When this pandemic started, many businesses were forced to say goodbye to their offices and hello to remote work. Whilst, many thought this may be a temporary shift, this could continue for the foreseeable, and it may be time to adapt to this new normal. When we left the traditional office infrastructure behind, we also said goodbye to the traditional calling systems. Six months on some businesses are still going to voice mail, and it may be time to invest in something that suits our new working style. In this article, we explore how you can build a business case for Microsoft 365 Business Voice.
A good business case starts with the same six fundamental components:
- Identify the Challenge
- Provide a Solution
- Outline Costs
- Outline the Benefits
- Provide Timeline
- Utilise Change Management
Within this article, we will explore how you can build a business case for Microsoft Business Voice around the above principles.
1. Identify the Challenge-
For some, the challenge may simply be we haven’t got a phone system up and running, or we aren’t rerouting calls from the mainline to our remote team, efficiently. For some, calls may be going to one employee first, who may struggle to transfer the caller onto the relevant contact, or for others, it could be we have a busy mainline and no way to handle a call queue, so our customers are constantly getting voicemail and are getting exceedingly frustrated.
Now for some decision-makers, the identification of the above may be enough, but for others, they will want to understand the effect it is having on the bottom line. If you haven’t got a phone system up and running yet, can you compare the difference in inquiries against this time last year? We recommend showcasing how much this challenge is costing the business at this stage of the process.
Make sure you tailor the challenge to your audience. If, for example, your audience’s primary concern is savings, focus on how the problem(s) you’re facing cost the organisation money due to operational inefficiencies, loss of customers, etc. We find this extremely useful in instilling a sense of urgency.
2. Provide a Solution
When presenting the solution, outline how you’ll use Microsoft Business Voice to address your pain points (e.g., features you need, preferred deployment method), and also, why an investment in this software, specifically, is critical to overcoming the issues you’re facing (e.g., what does it offer that another tool does not).
Microsoft Business Voice is a modern cloud-based telephony solution hosted within Microsoft Teams. Together the solutions deliver an all-in-one communication platform bringing calling, chat, and meetings into a single application. It has the capabilities to solve the above, whilst bringing an additional host of clever solutions to your organisation.
With the solution being hosted within Teams, you will have reduced spend on training, as your people use this tool every single day. It is an enterprise-grade phone system. It provides options to migrate your previous numbers, meaning your clients and customers don’t have to update their systems. Your team will be able to answer mainline calls from the familiar Teams interface and reroute them through the solution to the relevant contact. They will be able to make and receive calls anywhere, from any device, ideal for now remote workers.
3. Outline Costs
When outlining the costs, be sure to address both the costs of the software itself, such as the number and price of licenses, as well as costs that are harder to quantify, such as the downtime required for training and reduced productivity as users learn a new system.
Business Voice licenses are priced at £12, per user, per month. Each plan comes with 1,200 domestic calling minutes per user, per month within the UK, dial-in audio conferencing for up to 250 people per meeting. Supporting calls from anywhere, on any device through the Microsoft Teams app on the desktop, mobile, web, and desk phones and also include 24×7 customer support.
In terms of unseen costs, downtime to allow training will be minimal. The interface is simple, easy to use and if you have Microsoft Teams within your business it is already familiar to your team. However, if you are looking for a low disruption, training session designed to boost adoption, we host training sessions over Microsoft Teams for our clients, ranging from several days to a couple of hours (you can contact us here to learn more).
4. Outline the Benefits
Be sure to list both the tangible benefits (e.g., money and resource savings) as well as the intangible benefits that, that whilst harder to identify will play a critical part in your ROI (e.g., increased collaboration, improved customer experience, increased security and reliability). Emphasize the benefits that are unique to MS Business Voice that another tool would not provide.
For example, the less waiting time for customers, with calls rerouted to an available team member, rather than waiting or leaving a voice mail. Sales enquires now transferred instantly that can be answered anywhere, at any time on any device.
Whilst also offering reliability and security for the future, with calling delivered from Microsoft’s trusted cloud. Offering Business Voice customers a guaranteed 99.9% uptime, meaning you don’t have to worry about the safety and security of your internal or external calls. Reduced costs and the opportunity to remove unnecessary audio conferencing infrastructure and licensing, as it has built-in audio conferencing, designed to add flexibility to your meetings with a dial-in number, integrated into every online meeting. We have created a blog on the benefits of Business Voice for remote teams, that you can read here.
5. Provide a Timeline
It is vital to set expectations with your stakeholders on how long you’ll spend evaluating software and then finally implementing a new tool. Make sure all parties are aligned on how long it will be before you start to see returns on your investment.
When it comes to implementing MS Business Voice, picking the right Microsoft Partner will play a vital part in how quickly the solution can be implemented. Once a decision-maker has signed off on the product the right partner can have it the solution up and running in a couple of days. Meaning you can start using the tool right away, and your team can be helping customers and building better relationships near instantaneously.
6. Utilise Change Management
When completing your business case, outline how you will leverage change management best practices to increase the chances of effective implementation. By showing that you are aware of how common change failures are and that you have planned to take pre-emptive actions to avoid making those mistakes, will help you gain executive buy-in and support for your proposal.
Some people may have gotten used to not dealing with queries and maybe worried it will interrupt their day. You can assure them that when it comes time to work on projects or they need to focus, that with Teams, they can block out time in their diary in which they will not have to take calls. This can be managed from within the Teams interface.
By offering training and support throughout the initial days of implementation you can work to overcome any potential barriers to adoption. From actually engaging with your employees you can build an understanding of their concerns and put actions in place to overcome them. They have already been forced to adapt to so much, so work to ensure this change isn’t too difficult.
We hope the above aids you in building a successful business plan for the implementation of MS Business Voice. If you are ready to move forward with a partner we would be happy to help, or if you are in the initial stages of selecting a new unified communications solution we would be happy to help you explore your options. You can call us today to talk to one of our experts or you can contact us here.