Microsoft has launched a new podcast series, Teams + Copilot in Action, spotlighting the partners building real solutions across Teams, Copilot, AI and modern communications. We’re pleased to say SIPPIO features in episode one.
Our Director of Strategy & Strategic Alliances, Mat Batterbee, joined Microsoft’s Farhan Hussain for a wide-ranging conversation about voice, and why it’s become one of the most underused assets in the Microsoft stack.
Here’s a taste of what they covered.
Voice is a data opportunity, not just a phone line
Mat’s central point is a simple one: voice conversations are one of the richest data sources a business has, and nine times out of ten they sit in a silo Copilot can’t reach.
Bring voice into Teams and that changes. Calls become structured data that Copilot can work with: better meeting context, better follow-ups, stronger foundations for agentic AI down the line. As Mat puts it, voice “forms part of building strong AI foundations to better adopt Copilot more powerfully.”
With voice AI adoption accelerating, Mat points to figures suggesting most businesses are already using or piloting it, and that foundation is becoming harder to ignore.
Why “someone else will deal with it” is a risky bet
One of the biggest misconceptions Mat sees among Microsoft partners is that Teams Phone is someone else’s job. His warning: the partner who picks up voice could end up picking up everything else too, and take the customer with them.
The flip side is the opportunity. Voice drives fast ROI and real cost savings for the end customer, which opens the door to deeper, stickier conversations across the rest of the stack, from security to cloud and infrastructure to AI and automation. At a time when customers want to consolidate suppliers, that’s how a partner becomes the one-stop shop.
A real-world migration
Mat shares the example of the Museum of Fine Arts, which moved around 650 users off a legacy PBX and onto Microsoft Teams with no disruption. Consolidating voice into the platform they already used every day simplified their IT and reduced the number of vendors they had to manage.
Tied into Dynamics 365, calls were logged automatically to their CRM, giving the team faster donor follow-ups and better insight into what was actually working, all while voice became secure, governed and auditable on the back end.
Where to start
For partners wondering how to enter the voice AI space, Mat’s advice is to keep it simple: start with a conversation. SIPPIO is 100% channel-focused, so everything we do is built for and through partners, from getting to know your customers to building the go-to-market strategy.
Watch the episode
Want to continue the conversation? Reach out to Mat on LinkedIn or book a meeting with him.
