Cloud 9 Advisers - News #TeamsCloud 9 Advisers - News #Teamshttps://www.cloud9advisers.com/News/tag/teamsSat, 28 Feb 2026 00:06:16 -0800http://zoho.com/sites/<![CDATA[Supplier Spotlight: CallTower]]>https://www.cloud9advisers.com/News/post/supplier-spotlight-calltower

Why is Microsoft Teams with CallTower the Best Choice?

Cloud 9 Supplier Spotlight:  CallTower

Don’t get fooled by 3rd party integrations 
​and risk your business

In today's quickly evolving global economy, Unified Communications solutions empower business strategies to break through boundaries that were once roadblocks. Decision-makers are taking a close look at which solutions boost productivity, collaboration, ease-of-use and cost-effectiveness. Through robust workforce collaboration tools, organizations can enact ROI-boosting productivity initiatives, monitor network usage, collaborate on shared applications and so much more.


Microsoft Teams is a perfect fit for many organizations


Microsoft’s recent announcement states that they have 13 million daily users actively utilizing Teams. The most important information for any company to understand about Microsoft Teams are the exact benefits of the solution and the value it delivers based on increased productivity and collaboration. Not only is CallTower the best resource to get this information about Teams for yourself and your organization, but we are also the top choice to provide Microsoft Teams with Voice - hands down.


CallTower is a customer-centric solution provider. That means, instead of pushing a single product on every customer, we find the solution (or solutions – we have many customers with multiple or hybrid solutions) that will work best for them. Since 2002, CallTower has been an industry leader in enabling people to connect; our portfolio reflects our solution enablement model. 


CallTower’s Microsoft Teams Direct Routing solution delivers an integrated Office 365 experience with global calling plans empowered by a US-based client services team, ensuring a personalized implementation, adoption, training and support strategy. CallTower has been voice enabling Microsoft solutions for years. As a Microsoft Gold Partner providing cloud voice solutions, our monitoring and management services ensure the highest quality user experience. The Microsoft Teams Phone System powered by CallTower enables customers to bring their current voice serves into the Microsoft Cloud through Direct Routing. Direct Routing ensures the ability to leverage CallTower’s preferred rates and unlocks the full potential of a Microsoft Teams Phone System.


Understandably, Microsoft Teams works best with a Microsoft PBX system as opposed to a third-party PBX system. Microsoft has invested an unmatchable amount of resources into their PBX systems and organizations can tap into these resources and put them to work in their communication solution.  CallTower delivers this exact setup with Microsoft Teams through Direct Routing - and the benefits are rated number one in the industry. To alleviate risk, instead of layering an existing external telephony solution like some providers, CallTower’s Direct Routing is built to work with Teams, Outlook, SharePoint and the rest of the Office 365 Suite in a native solution – plus other integrations like Salesforce, Slack and more. Organizations using CallTower's Direct Routing get the best of both worlds – the raw power and precision engineering of Microsoft with the personal, reliable support of CallTower. In addition to these benefits, CallTower also delivers CT Cloud Contact Center, CT Cloud Boost, CT Cloud Fax, devices, paging, door buzzers, receptionist console, credit card lines and more to provide a full turnkey solution to our customers.


Along with the limited resources and complex environment of a third-party PBX system, additional problems arise when considering the timetable of these hybrid Microsoft Teams setups. Most providers developing these setups won’t complete their vision until 2020 – which is not soon enough for organizations who want to innovate their communication strategies now. It makes much more sense to implement a system provided and proven by CallTower – a system that has been deploying Teams effectively since 2018 with the benefits of a well-tested native Microsoft environment. Instead of an unproven, third party application, organizations can have the best of both worlds and enjoy world-class 24/7/365 US-based support from CallTower. Why wait for 2020 or later when CallTower has already deployed thousands of users with Teams and Voice, and have the customer references to prove it? The choice is clear.


Periodic Table of Office365
This matrix is designed to illustrate the difference between CallTower’s Direct Routing MS Teams PBX functionality and the functionality of a third-party PBX system, BroadWorks. We find it valuable to inform the market with a consolidated view to understanding why Microsoft Teams with CallTower's Direct Routing is the best option and why other PBX suppliers like BroadWorks fall short.

