Contact Center in Microsoft Teams — A Pioneering Project

In 2021, the long-established family company ROSE Bikes GmbH decided to switch from a conventional telephone system to Microsoft Teams. The decision- makers quickly realized that they wanted to realize this project together with IP Dynamics. “We are connected by a long-standing and trusting cooperation. We simply know that we can rely on the know-how of IP Dynamics,” says Daniel Vollmer, Director IT at ROSE Bikes.

ROSE Bikes has been using a Voxtron Communication Center (VCC) for many years. The system has always had a telephony connection, but until now the Focus was primarily on processing incoming e-mails. When the existing Alcatel telephone system finally reached its end-of-life point, ROSE Bikes decided to switch ist telephony environment to Microsoft Teams. The decision to use Microsoft‘s communications platform was an obvious one, as ROSE Bikes was already using other applications in the Microsoft 365 world. Among other things, Microsoft Teams was already being used for internal chat conversations and calls. In addition, the decision was encouraged by the experience ROSE Bikes had gained in the pandemic and during the lockdowns, respectively. A VoIP-enabled, fully PC-usable communications solution like Microsoft Teams should enable employees to seamlessly switch to mobile working in the future.

In order to also be able to process external calls, such as incoming service calls, via Microsoft Teams, the platform had to be integrated into the existing Contact Center. This was the biggest challenge of the project. The possibilities for a Contact Center integration of Microsoft Teams are still limited. Although Microsoft offers an interface, it only allows a limited range of functions as things stand today. ROSE Bikes was Aware of these difficulties and was willing to explore the technical possibilities together with IP Dynamics and to do pioneer work.

As part of the project, IP Dynamics first updated the VCC to version 19. This update led to an increase in the stability of the VCC and its client. Subsequently, the migration to Microsoft Teams was completed at the turn of the year 2021/2022. The Contact Center integration was realized via the Graph API. As a long-standing Microsoft Gold Partner, IP Dynamics has extensive experience with the Microsoft product world. Particularly with regard to Contact Center integration, the specialists from IP Dynamics are in regular constructive exchange with the responsible Departments of the Redmond company.

Considering the challenges the Project brought, this experience and Insider knowledge turned out to be extremely helpful. In addition, colleagues from ROSE Bikes and IP Dynamics worked closely together and coordinated regularly. “The fast and direct communication with IP Dynamics helped us a lot. As soon as we identified a problem, we went into analysis and solution finding together,” explains Marcel Schonewille, the responsible project manager at ROSE Bikes.

Today, the system‘s “teething troubles” have largely been cured. At ROSE Bikes, around 45 employees and Service agents communicate via Microsoft Teams. They control all calls received via the service hotline and routed through the VCC entirely via their Microsoft Teams client. In total, up to 400 calls are received per day during contact hours. As soon as an employee accepts a call delivered to him via Microsoft Teams, his presence status in the Contact Center adjusts accordingly. He is then unavailable for the duration of the call and the follow-up time. Of course, employees can also forward and hold their active calls in Microsoft Teams as usual. Or they can connect other colleagues if necessary. It is very convenient for employees that all call control is done via one platform and they do not have to leave the familiar environment of the Microsoft Teams client.

In the case of direct calls that are not received via the service hotline but via an employee‘s personal phone number, the status of the employee unfortunately can not yet be displayed in the Contact Center as things stand today. However, as soon as Microsoft provides this functionality via the API, it could be easily integrated into the running system of ROSE Bikes.

“Today, we are very happy that we mastered the adventure together. IP Dynamics stood by us at all times with advice and support during the migration to Microsoft Teams, so that we were able to lead the project to success despite all the technical hurdles,” Daniel Vollmer sums up happily. The employees at ROSE Bikes are glad about the flexibility they have gained. From now on, they are no longer tied to their workstations in the office, but can work regardless of location. Thanks to the convenient Microsoft Teams soft client, all they need is a notebook, a headset and Internet access to make phone calls. And ROSE Bikes also remains flexible; after all, the new solution can be scaled up quickly and easily if necessary. This allows the company to respond to new requirements and situations at any time.

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