July Solution Spotlight: Star2Star

If you’re currently using Microsoft Teams for content collaboration and video conferencing, then you should know that the right VoIP solution can integrate seamlessly to streamline your communications allowing you to make phone calls through your computer or Teams App on your smartphone.

Discover more in our July Solutions Spotlight webinar, featuring Forthright Technology Partners’ CEO Steve Zoberg, and Jordan Miralis and Jeff Wilton from Star2Star. Check out the full recording to find out more about this solution:

Business Communication Should Be Convenient

Great communication is vital to your success. Your customers need to be able to reach you anywhere at any time, and thanks to recent advances in business communications solutions, that’s never been easier.

Small and mid-sized businesses can now benefit from reliable business communications technology that larger companies have, but without the high price tag and unnecessary complexities, thanks to solutions like Star2Star Business Voice. This is especially apparent when you learn that this solution integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Teams.

“It’s one of our most valued integrations,” says Jordan. “It is a central hub that keeps users connected, no matter their job function.”

More likely than not, you’re a Microsoft Teams user already. Its use virtually doubled over the course of the pandemic, from 75 million users in April 2020 to 145 million as of April 2021. If it’s such a central part of your daily work life, doesn’t it make sense to integrate your business phone into it as well?

Instead of having to buy, install and support complicated and expensive in-office equipment to bridge your VoIP calls with the public phone networks, you can simply integrate Star2Star business voice as a service through Microsoft Teams.

Think of it as a Microsoft Teams phone system. Your dedicated number is consolidated directly with your Microsoft Teams account — it’s really that simple.

Star2Star Streamlines Your Communications In Microsoft Teams

By consolidating your business phone systems directly into Microsoft Teams, you can gain a number of advantages:

• Streamlined Collaboration: If you already use Microsoft Teams, then you know how well it supports collaboration in the workplace. Imagine how much more effective it would be if you could make and receive calls through it as well?
  With Star2Star business voice, you get the ability to include external contacts. Add contacts to any call, forward and direct calls internally, and track availability based on Teams profile statuses.
• Simple Integration: With this solution, you don’t need an actual physical desktop phone. You just need the Teams app on whatever device(s) you’ll be using.
• Improved User Convenience: The end-user experience gets even more convenient, with a fully consolidated communication and collaboration platform that allows you to instant message, email, and place calls all from one solution.
• Lower Costs: Integrating Star2Star business voice into Microsoft Teams derives more value from your investment in the platform, giving you simpler and more effective communication capability.

For Forthright, a key benefit is a fact that Star2Star isn’t tied to a specific phone. By integrating our telephony needs into Microsoft Teams, our staff is no longer stuck at their desk waiting on an important phone call. They know they can work more flexibly and still receive or route all their incoming calls through Star2Star and Microsoft Teams.

“Having a mobile platform that is not tied to a physical device is a big deal,” says Steve. “My staff is not chained to a computer all day, they can still service our customers, but they can get up and leave, as long as they are within reach of a computer or their smartphone.”

This is a key consideration — being able to improve your team’s user experience without compromising their availability to clients will do a lot to improve your business culture. This is especially important in light of the modern remote work era. If your business intends to continue with remote work after the pandemic (whether in full or in a hybrid model), you will have to consider long-term, improved communication capabilities.

What Does Star2Star Mean For The People You Communicate With?

Any improvements you make to your communication processes should also benefit your contacts, your clients, and anyone else getting in touch with your staff.

That’s precisely what Star2Star offers. Users that integrate this solution into their Microsoft Teams platform and business as a whole can also leverage Star2Star’s Contact-Center-as-a-Service (CCSaaS). This system has allowed Forthright to better track and improve the quality of service we deliver to our clients each and every time they call in.

“It’s really more about tracking how we’re doing from an SLA perspective,” says Steve. “How fast we’re answering calls, client satisfaction, etc.”

This virtual contact center will drastically improve a business’ ability to manage incoming communication in an agile manner. The conventional features and capabilities you would expect from your phone solution are now consolidated into Microsoft Teams. Benefits include:

• Robust Features: Get advanced call routing, management, real-time monitoring, analytics & reporting.
• Consistent Connectivity: Maintain your system with Star2Star’s centralized cloud portal to manage agents, queues & cloud-based call routing.
• Intuitive User Experience: Leverage a solution tailored to your business workflows that streamlines access to real-time data on a single screen.
• Insights & Analysis: Monitor metrics and get alerts on Agent Pause Time, Agent Talk Time, Calls Waiting In Queue, Available Agents, Longest Waiting Time In Queue & Logged In Agents.
• Boost User Productivity With Automation: IVR Builder is a full-featured and highly flexible IVR platform for customizing call flows, personalizing customer interactions, and delivering targeted integrations with third-party applications.

Forthright And Star2Star Will Optimize Your Communications

Want to see how Star2Star works in action?

Make sure to watch the full exploration of the solution in the webinar recording above, or better yet, get in touch with our team. We can walk you through the many advantages that Star2Star offers.

Contact the Forthright Technology Partners team and arrange a meeting at a time that works for you. We’ll show you how Star2Star works, and what it will do for your organization’s communications.