A comparison of hosted telephone systems: Horizon and Teams

Hosted telephone systems are great for businesses and organisations with the infrastructure to support them. Not only do they provide a range of features for improving the flexibility and effectiveness of day-to-day communications, but they offer cost-saving benefits as well.

Now, what exactly do we mean when we talk about hosted telephone systems? In case you’re not entirely sure, hosted telephone systems are stored off-premises and hosted in the cloud. They essentially enable you to make calls (amongst other things) over the internet.

Obviously, it’s not always as straightforward as that. There are many hosted telephone systems available on the market, and each comes with its own benefits. Today we’ll be taking a comparative look at two of the most widely used: Gamma Horizon and Microsoft Teams.

A quick glance at the two
Gamma Horizon is a complete communications platform that provides an extensive range of fixed and mobile telephony capabilities. Microsoft Teams, on the other hand — well, Microsoft Teams is essentially the same thing.

Both systems are controlled via an accessible, user-friendly dashboard; both systems are software as a service, and both systems are easily configurable to an organisation’s changing requirements.

Most importantly, both systems allow you to make phone calls over the internet. But there are quite a few key differences between the two.

Perhaps the biggest distinction is Microsoft Teams’ focus on internal communications. As a platform, Teams primarily classifies itself as “group chat software” and doesn’t natively cater to businesses and organisations requiring dedicated external comms — at least not without integrating a separate telephone system for making and receiving outside calls.

Microsoft Teams predominantly facilitates the work environment — combining messaging, voice, video, conferencing and a plethora of features designed to bring teams together (hence the name) and enable collaboration.

On the flip side of things, Gamma Horizon is equally comprehensive with its call handling and management features, but it takes things even further by supporting external comms right out of the box. Couple this with business continuity features that are inherent in all cloud-based telephone systems, and Gamma Horizon immediately stands out as an all-in-one solution for any organisation where maintaining customer service/communications is paramount.

A closer look at key benefits
Now that we’ve got the formalities out of the way, let’s dive into some common features across both platforms and the collaboration benefits they bring:

• Call allocation — Create groups for distributing and allocating calls across your team
• Call park — Hold a call and pick it up on another phone
• Call pickup — Answer a group member’s phone
• Call transfer & handling — Transfer a call to any internal or external number
• Conference calls & meetings — Hold voice and video meetings with up to 15 members
• Click to call — One click or touch to call
• Company directory — Group contacts across your site, department and company from a single handset
• Group calling — Go from 1:1 calling to multiple participants
• Multi-device — Have your choice of devices ring for incoming calls
• Multi-media messaging — Exchange messages (Chat), video files and images
• Voicemail — Play a message from your desktop and share with your team

When it comes to hosted telephone systems, Horizon and Teams are both solid choices for enhancing your organisation’s communications. Neither platform is necessarily better than the other, but there may be one that’s better suited to your current infrastructure and comms requirements.

If, for example, you are already embedded with Microsoft Office 365, then you will likely side with Teams. On the other hand, if you require an out of the box solution that supports both internal and external comms, then you’re probably better off with Horizon. Gamma Horizon supports external comms while enhancing internal communications through conferencing, video and a diverse suite of chat/update features for enabling group collaboration.

In either case, expert advice from a trusted provider is always encouraged. As a platinum Gamma partner, we at Fidelity Group have extensive experience assessing the best-hosted telephone systems for businesses of every size, in every sector.

We deliver unique, tailored solutions designed to nurture your communications, improve operations and strengthen your business. We then bolster this with 24/7/365 dedicated technical support and customer service. Our goal is to keep you connected and communicating always. Building relationships that last.

Speak to a member of our team today and see how we can implement the best telephony solution to accommodate your needs now and longer-term.