It’s no secret that global cyber-attacks have risen in the last six months amid the COVID-19 situation. Manufacturing and retail industries have, to date, seen the most attacks; but almost every business in the world has been affected in some way.

Cloud security experts Mimecast recently examined the first 100 days of the crisis, focusing on the patterns of scams between January and March in the build-up of the pandemic. The report noted a 26% increase in opportunistic detections, with impersonations up 30%. In total, detections had increased by a third.

It’s important to prepare yourself and your organisation for the inevitable, but it can be difficult to tell when and how you are being targeted. In recent months, cyber criminals have been targeting companies and workers that have shifted to remote working by using a variety of different methods and tactics to cause the most cause harm.

Business Voice can easily be added on to Microsoft 365’s Business Basic and Standard SKUs (formerly Office 365 Business) and is now sold as an add-on to these, available to business with 300 users or less.

Business Voice is so simple; it’s not another application to learn or login to, it is simply the (until now) redundant ‘Calls’ tab within Microsoft Teams. No need to go through heavy set-up or manual install; once added on to an existing plan, Business Voice completes Teams to offer an integrated collaboration experience. Little to no training is required for users who already have teams and Business Voice is already synced to your Outlook contacts.

Business Voice enables users to keep their work phone number when away from their desks. When the lockdown first occurred in March, many customer-facing employees resorted to giving out personal numbers, just so they could keep in contact. Business Voice helps employees remain professional and still be reached at all working hours.

Remote working is now essential for most businesses due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.  Business Voice enables small businesses to stay connected through their single existing phone number across their computer, mobile device, and also desk phone. Users have a consistent experience across devices with the Microsoft Teams app. Transitioning to remote working may seem daunting to some office-based companies, but with Teams and Business Voice, business-as-usual is easy to achieve.  

For those responsible for managing Microsoft accounts for your business, they can enjoy simplified setup, billing (you purchase it through your Microsoft partner at a fixed cost), and management; it uses the same interface used to manage Microsoft 365. You can add users and phone numbers in seconds and enjoy the benefits of a cloud-based phone system without having to run a PBX.

Changing phone systems is not a decision you may be able to make overnight. If you are tied into an existing contract for a PBX or a trunk (a phone minutes deal) there is a simple solution; we can use Calls2Teams to connect your current configuration up to Teams in as little as few minutes.

Call us for advice on how you can implement Business Voice to light up Microsoft Teams for your business. We can support you in the simple set-up and adoption process and help you get the most out of your Microsoft solution.