Everything you need to know about migrating and integrating voice into Microsoft Teams.
Give Microsoft Teams a Voice Everything you need to know about migrating and integrating voice into Microsoft Teams
E B O O K
GIVE TEAMS A VOICE EBOOK
Table of contents
Introduction 02
Getting started isn't that easy 03
Foreword 01
Planning and setting out for success 04
The importance of automation 06
The three step approach 05
Putting the plan into action 07
Final thoughts 08
1. Foreword
Microsoft has always promoted and developed the power of the “bundle”. Microsoft 365 brings together a multitude of tools, and in combining these tools into a “suite”, the results truly become more than the sum of its parts. Within Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams acts as a hub to integrate and allow users to better access the full power of the suite. If your organization includes some of the 270 million monthly active users of Microsoft Teams, adding voice to your current Microsoft Teams deployment is likely to provide user experience and financial benefits. However, larger organizations typically face several challenges when attempting to leverage the benefits of Microsoft Teams as their primary voice solution:
1
Legacy voice platforms can be difficult to decode
Your legacy voice platforms likely developed over time and may involve components from different vendors. Understanding and extracting current configurations can be difficult and time consuming.
2
Skill shortages
Without the right tools, your IT staff will be required to create and execute complicated, and error prone PowerShell scripts to migrate users to Microsoft Teams voice. With manual scripts, it is difficult to rollback should any problems occur. Finding experts with experience in the nuances of large migrations can be difficult.
3
Managing the migration midpoint
There is no “magic wand” you can wave to migrate everything to Microsoft Teams voice instantly. You will be managing multiple platforms for some period. You will need skills and tools that help you make it through the mid-point, often the hardest part of a migration. Keep in mind that you will need to be able to investigate service issues (on both systems), perform number management (on both systems), and onboard and offboard staff (on either system) during the entire migration process.
4
On-going management
With more employees changing organizations, the need to be able to effectively manage changes within your voice environment is critical especially because for some organizations, there is value in maintaining more than one platform for the long-term; for example, contact center, knowledge workers, and frontline staff may be best served by different voice solutions. In large or multi- vendor voice environments, management tools need to support granular security, auditability, and easy rollback in the event changes cause service disruptions. Even the most experienced professional occasionally makes mistakes. The goal in adding voice to Microsoft Teams should be delivering a healthy return on investment for your organization. I appreciate the work that VOSS has done in compiling this eBook. I am confident that this information may help leaders avoid costly migration issues and adopt successful approaches for adding voice to Microsoft Teams.
Kevin Kieller, Co-Founder, EnableUC
2. Introduction
Why voice matters now
In 2025, businesses are not just adopting Teams for messaging and meetings; they are replacing legacy PBX systems, consolidating communication tools, and simplifying workflows. The expectation is clear: seamless internal and external voice communication, all within a unified platform. However, challenges remain. Many enterprises face complexities around carrier selection, number porting, compliance, and ensuring service quality. IT teams are tasked with managing Teams voice at scale, often without the in-house expertise traditionally held by telecom specialists.
All you need to know about migrating to Microsoft Teams Phone. Just a few years ago, voice services were often managed by telecommunications teams, completely separate from the IT department. Today, the landscape has changed. The rise of hybrid work has redefined how we collaborate, and Microsoft Teams has become the global go-to platform for communication. As part of the Microsoft 365 suite, Teams is deeply integrated with productivity apps, making it an essential part of the digital workplace. For many enterprises, adding voice to Teams is the next logical step in their transformation journey — streamlining operations and reducing costs.
The path to successful voice integration with Microsoft Teams Phone
What is Microsoft Teams Phone?
By embracing Microsoft Teams Phone, enterprises can:
In this eBook, we’ll explore how to add Voice capabilities to Microsoft Teams, enabling you to make and receive external telephone calls in your Teams client. This feature, often referred to as voice, is also known in the industry as enterprise voice, PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network), calling, or telephony. We’ll guide you through the essentials of integrating voice with Teams, unlocking a seamless, UC experience.
