As more and more customers migrate to Microsoft Office 365 with Lync, they need to upgrade their communications experience by adding “bridge quality” audio conferencing to their system on a “pay as you go” basis with no additional monthly fees. This service will enable Lync users to make excellent voice quality Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) conference calls with other Lync users and non-Lync conferees combined.

There are a couple of main reasons for adding this feature. First of all, it will allow you to add virtually everyone to your universe of potential speakers in a live conference call. With Lync Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) conferencing, you are limited to only Lync users in your universe. It’s true that conference calls are free and included in your monthly rates, but you can’t add non-Lync outsiders to your calls. When you enable PSTN audio conferencing, then you open up your universe of conferees to the world and pay only one low rate per minute when you use this bridge conferencing service.

The second main reason is that the addition of audio conference calls improves the communications experience, as voice quality is crystal clear for all participants on the conference bridge. So whether you’re hosting a small or large conference call, you don’t have to worry about voice quality because there are no bandwidth issues like mosaics, echo, or distortion.

It’s also very easy to set up a Lync-enabled audio conference. Simply schedule the call through Outlook and conferees will receive the bridge number and pin code along with the Lync link to join the call. So for conferees who have Lync, when it was time for the call, they just clicked the link to join via Lync and they were connected to the call. For conferees without Lync, they would be given the dial-in number and pin code, which when dialed would connect them to the conference call.

Only three companies have established a partnership, allowing them to integrate this type of audio conferencing into the Lync product. Some of these companies have a bundled pricing plan, while other companies charge by the minute. Conferees in international countries have specific International Free Service (ITFS) numbers that access the bridge and are charged according to the rates of each country. There are no monthly or installation fees and these companies will take care of the entire implementation.

The process for adding audio conferencing to your Lync service is very simple. The list of approved conferees for conferences will be added to your Lync system and the dial-in number and pin codes will also be added. Once this is accomplished, your company is ready to start collaborating with all the best tools available on the market.

If you already have Office 365 with Lync or are planning to migrate to this service, adding audio conferencing will greatly enhance your ability to collaborate worldwide with a simple deployment process.