December 2022
Microsoft Teams Phone integrates voice into the Microsoft Teams collaboration platform. The solution can increase user collaboration and productivity, lessen the total cost of ownership (TCO) by reducing licensing and usage costs and reducing IT management burden, and improve productivity for both enterprise organizations and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
Microsoft commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential return on investment (ROI) companies may realize by implementing Teams Phone. Teams Phone enables users to make and receive voice and video calls within Microsoft Teams and provides connectivity to public switched telephone network (PSTN) calling capabilities. Teams Phone can also integrate telephony into a broader Microsoft Teams collaboration environment. Teams Phone customers have a range of options to enable connectivity including from first party Microsoft Teams Calling Plans, Direct Routing, and Operator Connect. The purpose of this study is to provide readers with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of Teams Phone on their organizations.
To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this investment, Forrester interviewed four enterprise representatives and four SMB representatives, all of whom use Microsoft Teams Phone. For the purposes of the financial analyses, Forrester aggregated the experiences of the interviewed customers and combined the results into two distinct composite organizations that are representative of enterprise and SMB customers.
Prior to using Teams Phone, companies used a variety of solutions for their telephony needs, including a traditional business telephone system (private branch exchange or PBX) or an IP-based telephony solution. These legacy solutions did not integrate well with other collaboration channels, lacked modern functionality, and frequently had higher costs. Management effort for these telephony environments was significant and often required staff with specialized skills. Collaboration between employees and communications with customers were time-consuming and cumbersome, keeping employees from more productive work.
By investing in Teams Phone, companies could reduce licensing and usage costs related to their phone environments, as well minimize the burden on IT to manage their calling solution, freeing them to focus on core responsibilities. Teams Phone also enabled end users to save time and collaborate more effectively.
Consulting Team: Margaret Firth, Matthew Dunham
Quantified benefits. Risk-adjusted present value (PV) quantified benefits include:
Previous solutions included traditional telephony, voice over IP (VoIP) PBXs, other hosted/integrated voice providers, or some combination of these and other solutions. Adopting Teams Phone frees the composite organizations to deprecate legacy systems, resulting in cost savings. In addition to replacing these previous solutions, cost savings can be achieved through the elimination or reduction of long-distance and international call charges and mobile phone reimbursement to users.
The enterprise composite organization moves to Teams Phone from another hosted calling solution, and the SMB composite comes from a VoIP PBX solution. The eliminated costs total $10.8 million for the enterprise composite organization and $94,600 for the SMB composite organization. These were replaced by those costs shown in the Analysis Of Costs sections of this study.
The ability to manage Teams Phone using the same console as Microsoft 365 saves time, reduces complexity, and requires fewer specialized skills than prior solutions. IT organizations for both SMB and enterprise composites were able to eliminate management and maintenance effort since key tasks were faster and easier. The SMB model sees a decrease in effort from 0.5 FTE to 0.1 FTE. The enterprise model sees a decrease in effort from three FTEs to two FTEs. For the pre-Microsoft solution, the enterprise composite organization spends $1 million over three years, and the SMB composite organization spends $130,000. These are replaced by costs shown in the Analysis Of Costs section of the study.
For both the enterprise and SMB composite organizations, adopting Teams Phone saves employees time by making communication and collaboration more efficient. This in turn helps streamline business processes and eliminates the need to make cumbersome switches between platforms and devices. Across both analyses, highly mobile users save 1.6 hours per week, and nonmobile users save 15 minutes per week, on average. The three-year benefit for the enterprise composite organization is $8.0 million, while the three-year benefit for the SMB composite organization is $79,000.
Unquantified benefits. Benefits that are not quantified for this study include:
Teams Phone is integrated into Microsoft 365, including the full security stack. Additionally, Microsoft Teams Phone simplifies voice calling for employees working from anywhere.
Teams Phone has a well-integrated, simple-to-use interface, and it provides users with the support they need to work remotely. These factors have played a key role in delivering a high-quality employee experience. Customers are also happier because they can more easily contact and collaborate with people at companies using Microsoft solutions.
Costs. Risk-adjusted PV costs include:
Teams Phone can be included in Microsoft 365 E5 licenses, or it can be purchased separately. The enterprise composite continues to maintain and buy PSTN connectivity and to incur some degree of incremental usage charges associated with mobile usage. The SMB composite incurs licensing costs for Teams Phone and chooses a calling plan with communication credits and mobile reimbursement costs. The enterprise composite organization spends $5.3 million on licenses and usage, while the SMB composite organization spends $72,000.