With careful planning and the right tools, Teams voice migration becomes a growth catalyst — supporting agile working, enhancing customer engagement, and driving innovation. Are you ready to complete your Teams transformation? Let’s get started. Reduce costs: Eliminate legacy hardware, reduce management overhead, and optimize licensing. ▪ Gain insights: Leverage analytics to monitor call quality, user experience, and operational performance. ▪ Unify communication: Replace siloed phone systems with a single platform for chat, meetings, and voice calls. ▪ Enhance productivity: Enable employees to collaborate from anywhere using one integrated solution. ▪
3. Getting started isn't that easy
The journey typically begins with your current voice platform — whether that’s Microsoft Skype for Business, Cisco, Avaya, or another vendor. From there, the goal is to map and transition these services to Microsoft Teams Phone. Sounds simple, but it rarely is. Challenges with legacy systems Today’s enterprise systems are often complex, and extracting reliable configuration data can be a struggle. Many businesses still rely on outdated processes, such as large Excel workbooks, to manage migration - a method that quickly becomes unmanageable and prone to errors. The challenge lies in the sheer volume of data involved, compounded by the complexity of dependencies and outdated information. Data quickly becomes stale, and maintaining synchronization with the live service is difficult, resulting in inaccurate or incomplete records. An alternative approach, involving site surveys to recapture data from the organization, introduces its own set of challenges: lost information, incorrectly completed forms, and long completion times, all of which can lead to costly delays and errors in the migration process.
T op tip: Find a more efficient way to retrieve live configuration data and ensure accuracy.
GETTING STARTED
Mapping current services to Teams and improving UX Once the data is extracted, the next step is mapping the existing services into Microsoft Teams while improving the overall user experience. However, this transition isn’t always straightforward. Voice features from legacy systems don’t always map "one-to-one" with Teams. At this stage, any glitches can lead to a series of post-migration problems, piling up on the service desk and causing user adoption issues. The challenge is ensuring that users can enjoy a smooth transition without experiencing issues such as call quality drops, missing features, or difficulty adjusting to the new system. Addressing these challenges early can prevent delays and enhance the overall success of the migration.
Feature migration Often the feature description and configuration is different, and each feature will need mapping and converting to the equivalent on Microsoft Teams. For example - a Cisco Hunt Group or Skype for Business Response Group will need converting into a Microsoft Teams Call Queue or Auto Attendant. Feature dependancies More complex features are linked, and users with these features (for example a manager and their assistant) need careful consideration in the mapping process and scheduling for the move to Microsoft Teams. Microsoft PowerShell provides some tools for the above, but it is a command line language for skilled operators only, and does not lend itself to predictable and accurate migration projects.
Feature design
Other features will need redesigning to offer a similar if not identical behavior - for example users with multiple contact numbers or users on shared extensions or lines.
Top tip
Find a mechanism to program and automate the process - to reduce the workload, errors, and time to migration with a view to keeping the user experience robust during and after the process.
GETTING STARTED
Be aware of cost drivers
A failing project - one that exceeds its timeline or budget - introduces significant risks and diverts critical skilled staff to salvage the user experience. This often results in prolonged timelines, slower user adoption, and delayed realization of migration benefits. Watch out for: Ongoing demand for skilled staff beyond the design stage ▪ Data sourcing delays, missing information, or inconsistencies ▪ Over reliance on manual PowerShell scripts for configuration ▪ Rushed testing leading to issues during live migration ▪ Large-scale cutovers introducing unnecessary risk ▪ Limited involvement from site or departmental managers ▪ Insufficient security controls and lack of access traceability in Teams ▪ Extended change freeze windows (over a week) ▪
Control the end result
Don’t stop once you are on Microsoft Teams Phone. Once the service is live, make sure you have the toolset to manage, administer, and measure the performance of the Microsoft Teams Phone service against agreed service levels once the service is live. Microsoft 365 brings with it a set of portals and tools that are functional - but if your domain is large and complex solution, look for tooling
that matches and can adequately support you.
Top tip
Choose a comprehensive toolset designed for enterprise grade solutions that covers the full lifecycle, from onboarding, administration, performance management, and reporting.
