Alternatives to Teams Calling Plan

[Nicetobenice]

My wife has recently set up a new business and I have been co-opted to offer some help.

It's a small team of 4 and they are using office 365. They use Teams extensively so it seemed the obvious solution to add a calling plan. (they all work from home so there isn't an office set up)

All they need is a basic system that offers a main number that goes to a "group" and a direct dial each. I have done this previously and from what I remember it was quite straightforward.

When I came to set it up I hit a road block as Mircrosoft want "know your client" documentation, I uploaded the Incorporation Certificate and this gets a green tick, They also want proof of ownership of the domain.

I bought the domain on my personal Fasthosts account. The DNS points to Microsoft and it is verified and works for email and teams etc.
I have tried explaining this and have submitted invoices from Microsoft that are addressed to the company that show the domain.

I still can't clear this hurdle and I have almost run out patience.

So the question is - has anyone come across this before and if so is there a way round it?

I really want to avoid another app if I can but I am thinking I need to find the alternative

We will need 5 "land line" numbers. one that goes to a group and 4 direct dials.
Voicemail
the ability to transfer calls.

The don't need call recording or any other call centre type facilities.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

[simon_harris]

there are a million VOIP system providers out there - people like HIHI can even give you a phsyical "phone" to work from if that is preferred.

[Nicetobenice]

simon_harris said:

there are a million VOIP system providers out there - people like HIHI can even give you a phsyical "phone" to work from if that is preferred.

That's part ofbthe problem
There are a million providers that seem to offer everything from a simple number that forwards to your mobile to full on contact centre systems

We don't need a desk phone. Teams would have been ideal as the app is already installed and there is familiarity with both mobile and desktop apps.

[carl_w]

simon_harris said:

there are a million VOIP system providers out there - people like HIHI can even give you a phsyical "phone" to work from if that is preferred.

HiHi has a reputation for locking customers into 7 year contracts with punitive exit clauses.

I'd start by looking at Vonage, 3CX and RingCentral. I think most of them have Teams integration as well as their own app.

[PugwasHDJ80]

Nicetobenice said:

My wife has recently set up a new business and I have been co-opted to offer some help.

It's a small team of 4 and they are using office 365. They use Teams extensively so it seemed the obvious solution to add a calling plan. (they all work from home so there isn't an office set up)

All they need is a basic system that offers a main number that goes to a "group" and a direct dial each. I have done this previously and from what I remember it was quite straightforward.

When I came to set it up I hit a road block as Mircrosoft want "know your client" documentation, I uploaded the Incorporation Certificate and this gets a green tick, They also want proof of ownership of the domain.

I bought the domain on my personal Fasthosts account. The DNS points to Microsoft and it is verified and works for email and teams etc.
I have tried explaining this and have submitted invoices from Microsoft that are addressed to the company that show the domain.

I still can't clear this hurdle and I have almost run out patience.

So the question is - has anyone come across this before and if so is there a way round it?

I really want to avoid another app if I can but I am thinking I need to find the alternative

We will need 5 "land line" numbers. one that goes to a group and 4 direct dials.
Voicemail
the ability to transfer calls.

The don't need call recording or any other call centre type facilities.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

we used a speciliast from Fiverr (chap called Simon Seger) who was a teams calling specialist- think we paid him ~£400 or so to setup our teams calling for 15 of us, might have been a bit more but it wasnt a fortune and it was just something i didn't need to work out

[Buttery Ken]

8x8 is good. I've used it for years. The apps have matured really well on laptop, mobile etc.

[geeks]

Buttery Ken said:

8x8 is good. I've used it for years. The apps have matured really well on laptop, mobile etc.

Cam to suggest them as well, we use them alot at work

[Buttery Ken]

geeks said:

Buttery Ken said:

8x8 is good. I've used it for years. The apps have matured really well on laptop, mobile etc.

Cam to suggest them as well, we use them alot at work

I used to be a reseller and even though we could make much more money on stuff like 3CX, we could get a customer up and running on 8x8 in a matter of hours and it's very polished.

OP - I think you should be able to get it for around £8pcm per user. That's including a DDI, all calls, video conferencing, and the caller groups/auto attendant stuff you want

There's also an argument supporting keeping your telephony separate from a Teams platform that isn't known for its stability!

[Nicetobenice]

That's great thanks

Will have a look at 8x8 tonight.

[buggalugs]

We used Teams for a year ish, it worked OK but had a few niggles for us with the app, caller id, contacts etc. Then we went to Ringcentral which was good. BT white labels it as cloud work. Then we moved to Yeastar cloud but only because we resell it and wanted to eat our own dogfood.

[carl_w]

Buttery Ken said:

8x8 is good. I've used it for years. The apps have matured really well on laptop, mobile etc.

Yes I did a lot of work with 8x8, but a quick look at their website suggests they're focusing on the CCaaS market at the moment. Dialpad is also worth looking at.

[bigandclever]

Why not change the domain owner from you to the company? I'd imagine MSFT is looking at the whois and your registrant name not matching the company name fails the KYC test.

[carl_w]

bigandclever said:

Why not change the domain owner from you to the company? I'd imagine MSFT is looking at the whois and your registrant name not matching the company name fails the KYC test.

Whois for one of my domains only specifies Verisign and Cloudflare.

However, the OP could knock up a receipt for selling the domain to his wife's company for a nominal fee (say £10)? And then change the domain owner name but keeping the current contact details.

[Nicetobenice]

Thanks for the input.

This should be one for the "getting old" thread

I'd forgotten that on the domain control panel you can specify the owner of the domain so I've changed it to the relevant firm
I've also submitted an invoice addressed to the said firm.

Will see what microsoft make of that

I appreciate Teams is an imperfect solution but this will have a low volume of calls and all those involved are familiar with teams but generally without wider "IT Skills". So I really want as few apps and systems as possible.

If they hit their projection they will be able to pay for support that actually knows what they are doing!

[Nicetobenice]

Just to round this off we have now passed the verification process.

Got the direct dials working and now trying to remember how I got call groups working.

Thanks to everyone for their input.

[bigandclever]

PH strikes again!