Tango Networks recently announced a new mobile native eSIM-enabled Microsoft Teams solution that will help employees communicate more seamlessly across mobile devices.
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Summary
Tango Networks delivers business mobile communication solutions that help organizations integrate voice and data mobile capabilities into enterprise communications. The company recently announced a new mobile-native eSIM-enabled Microsoft Teams solution that will help employees communicate more seamlessly across mobile devices.
From fixed-mobile convergence to business mobile convergence
In Omdia’s 2023 Future of Work Survey, IT and HR leaders advised that just under half of their employees will work in either a hybrid or fully mobile fashion going forward and in the long term. Changing work styles and employee demands have made mobile a vital characteristic of modern work. As more work takes place away from the four walls of the traditional office, mobilizing the technology infrastructures that support how work gets done has become very important. It is not only the locations people are working from that have become more mobile, but also the way people communicate and the workflows and processes that guide how they work. Mobile is also at the center of a digital democratization of the frontline workforce that is enabling more employees with capabilities that better integrate end-to-end businesses processes and communications, helping make work more efficient in the process.
Communication and collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams have become an important enabler of people and modern work. They have become portals from which employees communicate, and integration hubs that help improve productivity by enhancing the way people interact with important business processes and applications. For many, platforms like Microsoft Teams have become the modern digital office. However, this more digital-centric approach to collaboration also needs to co-exist with more traditional approaches and methods of communication. Mobile provides a good example here, particularly in how core functionality such as messaging and voice communications offered within a solution like Microsoft Teams must be integrated with the native mobile capabilities, notably the mobile dialer, to satisfy different employee needs and use cases. This rich integration between in-app and native mobile experiences will offer many benefits, including:
- Being able to make and receive calls via a native dialer with a second eSIM line and Teams phone number
- Secure use of a single phone for both business and personal communications (reducing the need for two devices)
- Improved management and administration of corporate-provided phone numbers
- Applying monitoring/recording to mobile
- Reliable voice connectivity provided by mobile networks.
This richer level of integration between in-app unified communications and native mobility has the potential to help businesses improve operations and employee experiences. Business mobile convergence (BMC) is a concept that advocates for greater synergy between those responsible for enabling and managing workplace mobility (people) and for richer integration between mobile infrastructure and digital capabilities (technology). This strategic, unified approach is essential given the need to support a more mobile workforce and business continuity within modern business operations. It is an evolution of the fixed-mobile convergence model and approach that has been around for many years. Fixed-mobile convergence was developed more with mobile as an extension to the primary fixed work styles and communication approaches (supported by fixed-office telephony systems) that were dominant in the past. Things have changed, however, with platforms like Teams becoming a more dominant communication and collaboration portal, in some instances completely replacing the fixed communication ecosystems of the past that businesses have traditionally relied on. The main difference with BMC is that mobility and the productivity platform is at the core as opposed to just being an extension. This is more compatible with the way many organizations are looking to transform work by making it more mobile-centric.
Tango Extend will help businesses better converge communications around mobile, benefiting all employees in the process
Tango Extend for Microsoft Teams is a new eSIM business mobile solution that enables employees to communicate natively in an app-free fashion via a mobile device. The solution allows organizations to add a corporate-funded business SIM and Teams numbers to a personal mobile phone. Being able to provide employees and contractors with a business line on their personal devices helps separate business and personal communications, while also reducing many of the provisioning and administrative challenges involved in providing new mobile devices and corporate lines to employees. When necessary, calls can be elevated from a mobile device to the Microsoft Teams application. The solution being developed around eSIMs also reduces provisioning times for new mobile connections as no physical SIM needs to be dispatched and installed. Tango Extend will be of particular interest to frontline workers – a workforce segment that accounts for around 65% of the total working population. Frontline workers that include retail, education, service, and healthcare workers are usually deskless and work in a mobile fashion. Mobile devices and communication are the primary modalities from which these workers will interact with colleagues and business services.
How Tango Extend works
According to Tango: “Tango Extend enables existing fixed Teams numbers to be loaded on an eSIM through the Extend provisioning app in the Teams app store.” The eSIM is installed via a QR-code provisioning process within the provisioning app itself. Once installed, employees or contractors will have a dedicated business line and number on their device, enabling them to use the native mobile dialer to make calls.
Figure 1: Tango Extend
Source: Tango Networks
This new line is connected to the user’s Teams account, making administration and management of this communication capability easier and more seamless alongside other Teams management policies. One benefit of this is in how call recording for auditing purposes can be administered via Teams and Tango Extend. This type of capability is very important for organizations in highly regulated industries. In addition to eSIM-enabled devices, other requirements for Tango Extend include enterprises having a Microsoft Teams Tenant and for users to have either a Microsoft E5 or Teams Phone license. Tango is making Extend available via existing Microsoft Operator Connect and Direct Routing partners. For resellers, Tango advises: “Microsoft Teams Resellers can sell Tango Extend for Microsoft Teams if they obtain landline phone numbers (DIDs) from a Tango approved Operator Connect Partner. These partners require approval by Tango Networks for compatibility of the calling plans with the SIP gateway service.” Approved partners currently include the likes of NTT, Audiocodecs, and Telware, and are published on the Tango Networks website.
An exciting evolution for business mobile communications
Tango Extend is one of an increasing number of solutions aimed at helping improve how mobile and business communications are integrated. Omdia is experiencing growing interest in the integration of native mobile and in-app communications, largely driven by businesses wanting to improve employee experiences, strengthening security around communications, and empowering more frontline workers with better communication and collaboration capabilities. This more converged approach to business mobility also benefits administrators by providing them with better visibility and a more unified approach to managing corporate communications and costs alongside other mobility management and communication policies. This is also an attractive proposition for Tango’s partner ecosystem as it provides new capabilities that will help strengthen their solution portfolios and supports customers in mobilizing communications and collaboration.
Appendix
Further reading
Market Fundamentals: Business Mobile Convergence (BMC) and the Future of Work (April 2023)
Brent Kelly, Tim Banting, Prachi Nema, Adam Holtby, “AT&T and Cisco Announce New Version of Webex Go as a Boost to Mobility for the Modern Workforce”, www.nojitter.com (accessed June 2023)
2022 Future of Work Survey (January 2023)
“Tango Extend for Microsoft Teams,” www.tango-networks.com (accessed: June 2023)
Author
Adam Holtby, Principal Analyst, Workplace Transformation