Top tip
Design a suitable migration process and schedule each batch with the site owner.
4. Planning and setting out for success
What to prioritize in your migration
Faster time to benefits with Teams Phone adoption ▪ Reduced risk and controlled costs ▪ Enhanced user and customer experience to drive adoption ▪ Minimized reliance on scarce technical staff ▪ Efficient user migrations to shorten timelines ▪ Fewer errors, rollbacks, and support calls ▪ Effective decommissioning of old systems to cut costs ▪ Pick a solution with a proven track record Automation for faster time to benefits, improved efficiency, and cost savings Actionable insights to enhance planning and minimize risks Flexible and adaptable to meet evolving migration needs Cloud-delivered for rapid deployment and scalability Batch-based approach with transparent tracking and reporting Non-intrusive migration, maintaining service continuity with real-time monitoring
Once you’ve defined your outcome and timeline, we recommend you implement a proven approach that is fit for purpose in a large-scale global migration.
5. The three step approach
VOSS discovery and migration services offer a fast, efficient pathway to migrating to Microsoft Teams Enterprise Voice. The service includes:
Discovery and insight into existing systems ▪ Automation – flexible mapping rules & business logic ▪ Multi-vendor migration engine (Cisco, Avaya, Microsoft SfB & more) ▪ Controlled and managed process (batch loading, scheduling, reporting, audit) ▪ Option to extend into ongoing ‘day 2’ service management ▪ Professional services to assist and support ▪
Enterprise Voice Cisco, Microsoft, Avaya, Nortel, Siemens, Alcatel, Mitel, and more.
Automate and accelerate the migration of enterprise voice services to Microsoft Teams
VOSS MIGRATE
Discovery Process
Map, Transform and Migrate Advanced business logic, rules and filters; batch loading and migration
Manage Microsoft Teams
Deep data discovery highlighting inventory, possible issues and dependencies
Portal
THREE STEPS
Discovery and insight into existing systems
Step 01
Deep data discovery allows for inspection of current systems, settings, and configuration across a wide array of vendors and diverse systems, such as Cisco, Avaya, as well as CSV files and Excel spreadsheets. Intelligent data extraction, cleaning, and normalization from multiple data sources and types; exportable for offline analysis if required.
Automation to transform, validate, and load the configuration into Microsoft Teams Intelligent data auditing, transformation, and enrichment of the collected data, using advanced business logic and rules. Web-based portal allows multiple administrators to utilize automated content validation functionality and examine and edit the data in real-time prior to finalizing the migration.
Step 02
Switchover into day-to-day management of service You are up and running! Transition to day-to-day service management with an advanced management platform, comprising a single point of administration and integration for your entire digital workplace ecosystem.
Step 03
6. The importance of automation Harness the power of a multi-vendor migration engine Central to the process is a migration engine that can be programmed to fully automate the migration of voice services from existing data and systems and onto Microsoft Teams, including managing the cutover of calls on the live service.
Automate in batches to drive faster migration speeds Batch scheduling of the migration means that the rollout is scheduled according to your business requirements and nottechnical limitations. Each batch can be pre-configured using the process and then an out of hours activity triggered to switch over the service on your timelines. Batches are typically made up of groups of VIP users in particular sites or departments but there’s flexibility in the process to build these around any attribute - for example critical telephone numbers or users may be scheduled first ahead of mainstream services at a site. During each batch run, the data set may be refreshed quickly and easily – by uploading a new import – automation ensures the latest settings are then migrated into Microsoft Teams and change windows are kept short. As the migration progresses, tracking user adoption and experience is critical to ensure the successful rollout of the new service - check on detailed dashboards, diagnostic information, and reporting to monitor service levels, call quality, and performance.
This automation is delivered through:
Standard rules - that can be configured to meet the vast majority of mapping and transformation requirements on a migration project - from relatively simple mappings such as a telephone number or class of service or policy, through to the more complex conversion of existing groups to call queues or auto attendants. Advanced rules - that can be created offline via scripts and then loaded into the process to cater for any business or technical migration requirement, whatever the complexity. Automation takes the guesswork out of the migration - results are tested, accurate and proven every time, delivering a fast and error free process with the minimum of manual intervention.
