Operator Connect may be in the early stages of its existence but it is already proving popular with businesses that want more flexibility than Microsoft Calling Plans, fewer of the complexities of Direct Routing, or both.
While Operator Connect does deliver on convenience, there’s a good chance that a business will still have phone numbers spread across multiple systems, carriers, and geographies.
This problem is, of course, not associated specifically with Operator Connect – but a staggered migration to Operator Connect could add yet another solution to manage.
This is where number management solutions such as Pure IP’s Number Connect come in. Number Connect is a data repository that can store a company’s numbers from across all providers. What’s more, numbers from Microsoft – including Calling Plans, Direct Routing and Operator Connect – and Pure IP are pulled into the single pane of glass automatically, while numbers from other providers can be uploaded.
Speaking to UC Today, Ian Guest, Marketing Director at Pure IP, explained that Operator Connect does come with a degree of number visibility, in the form of a list of numbers, but it does not have advanced filtering functionality.
“Number Connect gives you a complete visibility in a single place and there are a range of filtering options,” he explained.
“You can see which numbers are assigned and which numbers are unassigned in different regions, for example, as well as filtering by platform, SBC device and provider.
Searching in Number Connect works the same regardless of who supplies the number, giving users a consistent experience and avoiding the need to switch between different systems or dreaded spreadsheets.
“If you have a new user starting or you need to assign certain numbers, you often need to do it quickly,” Guest added. “The data in a spreadsheet could be weeks or months out of date; you need instant access to accurate data in order to avoid delays and issues.”
“Many businesses also have numbers to spare, but they end up buying more because they don’t have visibility of what they have.
“In some cases, it could be thousands of numbers because they’ve consistently gone and bought new blocks.
“With Number Connect, they can get instant visibility which will help prevent over ordering, saving them significant amounts of both time and money.”