Implementing Teams Phone requires a relatively small investment of internal labor to implement, regardless of company size. The enterprise composite organization completes a proof of concept (POC) before fully rolling out the solution to all employees. The SMB composite implements Teams Phone in a single phase. Both composite organizations experience decreases in the management effort for Teams Phone compared to their prior solutions, as reflected in the reduced telephony support effort benefit category. End users at both the enterprise and SMB composites spend 30 minutes (on average) training to use Teams Phone. For the enterprise composite organization, the three-year cost for deployment, ongoing management, and training is $1.4 million. And for the SMB composite organization, this cost is $38,000.
Both the SMB and enterprise composite organizations purchase Teams Phone-compatible devices, which consist of headsets or VoIP phones. The enterprise model includes professional services for the implementation and ongoing services around PSTN integrations and the addition of new features, costing $1.4 million over three years. SMB deployments are more typically handled in-house without additional professional services, given their size and scale, and as such, the SMB financial model accounts for the total cost of all new user devices at the composite organization and totals $13,000 over three years.
The objective of the framework is to identify the cost, benefit, flexibility, and risk factors that affect the investment decision. Forrester took a multistep approach to evaluate the impact that Microsoft Teams Phone can have on an organization.
Interviewed Microsoft stakeholders and Forrester analysts to gather data relative to Microsoft Teams Phone solutions.
Interviewed four decision-makers at SMB organizations and four decision makers at enterprise organizations using Microsoft Teams Phone to obtain data with respect to costs, benefits, and risks.
Designed two composite organizations based on characteristics of the interviewed SMB and enterprise organizations.
Constructed two financial models represent risk-adjusted the financial models based on issues and concerns of the interviewees.
Employed four fundamental elements of TEI in modeling the investment im pact: benefits, costs, provides a complete picture of the total economic im pact of purchase decisions. Please see Appendix A or additional information on the TEI methodology.
Readers should be aware of the following:
This study is commissioned by Microsoft and delivered by Forrester Consulting. It is not meant to be used as a competitive analysis.
Forrester makes no assumptions as to the potential ROI that other organizations will receive. Forrester strongly advises that readers use their own estimates within the framework provided in the report to determine the appropriateness of an investment in Microsoft Teams Phone.
Microsoft reviewed and provided feedback to Forrester, but Forrester maintains editorial control over the study and its findings and does not accept changes to the study that contradict Forrester’s findings or obscure the meaning of the study.
Microsoft provided the customer names for the interviews but did not participate in the interviews.
Segment | Role | Industry | Employees | Region |
---|---|---|---|---|
Enterprise | Lead IT engineer | Telecommunications | 36,000 | North America |
Enterprise | Global infrastructure services manager | Energy | 86,000 | North America |
Enterprise | Director, digital workplace | Financial services | 10,000 | North America |
Enterprise | Delivery lead | Financial services | 23,000 | EMEA |
SMB | IT specialist | Construction | 50 | North America |
SMB | Director of technology operations | Healthcare nonprofit | 590 | North America |
SMB | CIO | Financial services | 300 | EMEA |
SMB | CIO | Financial services | 800 users | APAC |
Prior to implementing Microsoft’s Teams Phone solutions, both SMB and enterprise organizations had prior voice solutions that were not integrated with Teams. Neither on-premises nor hosted solutions provided the desired features in a way that was both cost-effective and easy to manage.
The interviewees’ organizations struggled with common challenges, including:
Legacy solutions were expensive and taxed organizations in a variety of ways, including by requiring maintenance of onsite infrastructure, updates, and security. Maintaining these solutions and managing telephony infrastructure demanded more specialized labor and higher investments of IT time on onboarding and support tasks. For large companies, scaling or expanding the environment to incorporate new locations, acquired companies, or new geographies was costly and fraught with technical barriers.
Legacy solutions did not integrate well with collaboration tools, including Microsoft Teams, leading to suboptimal communication within and outside the organization. Employee experience and customer satisfaction suffered.
Based on the interviews, Forrester constructed a TEI framework, a composite company, and an ROI analysis that illustrates the areas financially affected. Separate composite models were created for both SMB and enterprise customers who were using Microsoft Teams Phone. The composite organizations are representative of the eight interviewees, and they are used to present the aggregate financial analyses. The composite organizations have the following characteristics:
The enterprise composite organization has 10,000 employees, and Microsoft Teams Phone was implemented in a phased rollout to everyone during the initial period of the study. The composite organization has global operations, and approximately 15% of its employees are highly mobile. The composite organization was already using Microsoft 365 with Teams as their collaboration platform, but they were previously using a global hosted voice solution for telephony. Teams Phone was added by purchasing additional licenses, and the composite organization continues to buy PSTN connectivity from existing telco partners.
