IsoPlexis is a next-gen biotechnology firm looking to get free from a traditional, wired phone system to the cloud. Such an evolution would mean a dynamic change in the workplace and a significant culture shift within the organization. And, being a Microsoft partner, we took this challenging task to modernize the entire workplace and make it go wireless by equipping the client with disruptive technology. The process involved brainstorming their requirements to find a rather creative solution that is as futuristic as the organization itself.
No doubt, Microsoft Teams was a unanimous choice looking at the roadmap it has and how IsoPlexis plan to redefine itself considering medicinal research being the need of the hour amidst this COVID-19 crisis. We implemented Microsoft Teams in their work environment to help integrate a team of approximately 150 people over a seamless, secured connection with integrated BYOD. No doubt, we prioritized their quintessential requirement to enable flexibility in connecting easily to customers and other team members.
Brief Background
IsoPlexis operates in the field of medical science and innovation speaking volumes of their inclination towards technology. Their constant research and innovation in the field of biotechnology also include the Cytokine Storm Package for COVID-19 Research – a testament to their culture of relentless refinements. It means, most of their core team members deal with such sensitive information. Therefore, integrating those members in a secure environment was inevitable. Their basic requirements were to record the calls for future reference, sharing files, and collaborating the work instantly.
Computer Solutions East identified existing communication pain-points to design a new PBX that moves work freely within and outside the departments. We also set up Teams coupled with Channels configuration in their respective tabs for starters to leverage the power of Teams’ open-source API for further customization.
Our Inputs in Redefining the Workplace.
Our project involved running a thorough probe and back-to-back meets to navigate existing issues. For this, our team was involved in multiple analysis sessions with a set of questions to ensure negating the chances of potentially inaccurate information in the current system. We tailored a template to understand their existing phone system that enhances their communication by introducing Teams wherein our dedicated Microsoft Teams resources evaluated their calling requirements for each user. It took us more than a few couples of hours to audit their phone system and opting to leverage Microsoft Visio to create a call-floor that verifies whether Teams can replicate the existing phone system.
To set up a comfortable meeting and collaboration tool for peers, we implemented board numbers, call forwarding facility, and facilitated custom PBX designing. Our team also checked existing dialing methods to replicate the same over Teams to minimize the difference in calling experience
Overcoming Operational Challenges
While it was natural for the client to be finicky about the whole process, our team enabled them with the comfortable adaptation to the new environments without any hiccups through training and staying available 24*7 to resolve issues. We ran the implementation in different phases while prioritizing their requirements and plummeting the possible downtime.
There were pilot users in each phase since theirs was a large team, and directly scaling them to the teams may run a few processes haywire. Therefore, we came up with a custom-built project development workflow bridge the gap between the losing carriers and Microsoft Teams. Migrating their phone numbers was a significant challenge to overcome that involves verifying correct information by investing extra resources.
To smoothen the process, we issued an ALOA – A Letter Of Authorization for exiting phone numbers to counter the rejection from losing careers that has phone numbers, not in the existing system. Also, we added address, account name, etc.to avoid the possible conflict.
Transforming Organization with Teams
While we believe that Teams PBX is still work-in-progress, its environment is the reason why we suggest it to most of the tenants. And since it is an open-source API, we configured a couple of features for IsoPlexis – Auto Attended and Call Key features, to help them reach the specific goals. Many features were missing in their then existing phone system, and we enabled them with the same by implementing Microsoft Teams. It has an environment that helps tenants to leverage the best of the available features just as we created customization of integrated auto attendants for this particular client. And since they had the BYOD policy, we also helped them to get the MFA in place for added security.
Once we were done implementing Teams, our technicians encouraged their employees to adopt it is as an additional tool for communication through effective training modules. As per our designed roadmap, we integrated their existing Microsoft Office 365 to Teams and created separate file management for Teams files over cloud file storage.
IsoPlexis required real-time collaboration blended with a cost-effective PBX. There could be no better solution for them except Microsoft Teams considering the possible features planned in the roadmap. Now, instead of using OneNote for sending out actionable items to team members via email, they are using Teams planner to assign those items over a call. A lot of the implementation-based development took place that includes eliminating email requirements at many places like Emailing Meeting Agenda and sending PowerPoint presentations. Also, they are now leveraging the power of capturing Excel data from different regions by simply using @mention for people whose attention is necessary.
