Why are U.S. Companies Behind in Migrating to Microsoft Teams Phone?
By Joe Hamblin, Chief Digital & Transformation Officer, Altigen Technologies
“1 Million U.S. Companies use Microsoft 365, Too Few Are Benefitting from Teams Phone
Introduction: The Silence After the Shout
Where did all of the U.S. Microsoft Teams voice experts go?
Not long ago, Microsoft’s collaboration story was everywhere, a tale of connection, communication, and community. From the earliest days of unified messaging to the global surge of Teams adoption during the pandemic, Microsoft stood as the undisputed voice of enterprise collaboration. Yet today, that voice feels… quieter. At least in the U.S.
In Europe, most organizations who have implemented Microsoft 365 see Teams Phone as the next logical step in their migration. But in the U.S., many companies aren’t aware that Teams is the best choice to replace their legacy phone system. How did this happen?
As Microsoft shifted its marketing spotlight to its next great frontier, Copilot, Azure AI, and generative automation, it created a gap in messaging. And, since many U.S. Microsoft partners don’t have a communications focus, not enough companies understand how great Teams Phone is. Fewer experts, fewer evangelists, and fewer partners who truly understand how to turn Teams into the complete communication and engagement platform it was designed to be.
That’s where Altigen Technologies steps in.
The Long Road of Microsoft Voice: A 30-Year Journey
Microsoft’s journey into voice and collaboration began nearly three decades ago. Each evolution built on the one before it and Altigen was there every step of the way.
- Office Communications Server (OCS) in the early 2000s marked Microsoft’s first serious step into enterprise voice.
- Lync Server refined the experience, merging presence, instant messaging, conferencing, and VoIP into one platform.
- Skype for Business brought massive scalability and global brand recognition, bridging enterprise-grade reliability with consumer familiarity.
- Microsoft Teams unified it all, a single pane of glass for chat, meetings, files, and calls and became the heartbeat of modern collaboration during the pandemic.
While Teams Phone may be viewed as “Mission Accomplished”, there is clearly still work to be done to get the word out.
The Collaboration Expertise Gap
There are more Teams users than ever, but not enough experts guiding them.
Many partners that once specialized in Microsoft collaboration have become generic cloud integrators. The result? Teams deployments that handle chat and meetings flawlessly but fail to optimize the foundation of communication: voice.
This gap isn’t trivial. True enterprise voice requires more than a dial tone. It demands engineering depth, call flow design, SBC routing, compliance, analytics, resiliency, and customer engagement/contact center integration. Without that, organizations are left with fragmented communications, overlapping vendor contracts, and underutilized licensing.
We’ve noticed a pattern during many customer meetings about Altigen’s native Microsoft Teams omnichannel contact center (CoreEngage). Before we can begin discussing advanced engagement, automation, or its AI capabilities, we need to first educate that Microsoft Teams is capable of replacing their PBX. Most don’t realize that, with the licensing and infrastructure they already owned, they could enable enterprise-grade voice, call routing, and contact center functionality natively inside their Microsoft ecosystem.
This highlights a critical truth: while Microsoft successfully delivered the technology, evangelizing its potential is still needed. As a result, thousands of organizations are sitting on powerful communication capabilities they’ve never been shown how to unlock. That’s where Altigen’s expertise makes the difference.
The Numbers Behind the Noise
As of 2024, Microsoft Teams boasts over 320 million users worldwide (DemandSage, 2024). Yet too small a percentage are taking full advantage of Teams’ voice and engagement capabilities.
Most enterprise organizations still maintain a patchwork of third-party systems. Separate providers for telephony, contact center, analytics, and messaging, simply because they aren’t aware of the comprehensive capabilities available within Team Phone.
The opportunity is enormous: consolidating those channels into a single seamless platform not only simplifies operations but can reduce overall communication costs by 20–40%, depending on scale and licensing models (Altigen internal analysis, 2025).
For many organizations, Teams has become the hub of digital work, but without integrated voice, it’s a hub with missing spokes.
Why Voice Still Matters
In an era of AI, chatbots, and predictive analytics, it’s tempting to think voice no longer matters. But the opposite is true.
Voice remains the most trusted, immediate, and human form of communication. It carries tone, emotion, urgency, and empathy, qualities no text channel can replicate. Whether it’s a customer support call, a crisis response, or a board meeting, voice is where trust is built and reputations are maintained.
The organizations that master voice inside Teams, blending collaboration, compliance, and engagement, aren’t clinging to the past. They’re building the next frontier of digital interaction.
Filling the Void: Altigen’s Voice-First, Digital-Ready Expertise
Altigen Technologies didn’t just integrate with Microsoft’s collaboration journey, it helped shape it. For over 25 years, Altigen has been delivering Microsoft-based unified communications and voice solutions, evolving in tandem with OCS, Lync, Skype for Business, and now Teams.
