PowerShell, Session Border Controllers, Professional Services: enterprise voice calls via Microsoft Teams can be a complex and expensive business.
The platform per se has emerged as the ‘go to’ communications and collaboration channel for hundreds of millions, of course.
There it was all that time: sitting there quietly in the corner of Office 365, just waiting for its big moment.
Now ubiquitous (notwithstanding Cisco Webex, Zoom et al) Microsoft Teams licence holders are now understandably keen to utilise all its features, including telephony.
Direct Routing – making and receiving voice calls via users’ existing network providers – has always been possible, if a little tricky and resource-hungry.
Enterprise IT departments need PowerShell expertise; SBCs need to be purchased; expert and costly consultants may often need to be hired to help.
In fact, in a world in which rapidly-evolving communication technology is becoming cheaper and simpler, Direct Routing Via Teams has been something of an anomaly.
End user organisations want speed, simplicity and self-service.
And that means Managed Service Providers, value added resellers and system integrators with the solutions capable of satisfying those requirements are likely to benefit big.
As usual, success will depend upon picking the right vendor partner.
“Today, it’s all about making things as easy and as fast as possible – and getting the absolute most out of Microsoft Teams is no exception,” says Mark Vale, Chief Product Officer at Callroute, whose new, unique and margin-rich solution quickly integrates Teams with end users’ telephony carrier of choice.
“To date, organisations looking to use Teams for their telephony have needed to have some knowledge about how Teams voice works; some Microsoft PowerShell skills; to have to buy their own SBCs; and they or their outsourced IT support have needed to be able to troubleshoot SIP.
“We have removed all of that need and complexity so anyone with an Office 365 administrator’s account can go into a nice front-end portal and provision in a matter of minutes.
“Migrations are seamless. We have some intelligence inside the back-end which automatically updates call routes so calls immediately route to Teams. For the end user organisation, it’s all pretty hands-off.
“They can bring their own network carrier or choose from a list of our verified carriers via the portal. We also offer our own calling plans, including pay as you go.
“Organisations don’t want to spend money on CapEx items such as professional services. They want to move more towards a self-service OpEx model and save tens of thousands of pounds.”
Not that the whole cloud-based telephony opportunity is predicated exclusively on Microsoft Teams.
The transformational nature of VoIP – coupled with the post-pandemic rise of clever and popular communication and collaboration platforms – has made enterprise cloud telephony mass-market.
“Our solution also supports Cisco Webex calling in the same way and we will soon be supporting Zoom Phone too,” says Vale.
“Basically, if an organisation’s existing PBX supports SIP, then our solution can enable quick and easy transformational integration.”
Automatic failover to nominated mobile numbers is also covered and there is baked-in automatic number management functionality to help with otherwise-clunky joiners, movers and leavers processing.
“All organisations need to do is keep their Active Directory in good working order, and we’ll do the rest,” says Vale. “No PowerShell, no clicks or buttons, no service tickets. And admins don’t need to modify user account creation scripts as it’s all automatically synched.”
All sounds great – but what about the future?
Two and a half years ago, Teams and Webex and Zoom and all the others represented ground zero in the communication and collaboration revolution.
The pace of technological evolution surely means the landscape is likely to change again: the next New Kids on the Block certain to provide us with yet more reason to change up.
“Cloud phone systems will change over time,” says Vale.
“Teams is going through its purple patch right now and it’s difficult to see what comes next.
“It might be another iteration of Microsoft Teams; it might be something completely different.
“But we will always support the latest and greatest because all we are doing is connecting a target system to a call route.”
What’s for sure, remote and hybrid working – the phenomenon at the heart of the explosion in cloud-based communications – is here to stay.
And that means easy, fast and affordable PBX integration is only just getting started.
“Companies large and small are now having to facilitate hybrid working practices,” says Vale.
“There’s a certain expectation of that among the workforce. Returning permanently to the office, especially in light of the current cost of living and fuel price crises – is not an attractive proposition for most people.
“There are currently 12 million Microsoft Teams voice users but only a fraction of those are burning minutes.
“That’s a big addressable market – and one which we want to help our partners take a big bite out of.”
To learn more about how Callroute can help your and your customers’ businesses grow and succeed, visit www.callroute.com
