Hello,
Our organization is looking at a phone system change. We are either looking to work with an independent phone system broker or a phone system directly. We are looking for a UCaaS type of phone system for our organization. If there would be a way to integrate it across the API with Tessitura, awesome. If it works with Microsoft Teams, awesome. If it has a web chat feature, awesome. All or none of those three things aren't needed, just wish list items.
Please feel free to share any and all phone systems and/or independent brokers you have gone with and your experience with them.
- Chris
Greetings Chris,
Everyone's systems and needs are different so mileage may vary. But... We've been looking into alternatives for some time now and just recently settled on moving to Teams for our standard phone users and Five9 for our call center (inbound and outbound sales calling). We're moving from a hybrid on-premise/cloud VoIP platform. We've used independent brokers in the past but for a number of reasons needed to pivot quickly this time around and simply didn't have the time/funding to engage someone for that type of project. We're getting help with project management to be sure we cover our bases with all the various transition details, but at the end of the day we're hoping to have everyone switched while they are still working remotely. Other than those staff who've had to remain in the office for functional reasons (building operations, security, etc) most staff have been working remotely without access to their CSO desk phones for a year now so we felt that the timing was good to make the change. I'd be happy to keep you posted on our progress. We're planning to be converted by July 1.
--Dan Spees
Hey Dan,
Will you be integrating Five9 into Teams or will it be stand alone? I'd really love to be able to have it all in one place if possible. Thanks for the info you've provided. This is all a new world for me so I appreciate any and all insight.
Chris,
We will be integrating Five9 with Teams. Teams will be the endpoint for calls coming in through Five9 and for outbound calling as well. We've discussed Tessitura integration with them. While there isn't a solution in place there is a full API into the Five9 platform. Combined with full API access into Tessitura, we're confident that we will be able to develop the simple integrations that we envision. We're starting simple and going to build in an iterative fashion to just see how things go.
We certainly don't have all our answers yet. However, contract timing with existing vendors required that we make a commitment if we're going to move forward. So, we've made that commitment. We're moving forward and will fill in the blanks as we go.
While I prefer to have a bullet proof plan - especially for something as important as this - there are situations where a significant jump from one paradigm (there's a word I've not used in a decade or so) to another requires as much faith as planning. IMHO.
- Dan