Strengthen your security and governance
It goes without saying that security and governance is embedded into the process in terms of data confidentiality, integrity, and access: Each migration engineer is assigned a suitable role with individual login credentials ▪ All changes made during the process are fully logged for audit and rollback purposes ▪ Only the data required for the migration process is presented at anytime ▪ The access credentials for the Microsoft 365/ Teams cloud service are never shared ▪ No access is required to the existing live service, keeping disruption to a minimum ▪
7. Putting the plan into action
Here's how the technical migration process fits into the broader plan:
User communications and training - as with any transformation project such as this, working closely with the user population is critical to ensuring adoption, with a strong feedback mechanism to take onboard improvements and make midcourse corrections. Local insight - working closely with a site contact or administrator during each (site) batch rollout provides invaluable local knowledge as well as providing the user population on site a local point of contact to refer to. Engage each site administrator early! Program management - provides comprehensive control, overseeing scheduling, budget, and risk management. Additionally, specific aspects of the voice system migration must be carefully considered and integrated during the program’s design phase. Here's a list to keep in mind.
Migration checklist
Choose an upgrade approach and policy: Teams-only or side-by-side Ensure technical and operational readiness across infrastructure, desktops, IT, and licensing Define user controls with policies and class of service based on personas Plan for emergency calling, especially for remote and hybrid users Review commercial agreements, including contracts, SLAs, call tariffs, and managed services Confirm Microsoft 365 licensing (E5, Teams Phone Standard, or equivalent Address compliance and regulatory needs, including call recording and critical applications Configure call routing with appropriate dial plans, calling plans, break-out services, and direct routing Manage number ranges, allocations, porting, and usage Assess device compatibility, inventory, and future requirementsChecklist Integrate Active Directory, Azure AD, and hybrid sync for seamless user management
1. Final thoughts
The key to success is a migration solution that works seamlessly. VOSS transforms how enterprises approach complex UC migrations and the shift to Microsoft Teams Phone. At every step, VOSS delivers a faster, simpler migration process, directly reducing the cost and risk of adopting UC services. By leveraging advanced automation in data discovery, extraction, transformation, and loading, VOSS cuts down total project time and boosts productivity. This eliminates the need for slow, error-prone, and costly site- surveys and manual data processing. The financial benefits of using VOSS are clear: reduced project time and costs, lower migration costs per seat, and significant savings from fewer support calls due to lower error rates. For migration teams, automation allows engineers to work more efficiently throughout the project. For users, Microsoft Teams Phone becomes available sooner, driving productivity and ensuring smooth, hassle-free adoption.
THE VOSS SUITE
VOSS offers a range of services and capabilities that automate workflows, speed up service delivery, lower costs, and generate benefits faster. With a global customer base of large enterprise and service provider customers. More than 10 million devices have been migrated and are being managed and monitored by VOSS.
Offering a wide range of UC management capabilities, VOSS Automate provides a unified point of control across the digital workplace. Seamlessly integrating with UC business applications, it allows for highly customizable workflows, enabling companies to lower operating costs and adapt to evolving business needs with unparalleled automation agility.
VOSS Automate
Using a revolutionary methodology, VOSS Migrate streamlines UC migration projects by automating the discovery, extraction, transformation, validation, and loading of large volumes of data. This saves organizations from the complexities and risks associated with manual UC migrations, ensuring faster and more cost-effective transitions.
VOSS Migrate
Complementing VOSS Automate, VOSS Insights enriches the data required for monitoring and fault detection, leveraging self- healing AI logic to expedite issue resolution. By providing deep insights into the UC platform, VOSS empowers companies to continuously improve and optimize their UC environment, delivering exceptional communication experiences for employees and driving business growth as a result.
VOSS Insights
At VOSS, we introduce high levels of automation and intelligence to empower you to improve employee productivity, unlock savings, and fuel business growth. VOSS is a central point of control and insight into your UC, collaboration, and contact center processes, helping you get the best out of your communications infrastructure.
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phone | +1 469 206 0441
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