The SMB composite organization has 100 employees, and Teams Phone was rolled out to everyone in a single implementation. Fifteen percent of employees are highly mobile. The organization was already using Microsoft 365 and Teams, but relied on a VoIP PBX system as their voice solution. Teams Phone licenses with a calling plan and consumption credits were added.
Ref. | Benefit | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Atr | Replaced previous voice solutions | $4,332,000 | $4,332,000 | $4,332,000 | $12,996,000 | $10,773,043 |
Btr | Replaced telephony support effort | $405,000 | $405,000 | $405,000 | $1,215,000 | $1,007,175 |
Ctr | Improved communication | $1,954,800 | $3,909,600 | $3,909,600 | $9,774,000 | $7,945,506 |
Total benefits (risk-adjusted) | $6,691,800 | $8,646,600 | $8,646,600 | $23,985,000 | $19,725,724 |
Prior to adopting Teams Phone, interviewees reported that their organizations were using a range of solutions including PSTN, VoIP PBXs, and hosted calling solutions. Enterprises frequently used some combination of multiple solutions across the organization. Costs associated with these various solutions could include hardware, licenses, maintenance, and support. These solutions would also involve usage costs such as calling plans, long-distance charges, and mobile phone bills. These costs are avoided after implementation of Teams Phone and replaced by those shown in the Analysis Of Costs section. For the composite organization, the transition to Teams Phone has an ROI of 45% and an NPV of $3.7 million, independent of the improved communication benefit as detailed below.
Interviewees shared the following examples of the previous solutions that Teams Phone has replaced and how they are saving money:
For the financial analysis, Forrester made the following assumptions:
Some factors that could result in this benefit being lower than that of the interviewees include:
To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 5%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV of $10.8 million.
Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A1 | Previous voice solution contract cost per user monthly cost | Interviews | $28 | $28 | $28 | ||
A2 | Previous usage costs per user monthly | Interviews | $10 | $10 | $10 | ||
At | Avoided previous solution costs | C1*(A1+A2)*12 | $4,560,000 | $4,560,000 | $4,560,000 | ||
Risk adjustment | ↓5% | ||||||
Atr | Avoided previous solution costs (risk-adjusted) | $4,332,000 | $4,332,000 | $4,332,000 | |||
Three-year total: $12,996,000 | Three-year present value: $10,773,043 | ||||||
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Moving to Teams Phone means that companies can integrate the telephony support and management teams with the teams responsible for managing digital collaboration solutions including Microsoft Teams. Consolidating these teams reduces overall effort, allowing the composite organization to operate with fewer and less-specialized employee resources.
Enterprise interviewees shared the following examples of previous support and management effort that was reduced and replaced with the integrated support of Teams Phone.
For the financial analysis, Forrester made the following assumptions:
Some factors that could result in this benefit being lower than that of the interviewees include:
To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV of $1 million.
Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
B1 | Replaced IT support FTEs | Interviews | 3 | 3 | 3 | ||
B2 | Average fully burdened annual salary for an IT administrator | TEI standard | $150,000 | $150,000 | $150,000 | ||
Bt | Replaced telephony support effort | B1*B2 | $450,000 | $450,000 | $450,000 | ||
Risk adjustment | ↓10% | ||||||
Btr | Replaced telephony support effort (risk-adjusted) | $405,000 | $405,000 | $405,000 | |||
Three-year total: $1,215,000 | Three-year present value: $1,007,175 | ||||||
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Microsoft Teams Phone improves communication among colleagues across geographies and roles as well as communication with customers and external stakeholders. Using Teams Phone, phone calls and other Microsoft Teams collaboration solutions are integrated on a single platform that can be used to make calls from anywhere companies do business. Employees saved time, worked more efficiently, and collaborated more easily, which created more value for the organization.
Enterprise interviewees shared examples of how voice integration improves communication in terms of user productivity and business outcomes:
For the financial analysis, Forrester made the following assumptions:
Some factors that could result in variation in this benefit from that reported by interviewees include:
To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $7.9 million.
Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
C1 | Number of employees | Composite | 10,000 | 10,000 | 10,000 | |||
C2 | Highly mobile employees | Composite | 1,500 | 1,500 | 1,500 | |||
C3 | Nonmobile employees | Composite | 8,500 | 8,500 | 8,500 | |||
C4 | Average fully burdened hourly rate for all employees at the enterprise | TEI standard | $45 | $45 | $45 | |||
C5 | Work weeks per year | TEI standard | 48 | 48 | 48 | |||
C6 | Time savings for highly mobile employees (hours) | Interviews | 1.6 | 1.6 | 1.6 | |||
C7 | Subtotal: highly mobile user time savings | C2*C4*C5*C6 [50% savings in Y1] | $2,592,000 | $5,184,000 | $5,184,000 | |||
C8 | Time savings for nonmobile employees (hours) | Interviews | 0.25 | 0.25 | 0.25 | |||
C9 | Subtotal: nonmobile user time savings | C3*C4*C5*C8 [50% savings in Y1] | $2,295,000 | $4,590,000 | $4,590,000 | |||
C10 | Total time savings | C7+C9 | $4,887,000 | $9,774,000 | $9,774,000 | |||
C11 | Productivity recapture | TEI standard | 50% | 50% | 50% | |||
Ct | Improved communication | C10*C11 | $2,443,500 | $4,887,000 | $4,887,000 | |||
Risk adjustment | ↓20% | |||||||
Ctr | Improved communication (risk-adjusted) | $1,954,800 | $3,909,600 | $3,909,600 | ||||
Three-year total: $9,774,000 | Three-year present value: $7,945,506 | |||||||
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Interviewees mentioned the following additional benefits that their organizations experienced but were not able to quantify:
Teams Phone security is managed within the same platform as Microsoft Office 365 and Teams, reducing effort spent managing the system and security and rendering a gap in security less likely. Microsoft monitors the security and stability of the platform, and the cloud-based platform includes managed updates that bolster reliability and security.
According to a global infrastructure services manager at an energy company: “[The] software is [as-a-]service, so Microsoft [is] improving the security footprint all the time and we just benefit from it as they deploy new things. Teams uses a more modern codecs, which are better with some of the places that we work and connectivity issues in places where we work.”
A director of technology operations at a healthcare nonprofit shared: “We get notifications ahead of time of environmental instability, and we’re almost certainly not the only customer who’s having that problem. There’s urgency behind Microsoft to bring things back when they fail. We have not had any issues with Teams telephony since we installed it. It just runs. It just percolates. It’s rock-solid reliable. The quality is strong, and the management configurability is easy because it’s all in that single pane of glass in the M365 world. You don’t have to go hunting around for access to the Teams telephony tuning — it’s right there.”
Multiple interviewed customers shared that Teams Phone was a part of delivering the modern workplace experience and remote flexibility demanded by their employees.
A digital workplace director at a financial services company noted, “The objective we’re always navigating for is how can we improve the user experience and the work lives of our users, and Teams [Phone] is really good at that.”
In addition, Teams Phone had positive impacts on customer satisfaction. A director of global infrastructure services at an energy company told Forrester: “The fluidity and ease of working with our customers is certainly increased. Obviously, Teams is much more reliable, it’s much easier to use, [and] the mobile client is much better.” They added, “You’re retaining staff more, you’re giving them more modern tools, [and] you’re allowing them to work flexibly with a tool that will suit their working life.”
A lead IT engineer at a telecommunications company identified the value of a consolidated platform in delivering collaboration, even in light of work-from-home environments. They said: “There’s value there in having a consolidated platform [where] everything is maintained within one system. Having one platform, being able to collaborate within that single platform and work from home has helped us be able to do that in a more efficient manner.”
The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Microsoft Teams Phone and later realize additional uses and business opportunities. Some examples shared by interviewees include:
A lead engineer at a telco company shared: “We acquire companies at a rapid pace, and with that comes a lot of different telephony platforms. And so our goal was to simplify not only what we had, but any future acquisitions in terms of our telephony and collaboration tools.”
Such features include transcription and translation and call center capabilities.
Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Appendix A ). None of these were included in the financial analysis.
Ref. | Costs | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dtr | External licenses and usage | $17,850 | $2,142,000 | $2,142,000 | $2,142,000 | $6,443,850 | $5,344,687 |
Etr | Internal costs | $353,063 | $539,438 | $326,813 | $326,813 | $1,546,127 | $1,359,092 |
Ftr | Other external costs | $247,500 | $1,100,000 | $110,000 | $110,000 | $1,567,500 | $1,421,054 |
Total costs (risk-adjusted) | $618,413 | $3,781,438 | $2,578,813 | $2,578,813 | $9,557,477 | $8,124,833 |
Teams Phone capabilities are embedded in E5 licenses or are available on a separate, à la carte basis. Customers can continue to use PSTN services from their existing telecom partners or purchase calling plans from Microsoft. In addition, incremental charges such as international calls and mobile phone bills depend on mobile phone usage/reimbursement and utilization of international calling. These costs replace those shown in the Analysis Of Benefits section of the study.
