Microsoft Teams can literally do it all, right? That’s what the company wants you to think, at least. Purpose-built for communication within an internal team, Teams enables collaboration through document sharing, voice calls, video meetings and team chats.
And, while it has many useful collaboration features, one thing Teams does not have yet is a built-in text messaging feature to potentially enable faster and more efficient work collaboration. This prompted Bandwidth to launch the Send-To app, which enables Microsoft Teams Direct Routing users to send SMS and multimedia messages from within Teams.
Send-To will allow users to send messages from within the Teams platform on any device rather than having to use their personal mobile phones. The app mitigates the security and governance issues stemming from the use of personal devices for business messaging. Customers control how messages and contacts are retained within their own Teams tenant, further protecting privacy.
"As messaging becomes an increasingly preferred way to communicate, employees shouldn't have to use their personal phone numbers to conduct mission-critical communications – whether with their co-workers inside an organization or when reaching out to customers, partners, suppliers or other stakeholders," said John Bell, Bandwidth's chief product officer.
Bandwidth engineered the Send-To app with various use cases in mind. For example, Camden had personnel needs to manage 58,000-plus apartment homes across the U.S. It received slow email response from prospective employees and few answered phone calls. Camden's talent acquisition team piloted Bandwidth's Send-To app to send text messages to candidates through Teams. Using Send-To, recruiters shortened interview coordination from two days to as little as two minutes.
"Send-To has revolutionized our recruitment efforts," said Allison Dunavant, vice president of organization development at Camden. "The high open and response rates of text messaging enable our recruiters to reach prospective employees much quicker than through traditional recruiting methods."
The new app expands Bandwidth's Duet for Microsoft Teams beyond the core capabilities of voice and E911. It is now available for Teams customers who use Bandwidth for Direct Routing in the U.S.
Edited by
Erik Linask