The facts are simple; CallTower is the right decision when it comes to providing Microsoft Teams and developing a solution that fits your organization. A voice-optimized network with a native PBX environment is the right system for Teams – and its ready right now. Enable your communication strategy with CallTower's Microsoft Teams solution.

To learn more about CallTower and Microsoft Teams and see if this solution is right for your business, please contact Cloud 9 Advisers. We are unified communications industry experts. 


Our vendor-agnostic experts will get to know you and your needs, set up the best bidders from our Supplier Portfolio to evaluate, and be by your side walking you through the entire process. We'll be there for you before, during, and after the acquisition of your new solution. 

Contact Cloud 9

To learn more about CallTower and Microsoft Teams and see if this solutions is right for your business, please contact Cloud 9 Advisers. We are unified communications industry experts. Our vendor-agnostic experts will get to know you and your needs, set up the best bidders from our Supplier Portfolio to evaluate, and be by your side walking you through the entire process. We'll be there for you before, during, and after the acquisition of your new solution. 

Vendor-Neutral UCaaS information
Contact Cloud 9
]]>Wed, 11 Mar 2020 08:10:11 -0500<![CDATA[Supplier Spotlight: RingCentral]]>https://www.cloud9advisers.com/News/post/supplier-spotlight-ringcentral

RingCentral for Microsoft Teams!

Cloud 9 Supplier Spotlight: RingCentral

One phone system. All your communications. On any device.

Introducing the New RingCentral 
for Microsoft Teams Integration!

Did you know? RingCentral offers the largest ecosystem of integration apps in the communications and collaboration space to maximize productivity and efficiency. 


That’s why we’re stoked to announce our latest robust integration into Microsoft Teams. Now, you can call and meet using RingCentral—without having to leave your Teams workspace!


RingCentral works across Microsoft Teams to bring enterprise-grade communication capabilities directly into your Teams environment whether you’re using Teams on the web, the desktop app, or the RingCentral bot. 
Use the interactive RingCentral bot to quickly start and join RingCentral Meetings or audio conference calls with quick bot commands:


Typing @RingCentral Meet in the text bar posts the RingCentral meeting dial-in and global dial-in numbers so you can quickly join a meeting. Other commands include @RingCentral Call to start an audio conference call and @RingCentral Help to bring up a list of bot commands. 


With the RingCentral Chrome extension, Microsoft Teams users can click to call or text, and send meeting details by clicking on the native Teams message, meet, and call icons. 


And if you’re using Teams on the web, you can also access RingCentral to get your voicemails, view contacts, schedule meetings and much more: 
With the latest release of the RingCentral for Microsoft Teams integration, we wanted to make it as easy as possible to access RingCentral from any space within Teams on the desktop or web apps. Scheduling on-the-fly meetings should be painless, and you shouldn’t have to fumble through different applications to quickly connect with colleagues. 


By clicking on the RingCentral message extension in your text box, you can quickly start a phone call or meeting with someone. And when you’re in a group or team chat setting, you can seamlessly start a RingCentral meeting or conference directly from the message extension too:
Alongside our other Microsoft integrations (like RingCentral for Microsoft Outlook, RingCentral for Skype for Business, RingCentral for Office 365, and RingCentral for Microsoft Dynamics 365), we’re committed to building our platform to support customers worldwide and their business needs across multiple verticals, applications, and operating systems. We can’t wait to show you what’s in store!

Read the original article from RingCentral here.

We are unified communications industry experts. Contact Cloud 9 Advisers to learn more about RingCentral and find out if they are right for your business. Our vendor-agnostic UC experts work with you to uncover the best solutions, the best companies to deliver those solutions, and fight to get you the best price. Learn more about our process here. 

Contact Cloud 9 Now

We are unified communications industry experts. Contact Cloud 9 Advisers to learn more about RingCentral and find out if they are right for your business. Our vendor-agnostic UC experts work with you to uncover the best solutions, the best companies to deliver those solutions, and fight to get you the best price. Learn more about our process here. 

