Hybrid work has changed the way people collaborate. As employees split their time between home and the office, the need for reliable, high quality communication has become mission critical. Microsoft Teams has emerged as the hub for meetings, chat and collaboration, enabling millions of workers to stay connected. Yet organizations often overlook a key factor that determines how successful their hybrid work strategy will be: ongoing monitoring of call quality, meeting performance and user experience. Without deep visibility into network conditions and device health, even the most feature rich collaboration platform can become a source of frustration. This blog explores why advanced monitoring is the missing link in a hybrid work strategy and how Netrix Global can help.
The shift to hybrid work is no longer speculation; it is a lived reality for employees across the globe. Research by Microsoft’s Work Trend Index revealed that hybrid work adoption rose dramatically year over year, and more than half of workers considered a transition to hybrid employment. The same report showed a widespread reassessment of priorities; employees were more likely to prioritize health and well being over work and sought flexibility about when and where they work.
As this shift gained momentum, organizations flocked to tools like Microsoft Teams. The platform became a central workspace where people could chat, share documents and join meetings seamlessly. A data sheet from Netrix Global notes that Teams saw explosive growth, with the majority of the Fortune 100 using the platform and millions of active users. This massive adoption underscores how deeply Teams is woven into modern workflows.
Yet the rapid embrace of collaboration tools has outpaced many organizations’ ability to manage them effectively. High traffic video calls, screen sharing and real time chat strain networks and devices. Poor quality calls disrupt meetings and leave users feeling disconnected. IT leaders must do more than roll out Teams; they must ensure a seamless experience every time employees join a meeting, send a file or make a phone call. To meet this challenge, they need comprehensive monitoring and analytics that go beyond the basic tools built into Microsoft 365.
At the heart of collaboration is communication. When a meeting is interrupted by glitchy audio or a screen share freezes, the flow of ideas stops. For dispersed teams, these frustrations can erode productivity and employee morale. Research shows that hybrid work requires new metrics and tracking systems. Traditional metrics like time spent at a desk are no longer relevant; instead, organizations need to measure outcomes and collaboration quality. Call quality and meeting performance have become vital indicators of digital employee experience.
Poor call quality often stems from network issues—jitter, latency and packet loss—which degrade audio and video streams. Equipment such as microphones and headsets can cause issues when outdated drivers or substandard devices are used. In hybrid settings, employees rely on home Wi Fi networks that might not be optimized for real time collaboration. Without visibility into these variables, IT teams cannot identify the root cause of problems or intervene proactively.
Collaboration managers also need data to justify investments. Investing in better headsets, upgrading network infrastructure or subscribing to premium meeting services must be supported by evidence that these actions will improve user experience and productivity. Analytics provide that evidence. When managers can show that meeting performance improved after a network upgrade or that training reduced poor stream rates, they build a business case for further investment.
Microsoft Teams includes a suite of tools for monitoring call and meeting quality. These native features give administrators and users a starting point for diagnosing issues. However, they often provide reactive insights rather than proactive alerts. Understanding what these built in tools offer—and where they fall short—helps IT leaders decide when to seek additional monitoring solutions.
The Call Quality Dashboard is Microsoft’s primary tool for viewing organization wide call and meeting quality. According to Microsoft’s documentation, CQD provides a near real time data feed; call records are typically available within thirty minutes of the end of a call. CQD shows call and meeting quality across an organization, allowing teams to detect patterns and drive network performance improvements.
CQD is designed for network engineers and Teams administrators. It aggregates data from all calls and meetings, highlighting trends such as high packet loss on specific subnets or poor performance in a particular building. When administrators upload building and endpoint information, they can analyze call quality and reliability by location. Reports in CQD include metrics for server client streams, client client streams and voice quality.
While CQD provides organization wide insights, Call Analytics focuses on individual user experiences. Microsoft explains that Call Analytics shows detailed information about devices, networks, connectivity and call quality for each user. By examining each leg of a call or meeting, administrators can isolate where problems occurred and identify root causes. This tool is particularly useful when a high value user reports issues; admins can drill into the call path to see whether the problem occurred on the user’s device, the network or the service.
Real Time Analytics extend this capability by allowing admins to troubleshoot scheduled meetings while they are in progress and for a period after the meeting ends. This near immediate visibility enables IT teams to intervene before users even notice a problem, which is crucial for executive presentations or large webinars.
In addition to admin tools, Microsoft Teams provides call health metrics that individual meeting participants can view. During a meeting, users can select More Actions > Settings > Call Health to see how their network, audio and video are performing. According to Microsoft Support, these metrics update periodically. Users see values like roundtrip time, packet loss and bitrate, along with typical thresholds for good performance. For example, a roundtrip time under two hundred milliseconds and packet loss under two percent indicate a healthy network.
