Dialpad Connect vs. Microsoft Teams

Dialpad Connect vs Microsoft Teams: How are they different?

Both Dialpad and Microsoft Teams are digital communications platforms that allow for both synchronous and asynchronous communication using voice and video channels. If you look more closely, however, you’ll notice some significant differences between the two.

Outbound calling capabilities

Microsoft Teams allows team members to do voice and video calls with other Microsoft Teams users, but making outbound calls to external numbers can only be done by bringing in a third-party UCaaS or telephony provider to implement direct routing—which involves more setup complications and additional costs, including an $8/mo/user charge for the MS Teams Phone System add-on license. Some companies that have heavy Microsoft users can get this license included with an E5 business license for $38 per user/month⁵, but you still have to pay for additional calling minutes on top of that.

Dialpad, on the other hand, lets you call external numbers as soon as a phone number is assigned to you, with unlimited calling, SMS and MMS in the US and Canada.

It’s really as simple as that.

Truly unified communications

In addition to UCaaS functionality like voice and video calling, chat functionality, and SMS/MMS, Dialpad also has extensive contact center-focused features like IVR, call monitoring, call recordings, and the industry’s most powerful AI engine that touches every interaction on the platform (more on this later).

The best part? It’s all cleanly integrated into the same application. All features interact with one another in a logical and holistic way. For example, in Dialpad you can search for customer info that’s logged in your CRM and see previous information on calls, meetings, and chats—all while you’re on the phone with the customer.

A built-in, AI-powered contact center

If you make and receive outbound and inbound calls for sales, service and general customer communications, you probably need a contact center platform. Dialpad Support comes with proprietary artificial intelligence functionality that’s designed to help you provide a better customer experience.

For example, managers can support agents through live sentiment analysis, which alerts them when a call isn’t going well. Before the manager jumps into the call, they can review the live transcript to get a sense of the situation and message the agent with advice if needed. Other features like Ai CSAT can automatically infer customer satisfaction based on the conversation—without needing the customer to fill out any surveys:

Agents can also benefit from Real-Time Assist (RTA) and Ai Assistant cards that pop up with helpful advice about product info, available discounts, and more when certain keywords, phrases or even competitor names are mentioned.

Microsoft Teams, unfortunately, has no built-in contact center functionality, and can’t make outbound calls without an upgrade or a higher-tier license. It does have messaging and voice/video meetings for internal teams, but that doesn’t help you talk to customers.

Cost versus value

Microsoft Teams is included with all Microsoft Office 365 and Microsoft 365 licenses, but with the lack of basic outbound calling, out-of-the-box IVR, and other important features, it then becomes a question of how much value it can truly provide to your organization without costly admin or add-ons—which may not be worth the time or investment given the alternatives.

Speaking of alternatives, Dialpad carries a lot of value for a reasonable cost. You get a full-featured UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) solution for a reasonable and fully transparent price, with no issues about purchasing additional features or functionality.

Customer experience

Dialpad has superior customer experience at every tier. From top call quality powered by a global telephony network, to full pricing transparency and 24/7 customer support over the phone and live chat for Pro plans and above, Dialpad delivers best-in-class customer service and support.

Dialpad also offers a guaranteed 100% uptime for Enterprise plan customers. But don't just take our word for it:

*learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/calling-plans-for-office-365

**learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/direct-routing-plan

***learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/platform/bots/calls-and-meetings/calls-meetings-bots-overview

****techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-teams-blog/updated-microsoft-teams-phone-slas-reflect-commitment-to-quality/ba-p/3019346

⁵microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise/office-365-e5?activetab=pivot%3aoverviewtab