IntelePeer To Launch Microsoft Teams Self-Serve Option For MSPs

‘You’ll actually be able to go into the customers’ Teams and manage it yourselves and wrap services around all of that and drive growth margins up,’ said Renato Migueltorena, Platform Evangelist at IntelePeer, at XChange+ 2021 this week.

Communications specialist IntelePeer will launch a new self-serve provisioning tool for MSPs around Microsoft Teams in the coming weeks to drive more voice services sales as Teams picks up speed in the new remote workforce era.

“For our managed services partners, we have an option coming out where you’ll be able to use our managed SBC [session border controller] in our cloud and we’ll provide you a provisioning application where you can actually marry our services to the Teams customers,” said Renato Migueltorena, Platform Evangelist at IntelePeer, at XChange+ 2021 in San Antonio this week. XChange+ 2021 is hosted by CRN parent The Channel Company.

San Mateo, Calif.-based IntelePeer will be launching a new MSP provisioning tool for its recently unveiled Atmosphere Voice for Microsoft Teams offering. The voice calling solution provides direct routing for Teams, all-inclusive calling plans, support and flexible deployment for businesses looking to migrate, scale, customize or secure their Teams-based Unified Communications-as-a-Service (UCaaS) solution.

[Related: Microsoft Aims To Improve Teams Streaming With Peer5 Acquisition]

Migueltorena said IntelePeer initially created Atmosphere Voice for Microsoft Teams for its large customers who were migrating from Skype to Teams with the new self-serve tool being launched “so that we’re not eating our partners lunches.”

“We’re going to give MSPs the ability to deliver those implementation fees, those professional services fees, etc., without having that money diverted to us to do it instead,” he said. “You’ll actually be able to go into the customers’ Teams and manage it yourselves and wrap services around all of that and drive growth margins up.”

Some of the competitive advantages of integrating Atmosphere Voice for Microsoft Teams includes the ability for users to keep their existing phone number, add supplementary calling plans, and enhance the Microsoft Teams experience with IntelePeer’s Communications Platform-as-a-Service (CPaaS) suite of products. The company’s flagship Atmosphere CPaaS aims to improve customer experience and satisfaction, decrease operational costs, and improve business processes — all delivered through a single platform that works seamlessly with existing business software and infrastructure.

Michael Hadley, president and CEO of Woburn, Mass.-based iCorps Technologies, said Microsoft Teams is winning the voice and video conferencing battle.

“I’d say 90 percent of our clients are using Teams. There’s companies that use Teams and Zoom, but those are starting to shift over to really just Teams,” said Hadley.

Hadley said IntelePeer has some interesting offers around Microsoft Teams that could be leveraged inside smaller companies as iCorps double downs on selling Teams.

“We’re heavily into Teams and the work we do involves voice now too. We never did that before,” Hadley said. “It was always about the infrastructure, excluding voice, but now it’s all about it -- especially with the hybrid environments now and work from home.”

IntelePeer’s Migueltorena said there are several growing opportunities for voice services for MSPs because “voice definitely matters” as businesses still rely on voice.

One big opportunity for MSPs with Atmosphere Voice for Microsoft Teams is that many companies rushed to the cloud during the COVID-19 pandemic for their communications needs in the short term.

“A lot of folks, when they moved to the cloud last year, it was a quick turn into the cloud. So they may have not signed a longer contact -- maybe a one-year contact -- and those are going to be sunsetting soon. So the opportunity is there,” said Migueltorena. “People are looking at work from home as a long-term way to do business now. The opportunity is there for Teams, in particular, because oftentimes if they have Office 365, they have an easy path to getting Teams.”

XChange+ 2021 runs from Aug. 15 to Aug. 17.