For the financial analysis, Forrester made the following assumptions based on the interviewees’ experiences:
Some factors that could result in this cost being higher than that reported by interviewees include:
To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 5%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV of $5.3 million.
Ref | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
D1 | Users | C1 | 500 | 10,000 | 10,000 | 10,000 | |
D2 | Monthly license fee per user | Composite | $8 | $8 | $8 | $8 | |
D3 | Microsoft Teams Phone licenses | D1*D2 | $8,000 | $960,000 | $960,000 | $960,000 | |
D4 | Monthly PSTN services per user | Composite | $5 | $5 | $5 | $5 | |
D5 | PSTN partner costs | D1*D4 | $5,000 | $600,000 | $600,000 | $600,000 | |
D6 | Monthly usage costs per user, including international calling and mobile phones | Composite | $4 | $4 | $4 | $4 | |
D7 | Usage costs | D1*D6 | $4,000 | $480,000 | $480,000 | $480,000 | |
Dt | External licenses and usage | D3+D5+D7 | $17,000 | $2,040,000 | $2,040,000 | $2,040,000 | |
Risk adjustment | ↑5% | ||||||
Dtr | External licenses and usage (risk-adjusted) | $17,850 | $2,142,000 | $2,142,000 | $2,142,000 | ||
Three-year total: $6,443,850 | Three-year present value: $5,344,687 | ||||||
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This cost category accounts for the IT ef f ort involved in implementing Teams Phone and the ongoing management effort. It also contemplates lost productivity associated with the end user training investment.
For the financial analysis, Forrester made the following assumptions based on the interviewees’ experiences:
Some factors that could result in this cost being higher than that reported by interviewees include:
To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 5%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $1.4 million.
Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
E1 | Number of months to produce POC | Interviews | 3 | ||||
E2 | FTEs involved with POC | Interviews | 2 | ||||
E3 | Number of months for global rollout | Interviews | 4 | ||||
E4 | Number of FTEs for global rollout | Interviews | 5 | ||||
E5 | Monthly average fully burdened IT cost perFTE | B2/12 | $12,500 | ||||
E6 | Internal implementation | (E1*E2*E5)+(E3*E4*E5) | $325,000 | ||||
E7 | FTEs providing internal support | Interviews | 2 | 2 | 2 | ||
E8 | Average fully burdened annual salary for internal support FTE | TEI standard | $150,000 | $150,000 | $150,000 | ||
E9 | Ongoing internal support | E7*E8 | $300,000 | $300,000 | $300,000 | ||
E10 | Average fully burdened hourly wage of all FTEs | TEI Standard | $45 | $45 | $45 | $45 | |
E11 | Training time per FTE (hours) | Interviews | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | |
E12 | End-user training | E10*E11* [Initial:D1+Y1: D1Y1-Initial Y2 and Y3:10,000 users*5% attrition] | $11,250 Y2 and Y3: | $213,750 | $11,250 | $11,250 | |
Et | Internal costs | E5+E6+E9+E12 | $336,250 | $513,750 | $311,250 | $311,250 | |
Risk adjustment | ↑5% | ||||||
Etr | Internal costs (risk-adjusted) | $353,063 | $539,438 | $326,813 | $326,813 | ||
Three-year total: $1,546,127 | Three-year present value: $1,359,092 | ||||||
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An investment in Teams Phone may require some additional costs beyond telephony licensing and usage costs or investment of internal labor. For enterprise-scale deployments, these costs include professional services during implementation as well as ongoing management and user devices. Professional services during implementation may involve processes integrating into direct-routing solutions of various telecom providers and providing training. Ongoing services may involve managing these connections as well as rolling out new features.
For the financial analysis, Forrester made the following assumptions based on the interviewees’ experiences:
Some factors that could result in this cost being higher than that reported by interviewees include:
To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV of $1.4 million.
Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
F1 | Implementation professional services | Assumption | $175,000 | ||||
F2 | Ongoing professional services | Assumption | $50,000 | $50,000 | $50,000 | ||
F3 | Total professional services | F1+F2 | $175,000 | $50,000 | $50,000 | $50,000 | |
F4 | Number of added users | Y1: D1-Initial Y2 and Y3: D1* 5% attrition | 500 | 9,500 | 500 | 500 | |
F5 | User devices | F4*$100 | $50,000 | $950,000 | $50,000 | $50,000 | |
Ft | Other external costs | F3+F5 | $225,000 | $1,000,000 | $100,000 | $100,000 | |
Risk adjustment | ↑10% | ||||||
Ftr | Other external costs (risk-adjusted) | $247,500 | $1,100,000 | $110,000 | $110,000 | ||
Three-year total: $1,567,500 | Three-year present value: $1,421,054 | ||||||
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Ref. | Benefit | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gtr | Replaced previous voice solutions | $55,170 | $28,170 | $28,170 | $111,510 | $94,600 |
Htr | Replaced telephony support effort | $52,250 | $52,250 | $52,250 | $156,750 | $129,938 |
Itr | Improved communication | $19,548 | $39,096 | $39,096 | $97,740 | $79,455 |
Total benefits (risk-adjusted) | $126,968 | $119,516 | $119,516 | $366,000 | $303,993 |
Interviewees from SMB companies detailed how their organizations used a range of solutions prior to adopting Teams Phone including PBXs and other hosted-calling services. Costs to use these prior solutions could include hardware, maintenance, managed services, and licenses, as well as usage costs comprising long-distance and international charges and mobile phone costs. From a TCO perspective, independent of the improved communication benefit that follows later in this benefit section, the transition to Teams Phone still provided an ROI of 82% and an NPV of $101,000.
SMB interviewees shared the following examples:
Forrester assumes the following for this benefit analysis:
Some factors that could result in this benefit being lower than that reported by interviewees include:
To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV of $95,000.
Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G1 | One-time PBX replacement | Interviews | $30,000 | ||||
G2 | Annual solution costs | Interviews | $10,000 | $10,000 | $10,000 | ||
G3 | Monthly mobile usage costs for nonmobile users. | Interviews | $5 | $5 | $5 | ||
G4 | Monthly mobile usage costs for highly mobile users | Interviews | $50 | $50 | $50 | ||
G5 | Reduced cell phone costs | I2*G3*12+I3*G4*12 | $14,100 | $14,100 | $14,100 | ||
G6 | Previous usage costs | Interviews | $7,200 | $7,200 | $7,200 | ||
Gt | Replaced previous voice solutions | G1+G2+G5+G6 | $61,300 | $31,300 | $31,300 | ||
Risk adjustment | ↓10% | ||||||
Gtr | Replaced previous voice solutions (risk-adjusted) | $55,170 | $28,170 | $28,170 | |||
Three-year total: $111,510 | Three-year present value: $94,600 | ||||||
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Telephony support oftentimes demands specialized skills that SMB-scale IT departments staffed by generalists may not possess. Further, time is at a premium for small IT departments with lean staffs that shoulder a wide range of responsibilities. Teams Phone helps these teams avoid the need for extensive telephony skills and knowledge as well as effort and time spent managing the telephony environment. The solution simplifies and unifies telephony management with their Microsoft environment.
SMB interviewees shared the following examples of previous support and management effort that was reduced and replaced by Teams Phone.
For the financial analysis, Forrester made the following assumptions:
Some factors which could result in this benefit being lower than interviewees reported include:
To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 5%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV of $129,938.
Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
H1 | Replaced IT support FTEs | Interviews | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | ||
H2 | Fully burdened yearly rate per person | Assumption | $110,000 | $110,000 | $110,000 | ||
Ht | Replaced support effort | H1*I2 | $55,000 | $55,000 | $55,000 | ||
Risk adjustment | ↓5% | ||||||
Htr | Replaced support effort (risk-adjusted) | $52,250 | $52,250 | $52,250 | |||
Three-year total: $156,750 | Three-year present value: $129,938 | ||||||
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Microsoft Teams Phone improves communication among colleagues across geographies and roles as well as communication with customers and external stakeholders. Using Teams Phone, voice calls and other collaboration solutions are integrated on a single platform that can be used to make calls from anywhere companies do business. Employees save time, work more efficiently, and collaborate more easily, which creates more value for the organization.
SMB interviewees shared examples of how voice integration improves communication in terms of user productivity and business outcomes:
For the financial analysis, Forrester made the following assumptions:
A 50% productivity capture is applied because not all time saved in repurposed productively.
Some factors that could result in variation in this benefit from that reported by interviewees include:
To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 20%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $79,000.