Providing call health stats empowers users to recognize when their own environment is causing issues. If they see high packet loss or jitter, they might switch from Wi Fi to a wired connection. However, this information is still reactive; it alerts users during the meeting rather than enabling IT teams to prevent problems in advance.
Organizations can also configure Quality of Service (QoS) to prioritize delay sensitive traffic such as voice and video. QoS tags network packets so routers and switches know which streams should be given precedence over other traffic. When implemented properly, QoS reduces latency and improves overall call quality. Microsoft’s documentation notes that using QoS to prioritize important network traffic is part of a comprehensive plan to monitor and improve call quality.
Administrators must monitor a variety of metrics to ensure that QoS is working effectively:
These metrics provide a baseline for judging whether call quality issues stem from network conditions or user devices. However, monitoring them manually across thousands of users is not feasible without automation and advanced analytics.
Native Microsoft Teams monitoring tools deliver valuable data, yet they have limitations that can hinder proactive support. First, they are primarily reactive. CQD data is near real time but may take up to thirty minutes to appear. Real Time Analytics are available only during and shortly after a meeting. Without continuous monitoring, admins might miss transient issues that occur outside these windows.
Second, built in tools focus on call quality but provide limited context about underlying network or device health. Call Analytics can show that a user experienced packet loss but not necessarily why. Administrators need to correlate call quality data with network performance metrics from routers, firewalls and other infrastructure. Without this correlation, it’s difficult to distinguish between issues caused by a service outage and those caused by a user’s home Wi Fi.
Third, there is no out of the box alerting in CQD or Call Analytics. IT teams must manually inspect dashboards or run reports to uncover problems. When issues surface only through user complaints, support becomes reactive. For high stakes meetings—board presentations, customer demos or executive town halls—this lack of proactive alerting puts organizations at risk.
Finally, built in tools do not cover all facets of the modern meeting environment. They do not monitor meeting room equipment, such as cameras, microphones and displays, or provide insight into how well rooms are utilized. As organizations adopt Teams Rooms and hybrid meeting spaces, they need monitoring that extends beyond software to include hardware and user experience.
The gap between built in capabilities and real world needs has created an opportunity for advanced Teams monitoring. To support a hybrid workforce, IT leaders and collaboration managers require tools that provide end to end visibility across networks, devices, meetings and user interactions. Several factors make this expanded monitoring essential.
Proactive monitoring tools can detect anomalies and alert support teams before users experience disruptions. Instead of waiting for a call or ticket, monitoring platforms can watch for spikes in roundtrip time, packet loss or jitter. When thresholds are crossed, an alert triggers an investigation. This kind of automation reduces mean time to resolution and prevents minor network issues from escalating into widespread outages.
Proactive tools also enable trend analysis. By tracking performance over weeks or months, IT teams can spot patterns—maybe calls from a particular building consistently show higher packet loss, indicating a problematic switch. Armed with this data, network engineers can make targeted infrastructure improvements. This predictive approach contrasts with the reactive mindset of waiting for users to report problems.
Advanced monitoring platforms integrate data from multiple sources: call quality dashboards, network monitoring tools, device management systems and user feedback. They correlate call quality metrics with underlying network metrics to pinpoint root causes. For example, if calls from home offices show high jitter, the platform can identify whether the issue is related to a specific Internet service provider or a misconfigured virtual private network.
User experience analytics also go beyond technical metrics to capture sentiment. By leveraging Rate My Call data and other feedback mechanisms, organizations can see how users perceive call quality. Combining objective performance data with subjective experience gives a holistic view of collaboration quality and helps prioritize improvements.
Hybrid work relies on more than personal devices. Meeting rooms equipped with Teams certified hardware create spaces where in office and remote participants collaborate on equal footing. However, these systems require oversight. Netrix Global’s Teams Rooms as a Service offering bundles hardware, software, installation and managed services into a single monthly cost. The service provides twenty four by seven monitoring from Netrix’s Cloud Management Center with technical support on standby. It also includes a monitoring platform with usage reporting and analytics on your Teams investment.
Advanced monitoring solutions extend to these meeting spaces, keeping track of camera firmware, microphone health and touch panel responsiveness. Alerts can be configured when devices go offline or deliver poor audio. Without this visibility, in room equipment problems can derail meetings just as effectively as network issues.
When communication works flawlessly, employees can focus on their work rather than troubleshooting technical difficulties. Investment in monitoring pays dividends by reducing downtime and preserving employee morale. A Wavenet article summarizing new Teams features emphasized that analytics and insights help organizations monitor adoption, call quality and meeting performance, using insights to optimize user experience and return on investment.
Furthermore, hybrid work analytics support better resource planning. Metrics like meeting attendance patterns, space utilization and employee satisfaction help organizations determine whether to invest in more meeting rooms, upgrade equipment or adopt flexible seating policies. Advanced Teams monitoring adds another layer to this analysis by revealing which devices or network segments contribute to poor quality, allowing targeted investments where they matter most.
