One of the most common objections we get from companies looking at Microsoft Teams Voice is that moving E1 and E3 users to E5 isn’t cost effective.  It’s a Common Misconception that the E5 licence is required to turn Teams into a Voice Platform. The add on Phone System Licence enables phone calling, at a vastly reduced cost.

Phone System Add-On: Focused on Calling Capabilities

The Phone System add-on complements your existing Teams setup. Here’s what it offers:

  1. Teams Phone Standard:
    • Hosted telephone service with call control and PBX capabilities.
    • Includes features like cloud voicemail, call park, call forwarding, auto attendants, call queues, and caller ID.
    • Ideal for organizations that primarily need calling features.

This allows you to retain your existing internal IM and Teams Features, while adding additional out and inbound calling functionality.

E5 Licence: A Comprehensive Suite

The Microsoft 365 E5 licence is a robust suite that provides an extensive range of features. Here are the key highlights:

  1. Teams Premium:
    • Enhances your Teams experience with personalized and intelligent meetings.
    • Offers advanced meeting protection and management/reporting capabilities.
    • Ideal for organizations with Microsoft 365 subscriptions.
  2. Teams Phone System:
    • A hosted telephone service that provides call control and Private Branch Exchange (PBX) capabilities.
    • Includes features like cloud voicemail, call park, call forwarding, auto attendants, call queues, and caller ID.
    • Offers flexibility in choosing your PSTN connectivity.
  3. Compliance Features:
    • E5 provides robust compliance features such as call recording, legal hold, and eDiscovery.
    • Ensures adherence to regulatory requirements.
  4. Advanced Security Tools:
    • Includes Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection and Microsoft Cloud App Security.
    • Enhances security posture.
  5. Audio Conferencing:
    • Enables users to call in to Teams meetings via phone.
    • Useful for scenarios where attendees need to use a phone instead of a computer.

As you can see the E5 feature adds a lot more than simply Voice – indeed a number of our Customers have purchased this for the Security Features alone, and taken the added Voice capability as a “free” phone system.

Remember you can also mix and match these features and licences to provide a bespoken Teams Environment and allow you to provide the features that you need at the costs that suit you.