group of intensive phone users: reception and contact center staff.

Ready for Omnichannel Communication                            

"Even today, many people still prefer the old familiar way of calling companies and governments," Vanderstraeten acknowledges. "That’s why it’s a good thing that Tendfor has such a strong focus on their solution's speech component. But the world doesn't stand still. In recent years, multichannel and omnichannel communication has gained more and more ground."

That is why Tendfor also wants to focus on the integration of a number of additional communication channels over the course of this year and next year. For example, the Microsoft partner wants to make it possible to add a chatbot to its telephony solution. The same applies to social media. A typical example is the ability to communicate directly from WhatsApp or social media. Of course, all these channels are always brought together on one platform, with one interface for the end user.

Integration with Microsoft Teams

“It's not insignificant,” maintains Vanderstraeten. "Tendfor was the first contact center partner to use Microsoft Teams APIs, and it was the first partner to be certified for it. This means that everything they do is fully in line with Microsoft’s vision and approach. It also allows them to easily link their solution to other solutions within the broader ecosystem of that software provider.

Integrating an AI assistant like Microsoft 365 Copilot into these tools, also provides all the benefits of artificial intelligence. "Just think about the ability to automatically receive a summary of a phone call when it ends." The result is a communication solution for reception and contact center staff that is both highly automated and extremely intelligent.

For Large and Small Alike

“In our services, we are no longer limited to supporting Teams Calling and Tendfor alone,” concludes Vanderstraeten. "With Inetum, we offer our customers the full power of the Microsoft Power Platform. By integrating all these possibilities into our offering, we can develop tailor-made solutions for every customer.

"Finally, I would like to dispel the prejudice that contact center technology is reserved to large companies. Even if you employ only one receptionist, you can easily get in on the Tendfor story. The technology is so scalable, and the SaaS licensing system so flexible, that you can start very small and grow at your own pace to an environment of thousands of agents. It’s not for nothing that Tendfor already facilitates three million active seats around the world."

Want to Learn More?

Of course, you can contact our experts or your usual contact person for more information.