When Microsoft shifted its focus, Altigen doubled down. Today, Altigen provides the expertise, technology, and managed services enterprises need to bring full voice integration and broader digital engagement back into their Microsoft environment.
From Direct Routing to PBX migration to Contact Center, Altigen enables organizations to consolidate every communication channel, voice, chat, SMS, social, and email into one cohesive Teams-centric platform. This unified approach not only eliminates redundant vendors but also unlocks new capabilities like conversational automation, predictive analytics, and AI powered intelligent routing.
Altigen’s specialists understand the complexities of communications, from migrating carrier services to contact centers to AI-driven interactions. The result is a modern, future-proof engagement layer that helps customers meet users where they are today while preparing for how they’ll connect tomorrow.
“The best Teams environments today are powered by experts who never stopped believing in voice and never stopped innovating beyond it.”
Customer Impact: From Fragmentation to Future-Proofing
Across industries, customers are rediscovering the power of a unified Microsoft ecosystem.
For example, a regional school district in Texas recently retired an outdated PBX and voice only contact center solution by enabling Teams voice and CoreEngage. The result? A significant reduction in their communications spend and in phase two AI-assisted call routing that ensures parents reach the right staff faster.
Financial institutions are integrating Teams voice to meet compliance mandates while layering in chat and AI-driven customer engagement through CoreEngage. Regional enterprises are simplifying vendor sprawl, replacing multiple disjointed communication systems with one unified, intelligent, Teams-based experience.
Each engagement follows the same pattern:
1. Assessment of existing communication architecture
2. Design and deployment of resilient voice and digital channel integration
3. Optimization with analytics and AI-powered engagement metrics
The results are measurable, lower costs, improved uptime, enhanced customer satisfaction, and stronger employee adoption. More importantly, organizations future-proof their communications strategy, ensuring that as AI transforms digital engagement, they’re ready to evolve with it.
The Future of Collaboration: Voice, Digital, and AI Together
Microsoft’s future may revolve around AI, but even the smartest algorithms depend on communication. Voice remains the connective tissue between people, while digital and AI expand reach, scale, and insight.
The next generation of collaboration will merge voice, digital channels, and AI orchestration, enabling customers to interact naturally, intelligently, and consistently across every touchpoint.
This is where Altigen’s expertise shines. By reinforcing Microsoft Teams with enterprise-grade voice, omnichannel digital engagement through CoreEngage, and our analytics capabilities, Altigen delivers a complete engagement ecosystem, one that’s human, intelligent, and ready for what’s next.
“AI may be the future, but true engagement starts when every channel — voice, digital, and data works as one.”
What Should Enterprises Do Next?
- Assess your Teams environment. Determine if you’re using Teams for meetings and chat or as your unified communication backbone.
- Identify gaps. Review your telephony, contact center, and engagement tools for overlap, inefficiency, or cost duplication.
- Engage Altigen. Our experts will design a roadmap to consolidate your communication stack, activate hidden Teams capabilities, and extend them with CoreEngage and to future-proof your digital engagement strategy.
Conclusion: It’s Time to Catch Up
Microsoft Teams has never held more value than today, and it’s up to Teams experts to spread the news. Altigen Technologies stands ready to fill that gap.
We’ve been on this journey from OCS to Lync to Skype to Teams, and now we’re helping enterprises future-proof their customer journey by blending reliable voice, digital channels, and AI-driven automation into a single, unified platform.
It’s time.
About Altigen Technologies
Altigen Technologies is a Microsoft-focused communications and digital engagement company dedicated to helping enterprises modernize the way they connect with customers and employees. With more than two decades of innovation in unified communications, contact center, and cloud voice solutions, Altigen delivers seamlessly integrated experiences for Microsoft Teams users worldwide.
Through solutions such as CoreEngage and our AI and Analytics platformsAltigen empowers organizations to unify their voice, digital, and AI-driven interactions, maximizing ROI across the Microsoft ecosystem while future-proofing the customer journey.
Learn more at www.altigen.com or contact our team to schedule a Teams Voice and Digital Engagement Assessment.
(Sources: Forbes, May 2025; The Verge, July 2023; DemandSage, 2024; Microsoft historical archives.)
About the Author
Joe Hamblin is Chief Digital & Transformation Officer at Altigen Technologies, where he leads the company’s next-generation AI product offerings. With over 30 years of experience in the technology industry, Joe previously served as Vice President of Enterprise Services at Sprint/T-Mobile. It was during this time that he began working in the Unified Communications space, going back to Microsoft Live Communications Server in the mid-2000s.
Partnering with Microsoft, Joe and his technical team were among the early adopters of Office Communications Server R1 & R2, as well as Lync, Skype for Business, and eventually Microsoft Teams. His unique blend of technical vision and enterprise execution gives him a forward-looking view into the future of workplace communication and collaboration.
