What Mitel’s Bankruptcy Means for the Future of Telephony
The recent announcement of Mitel filing for bankruptcy in the U.S. may not have sent shockwaves through the industry, but it marks an important milestone in a much larger trend: the end of the era for traditional on-premises telephony. For many organisations—especially those in the public sector—the question isn’t just “what now?” but “what next?”
Understanding the Market Shift
Mitel’s struggles highlight the growing obsolescence of legacy, on-premises telephony solutions. As businesses increasingly move to cloud-based communications, traditional vendors are being left behind. The demand today is for telephony that is reliable, scalable, cost-effective, and future-ready—areas where on-prem models fall short.
Research from Cavell shows that 62% of businesses plan to migrate to cloud-based telephony within the next two years. This shift is being driven by hybrid work models, increasing reliance on AI, and the need for seamless integration with broader digital ecosystems—all of which cloud-native solutions can offer without the hardware overhead of legacy systems.
The Risks of Staying On-Premises
Organisations still reliant on traditional telephony face mounting risks:
- Limited Innovation: No AI integration, no omnichannel capability, no seamless collaboration with third-party solutions.
- High Costs: Ongoing maintenance, licensing, and engineering support for aging hardware.
- Scalability Challenges: Difficulty adapting to business growth or changes in demand.
- Security Vulnerabilities: Older infrastructure is harder and more expensive to secure effectively.
The opportunity cost of standing still has never been higher.
Capturing Market Share: Microsoft’s Strategic Advantage
In this rapidly changing environment, Microsoft Teams Phone is positioned as a leader—and for good reason.
Recognised consistently in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant, Teams Phone offers native integration with the M365 suite, Azure’s global infrastructure, and a financially-backed 99.999% SLA. For public sector organisations that are already heavy Microsoft users, switching telephony to Teams is a natural extension of their cloud-first strategies—helping reduce capital expenditure (CAPEX), lower operational overheads, and strengthen security posture.
What makes Teams Phone compelling for Mitel users?
- Fully cloud-hosted and Azure-backed.
- Teams Phone enables the replacement of traditional on-premises PBX systems while maintaining enterprise productivity tools seamlessly.
- Integrated with M365, requiring no new CAPEX investment.
- High availability and disaster recovery built-in.
- Simplified management and scaling.
Plus, Microsoft offers funding programs and incentives to make the transition even smoother—helping to offset migration costs and accelerate ROI.
Affordability & Value Realisation
For many businesses, the biggest surprise is discovering they’re already sitting on much of what they need.
If an organisation has Microsoft E5 licensing, they already own the Teams Phone license—there’s no additional spend needed.
Moving to Teams Voice isn’t an added cost—it’s an unlocking of value from their existing investment. By consolidating their communications stack into M365, businesses can eliminate duplicate systems, reduce complexity, and improve user experiences—all while driving down operational costs.
Migrating from Mitel to Microsoft Teams Voice
A successful migration requires much more than just a technology swap. It demands careful planning, seamless execution, and a partner that understands both the legacy infrastructure and the cloud future.
Our consultative approach ensures:
- Zero disruption: Business operations continue during the migration.
- Critical support: We identify which legacy systems need support or modernisation.
- Future-readiness: Cloud infrastructure is built with AI and innovation in mind.
- Tailored solutions: Every migration is unique and treated as such.
With deep expertise across both Cisco and Microsoft ecosystems, we specialise in complex telephony migrations—supporting hybrid infrastructures, navigating number porting challenges, and avoiding the pitfalls that cause most failed implementations.
Future-Proofing Communications
Switching to Teams Voice is about more than fixing today’s problems—it’s about preparing for tomorrow’s opportunities.
Teams Voice delivers a scalable, secure, AI-ready communications platform that evolves with business needs. As Microsoft continues to lead innovation across AI, automation, and collaboration, organisations that make the move now are ensuring they stay ahead of the curve—not behind it.
Real-World Success Stories
We’ve helped major public sector organisations and enterprises alike move successfully to Teams Voice.
Across every project, we bring more than technical expertise: we bring proven methodologies, a partnership mentality, and post-migration support that ensures customers continue to maximise their Microsoft investment long after the cutover.
Mitel’s Chapter 11 isn’t just their story—it’s a signal to every organisation still on-premises: now is the time to move.
The cloud isn’t the future of telephony anymore. It’s the present. And Microsoft Teams Voice is the platform that can take you there—securely, scalably, and smartly.