Vendor-Neutral UCaaS info
Contact Cloud 9 Now
]]>Tue, 10 Mar 2020 09:07:04 -0500<![CDATA[7 team chat alternatives]]>https://www.cloud9advisers.com/News/post/7-team-chat-alternatives

Seven Alternatives for Team Chat and Collaboration

While it was Slack that kickstarted the business chat market five years ago, other options might be better suited for some companies. Here’s a look at seven Slack rivals, from big players like Microsoft Teams and Google Hangouts to other lesser-knowns.

By , Senior Reporter, Computerworld. See the original article at ComputerWorld.com

Slack's launch in 2014 helped ignite demand for chat-based collaboration tools in the workplace, and, in turn, paved the way for a range of team messaging offerings that now provide a simple and effective alternative to email. 

The upstart has proved popular since its launch, attracting 10 million daily users. The secret to its success? A user-friendly and intuitive interface that encourages quick communication between team members, whether they’re in the same office or many time zones apart.

More and more, today’s collaboration tools serve as the hub for an increasingly digital office, where real-time, synchronous conversations suit the ad-hoc and informal discussions scattered teams use to collaborate on projects.

But it is not just about chat. The ability to hook into other applications has become fundamental to team chat apps, allowing them to evolve and grow beyond their original mission.

Not surprisingly, a variety of software vendors, from productivity software vendors to unified communications firms and smaller startups with standalone apps, rushed to create their own tools. The result is a fast-growing market, now worth $3.5 billion globally, and a range of options that suit the needs of different customers.

“Almost every company in the world with over 1,000 employees has at least two or three messaging apps co-existing alongside each other,” said Tom Hadfield, CEO of Mio, a provider of software that enables interoperability between chat apps. “The fragmentation of enterprise messaging is often driven by mergers and acquisitions, transitions from legacy systems, or simply accommodating engineering teams who love Slack.”

What tools a company adopts often depends on their individual needs. “There are dozens of alternatives to Slack and Teams, and which [of them] might be useful will depend on how your team works and whether you need internal or external collaboration, for example,” said Angela Ashenden, principal analyst at CCS Insight.

“Some come from a pure messaging perspective, while others emphasize task-based working, or integration and bots to take a more 'digital workplace' approach," she said.

Ashenden agreed with Hadfield that companies often adopt a variety of tools. “As much as organizations will want to standardize on one tool – to make sure everyone is working together, to minimize complexity and for compliance/governance/management reasons etc – in practice, it seems unlikely that we’ll fully get away from this fragmentation because individuals now have the power to choose their own technology," she said.

With that in mind, here are some of the various enterprise options available, with a look at what kind of companies they’re best suited for: 
Teams
Workplace
Hangouts
Mattermost
Webex Teams
Cliq
Symphony
Honorable Mentions
Teams
It is a testament to Slack's appeal that Microsoft has invested so heavily in its rival app, Teams. 


Workplace productivity is at the heart of Microsoft's business, and there was little surprise that - after rumors it would acquire Slack - the Redmond firm built its own messaging app. Teams launched in 2017 following a beta trial with customers, and has since replaced Skype for Business Online as the main communication platform in its Office 365 portfolio. 


The main strength of Teams is deep integration with other Office tools, with a largely document-centric approach to collaboration. Colleagues can edit Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and other files in real-time from directly within Teams, which also syncs with Calendar and allows users to quickly jump into video and voice calls.

Microsoft has continued to rapidly build out Teams over the past two years. It now offers, for instance, AI features such as automated transcription of conversations and background blur. The app has also been tailored for use in healthcare and education sectors as well as for “first-line” workers such as retail staff. 
While Teams arguably lacks the user-friendliness of Slack and its wide range of third-party integrations, it’s clear that Microsoft is the major challenger to Slack. More than 500,000 Office 365 business customers have already deployed Teams, according to Microsoft. Indeed, some claim it is now the most widely deployed team chat app, largely thanks to its inclusion in Microsoft’s broader office productivity package. It remains unclear, however, how many are individuals actually use the app on a regular basis; Microsoft doesn’t break out daily active user numbers. 

Like Slack, Microsoft offers a free version of Teams, but most are likely to access the app through Office 365 Business Essentials and Premium subscriptions.

