153 MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS a secure and efficient infrastructure to those who need it. There are many businesses out there that, for a variety of reasons, have not taken the final step into truly unified, modern solutions. At Gamma, we are working hard to make sure that Operator Connect (OC) is available to our partners so they can, in turn, roll it out to their customers. In February 2023, we announced a new partnership with Ingram Micro, a distributor of information technology products and services, to offer OC for Microsoft Teams to its UK partners. This is a huge step in the right direction: OC is a new operator-managed programme from Microsoft Teams Phone that’s been designed to enable seamless and integrated calling. Gamma is one of only a select number of providers on the programme in the UK – only increasing the urgency of making sure we help businesses to facilitate that final step for their customers. We are also working with colleagues in Europe, having launched OC into the Dutch market for small and medium-sized enterprises in 2021 through our dealer model. Further activities in Europe will only serve to solidify OC as the most popular variant of Teams Phone, as well as allowing businesses to truly unify their workflows and push them over the line into the 21st century. Thankfully this transition is painless – OC is easy to deploy, simple to administrate and comes with native fraud management. Times are changing – employees expect a more unified experience at work. They expect to be able to work flexibly. Customers expect vastly increased efficiency in how they are dealt with. Businesses, as mentioned before, are seeking robust and efficient solutions to help them weather the storms of our decade. Given the fact that over a million organisations are using Teams worldwide (including 91 out of the Fortune 100 companies), adding OC-supported Teams Phone into the Microsoft ecosystem is not only easy to do, but addresses all the aforementioned considerations. We will continue to support our partners both within the UK and in Europe to facilitate these changes for their customers. There are constant conversations around the big issues of the day – hybrid working, the modern workplace, the future of contact centres, the employee experience, and so much more. At Gamma, we strive to not only deliver and facilitate these changes, but to ingrain them into the very culture of the organisation itself. There are very human conversations about these issues happening at Gamma every day, and very real practical implementations of the solutions that we promote to our partners and direct customers. Given that the infrastructure we facilitate and provide underpins a variety of organisations, including those in the healthcare sector, it is of utmost importance that these systems are robust and fit for purpose in today’s world. Those few seconds an employee spends switching between systems could be the few seconds that make a difference in a caller’s life – which is why we not only promote OC Teams integration as a sensible move, but truly believe in the difference it will make to organisations in the UK and across Europe. Yes, as a business it is important to sell products to customers. This is a fundamental truth. However, it is also true that we fully believe in the benefits of this product and the positive impact it provides. OC is on the right track to become the most popular variations of Teams Phone in the coming years – and we will be fully driving forward with the product to help partners facilitate their customers’ final step into the modern workplace. Chris Wade is chief marketing and product officer at Gamma “ Businesses are seeking robust and efficient solutions to help them weather the storms of our decade” Photo: Adobe
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