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In this Microsoft monthly update, we discuss:
- Ribbon Direct Routing SaaS for Partners/Resellers
- Kit news: Logitech Rally Bar, video conferencing monitors by Dell, sidecars from AudioCodes and Yealink EXP50 sidecar
- FIVE exciting new features coming soon Q1
- Event plugs
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Microsoft Teams Predictions 2021 - Watch now.
2020 was an exciting year for Microsoft Teams, and the company plans on continuing this momentum across Q1 2021. Already it’s announced Microsoft Viva, a new employee experience platform in Teams, and support for those looking to create kit experiences using the Teams platform. As always, we sat down with Tom Arbuthnot, UC Solutions Architect, Microsoft Certified Master, and MVP to discuss what’s new underneath the hood with Microsoft Teams.
We would like to thank Pexip for sponsoring this latest edition of the Microsoft Teams News Update, which you can access in its entirety in the podcast above or on our YouTube channel.
As Microsoft continues to expand its product landscape centred around Teams, the introduction of a more flexible Session Border Controller (SBC) service, support for old school telephony kits, a foot into the prosumer door, and enhancements to the Teams software platform are always welcome. Read on to hear the full insights from Tom Arbuthnot and highlights from a few pertinent events for this once-again new normal.
Session Border Controllers (SBCs) in a New Avatar
SBCs are a staple for companies relaying sizable media streams across corporate networks as well as those relying heavily on VoIP. Tom kickstarted our conversation by mentioning a new SBC product from Ribbon that will elevate the SBC experience for Microsoft Teams Direct Routing users.
“News-wise, February has brought a few bits and pieces. Number one for me is Ribbon Connects which is a new service from Ribbon. Teams is an important part of that, as Microsoft is doing direct Teams SBCs as a SaaS service basically, using Ribbons technology,” he said.
Ribbon Connect is a SaaS service that can automatically make configuration updates in Teams, setup SBC services, and even integrate with your existing IP-PBX or cloud UC service. It will streamline the migration pathways between the Teams collaboration client and Teams calling significantly.
Interestingly, Microsoft isn’t the only one making moves in this space. As Tom mentioned, AudioCodes has been doing something similar as well.
But coming back to Teams, here is how Tom explains the new functionality will work:
“You can go to Ribbon and pay per month in a full SaaS model for hosted Ribbon SBCs running direct routing. It is all Azure-based, all API-driven, and it's exclusively for partners. So, partners can essentially resell session border controllers for direct routing, connect it to whichever carrier they want, any customer carrier they want, and sell that as an opex service. Partners that traditionally weren't in the SBC space can just run these services up and sell them.”
Tom also went on to say that “They've got SBC as a service coming later in Q1, which is where you get your own SBC, you can play with it and twiddle all the buttons, and connect it to a contact centre or a third-party like Zoom or whoever.”
“This is specifically direct routing as a service, but it does seem like a lot of the SBC players are getting into the SaaS model in addition to the traditional “sell the boxes” model,” he noted.
In the next few months, you could expect the SBC space to really open up, providing more options than ever before for implementations of every size. From pureplay telecom carriers to resellers and now first-party players like Microsoft offering SBC as a service, it could be difficult to stand out.
“It's a very competitive market space between full telcos with direct routing as a complete service, resellers reselling plans that are resold as a service, end-users directly buying their own SBCs (virtual or physical) – there are lots of options out there for direct routing for sure.”
Next, we asked Tom about a few enhancements Microsoft has introduced to improve the kit experience with Teams.
Kit News: What to Expect in 2021
Collaboration kits have truly come into their own in 2020 due to a massive switch to WFH, and users will continue to strengthen their WFH collaboration and productivity capabilities this year. In this vein hardware, players like Logitech and Dell are introducing end-to-end home office collab solutions with native Teams support.
“Number one is the Logitech Rally Bar. That's their new entrance into the meeting room bar space that seems to be really popular at the moment. It looks like quite a nice kit, and it's interesting to see them continuing to really push different models and different options in that space,” Tom said. But he also pointed out that Logitech isn’t pushing the envelope too much and only innovating on previous bar form factor collaboration technology.
What’s more interesting, said Tom, are the new video conferencing monitors by Dell.
“These are certified Teams monitors with webcam and speakers built-in. This is one of the things we'll see becoming more popular, particularly in the home office environment – just giving someone an all-in-one unit that does essentially is a video camera, speakerphone, and monitor all in one. I think that'll be quite popular,” said Tom.
As we mentioned during the podcast, this seems like a no-brainer and something that should have been done years ago!
“You've got laptops that can do that and have done it for years, but the cameras have never been great in laptops. So, it does seem obvious that you could add a decent webcam into a monitor,” Tom commented. Indeed, laptop cameras are traditionally not as good as external webcams, and external webcams are not as good as the optics one gets in proper cameras or in flagship smartphones.
As Tom put it, “It's just about hitting price points. But yeah, I think that hopefully, the market will prove there is money in it.”
As an example, he pointed to the Brio Logitech webcam, which has been hugely popular despite being pitched at a premium price point.
“Hopefully, companies will see that people are willing to pay for quality. Particularly as the home office becomes more full-time, suddenly investing in a kit makes more sense than maybe when you are WFH once a week. If it's your full-time place, then spending money on kit starts to make sense,” Tom added.
He spoke about a possible future innovation that would solve a major user problem – eye-to-eye contact. Experimental designs where cameras are placed behind the screens might be able to address this issue and could possibly be where kits are headed: “What I’d love to see is someone place a monitor in front of the camera! Some of the phone designs are coming out now where they place the camera behind the screen. Maybe we'll get to the point where we genuinely have eye-to-eye contact if we can put the camera behind the screen in a kit. That'll be really amazing.”
After Logitech Rally and the new range of video conferencing monitors, the third piece of kit news Tom shared with us was sidecars for Teams IP phones.
“AudioCodes and Yealink both have uh IP phone sidecars coming out. It's just another one of those gaps, where you think that's quite old-school. But clearly, enough people still want it that it warrants developing them. So, Teams’ phones will now have the option of sidecars with all your traditional line keys, quick dials, and things,” Tom explained.
Sidecars were previously also called Busy Land Fill or BLF as per the Cisco lexicon. But a resurgence could signal a growing demand for this seemingly old school technology – “a box that you slot on the side of the phone with a bunch busier lamps and line keys essentially.”
As Tom rightly pointed out, “These vendors won't build them, and Microsoft won't invest the cycles unless there is customer demand. So, evidently, people that still want that functionality, where they've maybe just got a hard phone and nothing else.”
After kits, we covered a rapidly growing focus area for Microsoft – Teams Rooms for Android.
