The short version
If a business already runs Microsoft 365 and lives in Teams all day, adding a separate phone application can feel like a step backwards. That instinct is reasonable, and it is worth working through properly rather than defaulting either way.
There are three broad arrangements:
| Option | How users experience it | Suits |
|---|---|---|
| 8x8 standalone | 8x8 apps and handsets, Teams used for collaboration | Mixed workforces, contact centre needs, device-heavy sites |
| 8x8 inside Teams | Dial and answer within the Teams client | Microsoft-first businesses needing capability beyond Teams Phone |
| Teams Phone | Entirely Microsoft, with Microsoft calling plans | Simple calling needs, fully licensed Microsoft workforce |
What Teams Phone does well
Teams began as a collaboration platform and gained calling. For a business where every employee is a licensed Microsoft user working at a computer, and where calling means making and receiving calls without queues or reporting, that is often enough.
The appeal is genuine: one vendor, one client, one bill, and no additional application for staff to learn.
Where businesses hit its limits
Contact centre capability. This is the most common reason to look further. Queueing with position and wait announcements, skills-based routing, live supervisor dashboards, historical queue reporting and quality monitoring are a different class of capability. If those matter, do you need a contact centre, or just a better phone system is the question to settle first, because it usually decides the whole approach.
Staff who are not Microsoft users. Warehouse staff, drivers, tradespeople, casual and shift workers may not have a licence or may not work at a screen. A calling platform that assumes everyone is inside the Teams client handles them awkwardly.
Devices. Reception consoles, common-area handsets, door and lift phones, paging and analogue equipment all need checking. Some work naturally with a dedicated telephony platform and less so with a collaboration client.
Call handling depth. Complex flows, overflow, time-of-day routing and multi-level attendants are core telephony functions, and platforms built for telephony generally handle them with less effort.
Running 8x8 inside Teams
The middle option keeps the Teams interface while 8x8 provides the telephony underneath. Users dial, answer and transfer within Teams; the calls run on 8x8.
This appeals when the business wants staff to stay in one application but needs capability Teams Phone does not offer — most often contact centre features for a subset of the team, while everyone else simply calls from Teams.
Two things to check before assuming it solves everything. First, which capabilities surface inside the Teams client and which require the 8x8 app — the answer determines whether contact centre agents can genuinely work from Teams alone. Second, how devices and handsets are handled, since that is where these arrangements most often need care.
Both are worth confirming against current documentation rather than assumption, since integrations of this kind are developed continuously.
A practical way to decide
- Is everyone a licensed Microsoft user who works at a screen? If no, a platform independent of Teams handles the rest of the workforce better.
- Does any team work measured queues? If yes, contact centre capability drives the decision.
- What devices exist beyond computers? Reception, common areas, warehouse, lifts, paging.
- Who supports it when calls fail? One supplier for telephony is simpler than splitting responsibility between a carrier, Microsoft and an integrator.
- What does the network look like? Both options depend equally on the internet service and local network, covered in network requirements for 8x8 before go-live.
The pattern that suits most Australian SMBs
Businesses with a straightforward, fully-Microsoft workforce and simple calling are usually well served staying within Microsoft.
Businesses with a mixed workforce, any queue-based team, or a meaningful population of handsets and shared devices generally get a better result from a dedicated telephony platform — either standalone or surfaced inside Teams so staff keep one interface.
The deciding factor is rarely the technology. It is whether the business has people whose job is handling calls, and people who do not sit at a computer.
Helpful starting points
For the wider comparison including Teams Phone alongside other platforms, read 8x8 vs RingCentral vs Teams Phone vs 3CX. To scope licensing once the approach is settled, see which 8x8 licence do you actually need. For deployment, 8x8 cloud communications covers how we run these.