Best for: Microsoft’s 180 million Office 365 users.
Workplace
Facebook takes a different approach to team collaboration, essentially refitting its social network for a business audience. In many cases, it serves primarily as an intranet and is often deployed company-wide. However, it contains many of the same core features offered by rivals, including group discussion, bots and integration with more than 50 third-party apps. Zoom, Survey Monkey and Smartsheet can be used within Workplace, so Facebook clearly wants to move users beyond the platform’s social media foundation.
One of the major differences between Workplace and Slack involves the intended audience. While Slack is targeted at knowledge workers, Facebook’s tool is built more for frontline workers such as those in retail. A key advantage: most users will already know their way around basic features such as the News Feed and Work Chat, (which is essentially the business version of Facebook Messenger). This has led to numerous large deployments to date, despite its parent company’s travails, and the app now has some 2 million users.


Workplace offers a free tier, with a more feature-rich service priced at $3 per user/month. It is also free for non-profits and staffers at educational institutions. 


Best for: Organizations with large numbers of front-line workers, and those that want a tool employees are already familiar with.
Hangouts
Google’s Hangouts Chat and its video app, Meet, were introduced in 2018, replacing the Hangouts tool that was available in G Suite.


Hangouts Chat has many features Slack users will recognize, including @mentions, direct and group messages and file sharing, along with differences such as the threaded conversations its Rooms. Threaded conversations are the equivalent of Slack's channels.


Available for G Suite customers, Chat is – not surprisingly – integrated with Google’s other productivity applications such as Docs and Sheets, and it connects with the Meet and Voice communication apps. Google also announced last month that Hangouts Chat will be accessible directly from within its Gmail email client. It has a simple and easy-to-understand user interface, though is less feature-rich than Teams or Slack.

Chat supports a range of bots, including a Google Drive bot that alerts users when files are shared with them. It also makes use of Google’s AI know-how, with the Smart Reply prediction feature in Gmail now available in Chat.

Hangouts Chat is available via G Suite subscriptions.

Best for: Google’s 5 million G Suite subscribers, and those that are wary of a wholesale switch from email to team chat.
Mattermost
While it is difficult to stand out in a competitive market, Mattermost has managed to carve out a niche as an open-source platform that businesses can install on their own servers. 


Although some of the larger players have added compliance certification (such as for FedRAMP and HIPPA), the ability to retain full control over data appeals to organizations in heavily regulated industries – especially those wary of entrusting sensitive information to public cloud providers.


This approach appears to have been successful thus far. Mattermost recently raised $20 million in funding and claims to have more than 10,000 downloads a month. The company also boasts that its app is used in a range of highly regulated industries, including “top banks, internet companies, U.S. federal agencies…and thousands of others across public sector, defense, online services and manufacturing industries.” 


Mattermost offers a free trial download, with Enterprise E10 for smaller businesses costing $3.25 per user/month, and an E20 license for larger customers at $8.50 per user/month.

Other open-source alternatives include Zulip and Rock.Chat.

Best for: Security-conscious organizations in highly regulated industries.
Webex Teams

Initially launched as Cisco Spark, Webex Teams was pulled into Cisco's suite of unified communications products in 2018. The rebranding of Spark signaled more than a name change, said Cisco; it also meant better integration with the company’s Webex video conferencing software. It is also possible to make calls from Webex Teams using the cloud PBX technology Cisco gained access to with its BroadCloud acquisition in 2018. 

Webex Teams also integrates directly with Cisco’s Webex Boards – a digital whiteboard that helps users brainstorm ideas – and can be used to co-edit Microsoft OneDrive and SharePoint Online files in real time. 

Webex Teams is available as part of Webex subscriptions.

Best for: Organizations that want to get the most of their existing Cisco Webex investments.

Cliq
Zoho’s main focus is to provide business apps such as CRM, business intelligence and a wide range of productivity tools at a fraction of the cost of premium providers. This  same approach is used by its team chat tool, Cliq. It’s available for $1 per user/month when deployed to more than 500 users, or $3 per user/month for up to 10 users. (A free version of Cliq with limited functionality is also available.)


That’s not to say Cliq lacks the capabilities found in other team chat tools. In fact, it has an impressive array of features, with multi-team chat, file sharing, video and audio calls, and shared channels for communication with external organizations. 


