How to Migrate From Toshiba PBX to Microsoft Teams Phone System?
Telecommunications Systems Division (TSD) had been operating in the United States since 1975 and was in the top 3 market share for small and midsized business phone systems. However, Toshiba Corporation had to wind down the operations of the division in 2017 as a part of its global restructuring and was eventually acquired by Mitel. Consequently, the Toshiba CIX and IPedge product lines were phased out, and the end of technical support is scheduled for October 2021. Businesses must start looking for other telecommunications alternatives. In this article, we will explore Microsoft Teams Phone System as a substitute for Toshiba PBX.
Why Migrate from Toshiba to Microsoft Phone System?
Migrating from Toshiba to Microsoft Phone System empowers businesses with advanced unified communications capabilities available with the cloud-based phone system. Here are some of the advantages of migrating from the Toshiba Phone System to Microsoft Teams.
- In the event of a hardware failure, it might become impossible to fix the Toshiba phone system as replacement parts could be difficult to procure. However, Microsoft Phone System is a fully managed cloud-based solution that can be used with any internet-enabled device.
- With the end of technical support, there would no longer be fixes for glitches, bugs, and software issues with the Toshiba system. However, Microsoft Phone System does not require manual intervention for these issues as the solution is managed by Microsoft.
- In addition to regular Private Branch Exchange (PBX) features, Microsoft Phone System offers unique cloud features, such as cloud voicemail, federated calling, and device switching.
- The overall costs can be reduced significantly as Microsoft Teams does not require additional investments in PBX hardware and businesses can switch to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to avoid high carrier charges for long-distance calls.
- Microsoft Teams Phone System is tightly integrated with products and services in the Microsoft 365 productivity suite, such as SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, OneDrive for Business, and supports other third-party solutions for extensibility.
How to Switch From Toshiba PRI System to Microsoft Phone System?
There are primarily two options for switching from Toshiba PRI System to Microsoft Phone System. The first option is to switch to a fully cloud-native solution with Calling Plans. The existing numbers can be ported to Microsoft and assigned to specific user accounts or resource account.
The other option is to use the existing infrastructure and use Microsoft Teams Direct Routing or Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) integration. Below is the process involved in Direct Routing.
Businesses can purchase appropriate Office 365/ Microsoft 365 licenses, Phone System licenses, and add-ons such as Audio-Conferencing capabilities. The existing PBX is integrated with Teams using an on-premises Session border controller (SBC), or a hosted virtual SBC. The existing numbers can be ported to use as Microsoft Teams bridge lines. Finally, Auto Attendant, Call Queues, Call Detail Record (CDR) Logs, and other toolsets to manage the service can be configured to manage the service.
Apps4Rent Can Help with Toshiba to Microsoft Teams Phone System Migration
Enterprises with Toshiba systems need to modernize their communication architecture to adopt new features, minimize risks, and improve operational efficiency. Switching to Microsoft Teams is a practical and affordable solution. As a Microsoft Gold Partner for the Cloud Platform specialization, Apps4Rent can help businesses with licensing and customization of the Microsoft Teams Phone System. We can also host Issabel IP PBX as an alternative in our top-tier SSAE 16 datacenters, or Azure. Contact our well qualified technicians available 24/7 via phone, chat, and email for assistance.