Netrix Global is a long standing Microsoft partner known for its engineering led approach and commitment to solving complex business challenges. For more than thirty years, Netrix has helped clients modernize infrastructure, secure their environments and adopt new technologies. Named by Microsoft as a top Teams partner, Netrix has deep expertise in deploying and managing Teams across diverse industries. Its managed services and digital workplace offerings make it uniquely qualified to deliver advanced Teams monitoring.
Netrix Global provides direct routing services that allow organizations to use their own carrier for Teams calling without paying Microsoft’s calling plan prices. This service is delivered alongside twenty four seven support and network monitoring. By acting as both the service provider and the backbone for session border controllers, Netrix can monitor call quality end to end and quickly remediate issues. The company’s technical operations center and security operations center operate around the clock, ensuring someone is always watching over the network.
To help organizations build high quality meeting spaces, Netrix offers Teams Rooms as a Service. This offering bundles hardware, software, installation and ongoing support into an operational expense. It removes upfront capital costs and includes one touch meeting start features that reduce the need for IT assistance. Clients can choose between advanced and ultimate packages, and Netrix provides complete outsourced AV services with a service level agreement. The service includes a monitoring platform with usage reporting and analytics on Teams investment, ensuring that meeting rooms operate smoothly and that organizations understand how they are being used.
Netrix’s AV integration team procures, deploys and supports complete Teams room systems. These systems provide a consistent experience across mobile, desktop and meeting room devices, offering one touch join capabilities and hardware options tailored to each room size. Delivered as a monthly fee, these kits save teams time and money while ensuring a reliable meeting experience.
Deploying Teams successfully requires more than technology; it demands governance, security and user adoption. Netrix guides clients through establishing governance and security policies based on industry best practices. Its workshops help organizations envision their collaboration needs and define permission structures. User adoption services craft change communication messages, user guides and training to ensure a smooth rollout.
Netrix also designs, configures and tests the Teams environment, gradually migrating users to ensure an optimal deployment. The company provides guidance on compliance controls, helping IT leaders maintain a secure environment while enabling collaboration.
Netrix’s expertise extends into voice and contact center solutions. The company offers hosted direct routing, enabling cost effective inbound and outbound public switched telephone network calling through the native Teams interface. It also helps clients integrate their contact centers with Teams, bringing short message service, emergency calling and screen pop capabilities into the platform. These integrated solutions rely on robust monitoring to maintain call quality and ensure that agents and customers enjoy a seamless experience.
IT leaders and collaboration managers looking to enhance their Teams environment with advanced monitoring can follow a structured approach:
Hybrid work has transformed collaboration from a convenience into a necessity. Microsoft Teams sits at the center of this transformation, powering meetings, chats and file sharing for millions of employees. Yet the success of a hybrid work strategy depends on more than adopting the right tool; it hinges on ensuring that every call and meeting is clear, reliable and efficient. Built in monitoring tools provide valuable insights but fall short of the proactive, comprehensive monitoring needed in modern enterprises.
Advanced Teams monitoring fills this gap. By providing proactive alerts, correlating call quality with network and device data and extending visibility to meeting room equipment, advanced monitoring platforms empower IT leaders to deliver a seamless collaboration experience. Netrix Global enhances this capability through its deep expertise in Teams deployment, its Teams Rooms as a Service offering and its twenty four by seven support and network monitoring. For IT leaders and collaboration managers, investing in advanced Teams monitoring is not just a technical decision but a strategic one—ensuring that hybrid work stays productive, efficient and satisfying for employees.
The built in tools provide near real time data and individual call analytics, but they are primarily reactive. CQD data can take up to thirty minutes to appear, and there is no native alerting mechanism. They also lack context from network devices and do not monitor meeting room hardware.
Advanced monitoring platforms correlate call quality with network and device data, enabling proactive alerts and root cause analysis. They provide insights into trends and allow IT teams to remediate issues before users notice. This reduces downtime and improves the overall digital employee experience.
Key metrics include roundtrip time, packet loss, jitter and bitrate. A healthy call typically has roundtrip time under two hundred milliseconds, packet loss under two percent and jitter under thirty milliseconds. Monitoring these metrics helps identify network issues before they impact users.
Netrix’s Teams Rooms as a Service bundles hardware, software, installation and managed services into a single monthly cost. The service includes twenty four by seven monitoring from Netrix’s Cloud Management Center, usage reporting and analytics on your Teams investment. This ensures that meeting rooms remain operational and that organizations can track how rooms are used.
Begin by assessing your current environment and establishing baseline metrics. Then set thresholds and choose a monitoring platform that integrates call quality data with network and device metrics. Consider partnering with a specialist like Netrix Global, which offers direct routing, network monitoring, Teams Rooms as a Service and adoption support. With the right partner and tools, your organization can ensure that Microsoft Teams truly supports your hybrid work strategy.