Ref. | Metric | Source | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
I1 | Number of employees | Composite | 100 | 100 | 100 | |||
I2 | Highly mobile employees | Composite | 15 | 15 | 15 | |||
I3 | Nonmobile employees | Composite | 85 | 85 | 85 | |||
I4 | Average fully burdened hourly wage | TEI standard | $45 | $45 | $45 | |||
I5 | Time savings per week for highly mobile employee (hours) | C6 | 1.6 | 1.6 | 1.6 | |||
I6 | Time savings per week for nonmobile employee (hours) | C8 | 0.25 | 0.25 | 0.25 | |||
I7 | Highly mobile employees’ time savings | I5*I4**I2 | $25,920 | $51,840 | $51,840 | |||
I8 | Nonmobile employees’ time savings | I6*I4**I3 | $22,950 | $45,900 | $45,900 | |||
I9 | Total time savings | I4+I5 | $48,870 | $97,740 | $97,740 | |||
I10 | Productivity recapture | TEI standard | 50% | 50% | 50% | |||
It | Improved communication | I9*I10 | $24,435 | $48,870 | $48,870 | |||
Risk adjustment | ↓20% | |||||||
Itr | Improved communication (risk-adjusted) | $19,548 | $39,096 | $39,096 | ||||
Three-year total: $97,740 | Three-year present value: $79,455 | |||||||
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Additional benefits that customers experienced but were not able to quantify include:
Teams Phone security is managed within the same platform as Microsoft Office 365 and Teams, reducing effort spent managing the system and security and rendering a gap in security less likely. Microsoft monitors the security and stability of the platform, and the cloud-based platform includes managed updates that are useful from a reliability and security standpoint.
A CIO at a financial services company shared, “Key objectives were to really improve business resiliency as well as maintaining high standard of cybersecurity, and ... to support our flexible working model.”
The CIO went on to state:“I think there’s some qualitative benefits around being able to manage the security all within the Microsoft Teams and 365 platform. Just being able to keep it all within one platform has been beneficial from the legal and client standpoint.”
Using a single tool across communications channels not only creates efficiencies but also improves the user interface, keeping employees happy and making it easier for them to serve customers. Multiple interviewed customers shared how Teams Phone improved experiences for employees and customers:
The value of flexibility is unique to each customer. There are multiple scenarios in which a customer might implement Microsoft Teams Phone and later realize additional uses and business opportunities. One example includes:
Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific project (described in more detail in Appendix A ). None of these was (included in the financial analysis.
Ref. | Costs | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jtr | External licenses and usage | $0 | $28,980 | $28,980 | $28,980 | $86,940 | $72,069 |
Ktr | Internal costs | $7,219 | $13,913 | $11,668 | $11,668 | $44,468 | $38,276 |
Ltr | Other external costs | $0 | $13,545 | $630 | $630 | $14,805 | $13,308 |
Total costs (risk-adjusted) | $7,219 | $56,438 | $41,278 | $41,278 | $146,213 | $123,653 |
Teams Phone with calling plan licenses allows users to make and receive voice and video calls over PSTN or the internet. In addition to these licenses, Microsoft offers Communication Credits for audioconferencing and calling plan minutes at additional cost.
Microsoft also offers an international calling plan option as well as Communication Credits, which can be used for additional usage charges such as international calls not included in a calling plan. According to the interviewees, existing mobile phone expenses were reduced as more calls could be completed without leaving Teams environments.
For the financial analysis, Forrester made the following assumptions based on the interviewees’ experiences:
Some factors that could result in this cost being higher than that reported by interviewees include:
To account for this risk, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 5%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV of $72,000.
Ref | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
J1 | Number of users | Composite | 100 | 100 | 100 | ||
J2 | Monthly cost per calling license | Interviews | $20 | $20 | $20 | $20 | |
J3 | Annual Microsoft 365 license costs | J1*J2*12 | 0 | $24,000 | $24,000 | $24,000 | |
J4 | Monthly mobile usage and Communication Credits cost per user | Interviews | $3 | $3 | $3 | $3 | |
J5 | Annual Communication Credits and cell phone reimbursement costs | J3*J4*12 | 0 | $3,600 | $3,600 | $3,600 | |
Jt | External licenses and usage | J2+J3 | $0 | $27,600 | $27,600 | $27,600 | |
Risk adjustment | ↑5% | ||||||
Jtr | External licenses and usage (risk-adjusted) | $0 | $28,980 | $28,980 | $28,980 | ||
Three-year total: $86,940 | Three-year present value: $72,069 | ||||||
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Deploying and maintaining Teams Phone requires IT effort as well as a training time investment for end users.
For the financial analysis, Forrester made the following assumptions:
Some factors that could result in this cost being higher than that reported by interviewees include:
To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 5%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV (discounted at 10%) of $38,000.
Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
K1 | Number of FTEs | Composite | 1.5 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | |
K2 | Time to implement and maintain Teams Phone (months) | Interviews | 0.5 | 12.0 | 12.0 | 12.0 | |
K3 | Internal IT effort | E1*E2*B2/12 | $6,875 | $11,000 | $11,000 | $11,000 | |
K4 | Fully burdened annual salary for IT FTE | TEI standard | $110,000 | $110,000 | $110,000 | $110,000 | |
K5 | End-user training time (hours) | Interviews | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | |
K6 | End-user training | D1 Year 1 [5% annual turnover]*K4*K5 | $2,250 | $113 | $113 | ||
Kt | Internal costs | K3+K6 | $6,875 | $13,250 | $11,113 | $11,113 | |
Risk adjustment | ↑5% | ||||||
Ktr | Internal costs (risk-adjusted) | $7,219 | $13,913 | $11,668 | $11,668 | ||
Three-year total: $44,468 | Three-year present value: $38,276 | ||||||
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SMBs typically would not incur costs for Teams Phone apart from those related to devices. Some organizations using more complex deployments of Teams Phone than is assumed for the composite organization may elect to engage professional services for implementation and management. The organization continues to use a small number of desk phones.
For the financial analysis, Forrester made the following assumptions based on the interviewees’ experiences:
Some factors that could result in this cost being higher than that reported by interviewees include:
To account for these risks, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 5%, yielding a three-year, risk-adjusted total PV of $13,000.
Ref. | Metric | Source | Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
L1 | Number of users added | D1Year 1 [5% annual turnover] | 100 | 5 | 5 | ||
L2 | Cost per headset device | Interviews | $120 | $120 | $120 | ||
L3 | Cost per phone | Interviews | $300 | $300 | $300 | ||
L4 | Device costs | Y1: F1*(95%*L2)+(5%*L3) Y2 and Y3: F1*100%*L2 | $12,900 | $600 | $600 | ||
Lt | Other external costs | L4 | |||||
Risk adjustment | ↑5% | ||||||
Ltr | Other external costs (risk-adjusted | $0 | $13,545 | $630 | $630 | ||
Three-year total: $14,805 | Three-year present value: $13,308 | ||||||
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These risk-adjusted ROI, NPV, and payback period values are determined by applying risk-adjustment factors to the unadjusted results in each Benefit and Cost section.
Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total costs | ($618,413) | ($3,781,438) | ($2,578,813) | ($2,578,813) | ($9,557,477) | ($8,124,833) |
Total benefits | $0 | $6,691,800 | $8,646,600 | $8,646,600 | $23,985,000 | $19,725,724 |
Net benefits | ($618,413) | $2,910,363 | $6,067,788 | $6,067,788 | $14,427,525 | $11,600,891 |
ROI | 143% | |||||
Payback period (months) | <6 | |||||
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These risk-adjusted ROI, NPV, and payback period values are determined by applying risk-adjustment factors to the unadjusted results in each Benefit and Cost section.
Initial | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | Present Value | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total costs | ($7,219) | ($56,438) | ($41,278) | ($41,278) | ($146,213) | ($123,653) |
Total benefits | $0 | $126,968 | $119,516 | $119,516 | $366,000 | $303,993 |
Net benefits | ($7,219) | $70,531 | $78,238 | $78,238 | $219,788 | $180,340 |
ROI | 146% | |||||
Payback period (months) | <6 | |||||
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Total Economic Impact is a methodology developed by Forrester Research that enhances a company’s technology decision-making processes and assists vendors in communicating the value proposition of their products and services to clients. The TEI methodology helps companies demonstrate, justify, and realize the tangible value of IT initiatives to both senior management and other key business stakeholders.
Benefits represent the value delivered to the business by the product. The TEI methodology places equal weight on the measure of benefits and the measure of costs, allowing for a full examination of the effect of the technology on the entire organization.
Costs consider all expenses necessary to deliver the proposed value, or benefits, of the product. The cost category within TEI captures incremental costs over the existing environment for ongoing costs associated with the solution.
Flexibility represents the strategic value that can be obtained for some future additional investment building on top of the initial investment already made. Having the ability to capture that benefit has a PV that can be estimated.
Risks measure the uncertainty of benefit and cost estimates given: 1) the likelihood that estimates will meet original projections and 2) the likelihood that estimates will be tracked over time. TEI risk factors are based on “triangular distribution.”
The initial investment column contains costs incurred at “time 0” or at the beginning of Year 1 that are not discounted. All other cash flows are discounted using the discount rate at the end of the year. PV calculations are calculated for each total cost and benefit estimate. NPV calculations in the summary tables are the sum of the initial investment and the discounted cash flows in each year. Sums and present value calculations of the Total Benefits, Total Costs, and Cash Flow tables may not exactly add up, as some rounding may occur.
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