Cliq also connects with Zoho’s various office and business apps, though it has a more limited range of third-party integrations compared with pricier rivals.


The free version of Cliq is bundled with Zoho Workplace subscriptions, while the full-featured tool is included in the company’s more comprehensive Zoho One suite.


Best for: Budget-conscious organizations that want a straightforward team chat experience.

Symphony
Symphony’s secure messaging and collaboration platform started life as an in-house chat tool at Goldman Sachs, providing secure communications between employees and allowing them to easily share sensitive documents.


According to CEO David Gurle, the company has other industry verticals in it its sights, but the technology is clearly aimed at addressing the data security demands of Wall Street firms. Symphony counts Citi, HSBC, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley among its 310 financial services customers. 


End-to-end encryption is at the core of Symphony, along with the usual team chat, voice and video calls, third-party apps, bots and more. Additional security measures include customer-owned encryption keys and encrypted search.

Best for: Financial services firms and any business with high security demands.
Honorable Mentions

8x8 acquired Sameroom, which provides a single platform that integrates chat and messaging with many other popular team chat services combining multiple chats from different chat platforms. 

HipChat is an internal private online chat and instant messaging service 

As well as one-on-one and group/topic chat, it also featured cloud-based file storage, video calling, searchable message-history and inline-image viewing.

RingCentral acquired Glip and has fully integrated it to RingCentral's Unified Communications platform. Freeware available for anyone. Numerous integrations with 3rd-party apps. Calendar, project, and task management built in. 

free real-time web messaging application, group video chat, and task management. It is a team productivity solution that is more efficient than using email and multiple applications for specific jobs

Fuze, a global leader in enterprise communications, developed its own collaboration and team chat platform from scratch. It fully integrates with all collaboration tools and their entire Unified Communications platform. 

About Cloud 9 Advisers

We all need an edge, right? The right technology can be the differentiator for your business and make you stand out from the crowd. Let an impartial, unbiased technology partner, like Cloud 9 Advisers, work on your behalf to find the best solutions for your company. We are strategic partners and technology advisers. We have over two-hundred, curated technology service companies in our Supplier Portfolio. We specialize in helping businesses find the best solutions and the best companies. We deliver better choices, better companies, better pricing, and better support. Work with a Cloud 9 strategic adviser who will review your needs and introduce solutions that work for you. Our friendly, consultative approach leaves you in control.

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]]>Tue, 18 Jun 2019 15:08:40 -0500<![CDATA[Microsoft Teams+Calling]]>https://www.cloud9advisers.com/News/post/microsoft-teams-calling

Considering Microsoft Phone System add-on?

There's a lot you need to know first.

In the Microsoft ecosystem, things can get a bit confusing: Microsoft 365 Business vs. Microsoft Office 365, Security, Device Management; Essentials, Premium, ProPlus; E1, E3, E5; Lync, Skype for Business (SfB), Teams; Phone System, Audio Conferencing, Calling Plan, Direct Routing... Who's certified?... Do I need an SBC?... How will adding this effect my Microsoft support plan?... It's all too much to handle sometimes, and we haven't even started down the Azure path yet!


If you need help finding the right, qualified companies and certified Microsoft Gold or Platinum Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) contact us at Cloud 9, first. We are impartial, unbiased, and supplier-neutral. We'll help you sort out all of the Microsoft options, plan the right solution, target pricing for your budget, then manage the search, evaluation, and selection process of your new Microsoft Partner. 


At cloud 9, we don't actually sell anything, we don't provide solutions or service directly, and we don't charge our clients! Rather we connect you with the right companies from our Supplier Portfolio. We'll help you search and find the right companies to for you to choose from, then help you evaluate, narrow down the options, and figure out which is the best company and solution for your needs and budget. Any paperwork and agreements signed is between you and your selected winning provider. Just to be clear we also don't get paid directly by any company in our Supplier Portfolio. Our distributors pay our fees, the same predetermined rates, no matter who your winning provider happens to be from our Supplier Portfolio. 


Plus, we remain by your side to coordinate project implementation, continued account support, and enhanced escalation management. The more solutions you acquire from companies in the Cloud 9 Supplier Portfolio, the more we are able to support. 

Get Started Now
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