It’s no secret that Microsoft has taken the world by storm with its powerful Teams collaboration platform. Boasting more than 280 million monthly users, Teams has emerged as the ultimate digital work hub for countless organizations.
However, Teams isn’t just an incredible tool for businesses, it also represents a fantastic opportunity for service providers to capture and retain a wider audience. Studies show that by 2024, around 74% of all new UC licenses for businesses will be cloud-based.
Thanks to Teams’ flexible platform, service providers have the opportunity to leverage its popularity when selling cloud-based communication kits. The challenge is often in figuring out which route to take when integrating your technology with Microsoft’s platform.
The Microsoft Teams Voice Options
Although Microsoft does offer its own calling plans for business leaders, most organizations still prefer having the option to connect their own carrier and telephony systems to the platform. Fortunately, Microsoft offers two routes to a “bring your own carrier” service.
The first, and perhaps most popular solution for voice enablement is direct routing, which allows users to keep their existing carrier, minutes, and plans, working in Teams from any location or device.
The alternative option is Operator Connect, a slightly more streamlined solution for end-users, which allows them to access an approved marketplace of carriers for telephony integrations.
Dstny, a leader in Microsoft Teams phone service integration, offers a range of products tailored to the specific needs of service providers. Here are the options available.
Dstny Call2Teams for Service Providers
One of the core products in Dstny’s Teams voice ecosystem, the Call2Teams direct routing solution ensures any functionality on an existing PBX can be retained and fully integrated within Teams. The product features powerful integration for both on-premise and cloud-hosted telephony, and comes with a convenient multi-tenant portal, ideal for service management.
Core components of the product include:
- Call2Teams for PBX: A middleware solution that sits between your PBX technology and the Microsoft environment, allowing for true PBX registration. The technology can connect Call2Teams to any existing Microsoft tenants, mapping Teams users against PBX extensions or SIP trunk phone numbers.
- Call2Teams for Trunk: The SIP solution from Dstny allows service providers to connect their customers to phone services via a secure SIP registration over public internet. This allows for complete flexibility. SIP trunks can send calls to the Call2Teams portal in various ways, using statically highly available IPs and SIP registration. You can also assign phone numbers to auto attendants and call queues.
Dstny’s Call2Teams product also offers a range of pre-configured integrations for existing vendors, through partnerships with companies like Avaya, NEC, Panasonic, 3CX, Mitel, Broadsoft and many others.
Call2Teams Go: Platform-Agnostic and Cloud-Based
One of the most recent additions to Dstny’s Call2Teams product set, Call2Teams Go, a native client companion which utilises Direct Routing technology for a quality voice calling experience for businesses with simpler licensing requirements.
The product is fully native to Teams, so every action and voice experience stays within the Teams platform, with no need for third-party solutions. This means companies benefit from native connectivity and QoS attributes, interactions with other team users, and the easy ability to move devices within a Teams call, or access presence, call history, and voicemail.
With Call2Teams Go, service providers can voice-enable Teams with simpler, more cost-effective licensing requirements. Plus, the solution is effortless to implement, with a self-service portal, and comprehensive license management.
“Call2Teams Go is a real game-changer, as it allows our partners to deliver their services into Enterprises that may have limited budgets or do not require the level of integration that our award-winning Call2Teams offers. Deployment of Call2Teams Go is fully automated. And unlike some calling integrations, where Teams is simply used as a display engine for a cross-launch web app, or remote interface to an installed desktop app, Call2Teams Go is a fully native Teams user experience. We’ve also built the product to be geared to Service Providers, as they as they can engage with Call2Teams Go in three ways: they can use the brandable out-of-the-box client; build on top of the Call2Teams Go technology and add additional functionality; or use the Call2Teams Go infrastructure to power their own Teams voice companion.” – Neil Greenwood, VP of Product, Dstny for Service Providers.
Dstny Carrier Automate
While Direct Routing is often regarded as one of the most popular ways to connect Microsoft Teams to an outside telephony system, it’s not the only solution. Operator Connect gives companies access to a marketplace of available carriers, approved by Microsoft themselves.
The calls made via Operator Connect are made through certified infrastructures (rather than being carried over the public internet). Additionally, it allows end customers to manage their instances through the Teams admin portal. Unfortunately, while Operator Connect gives service providers an excellent opportunity to expand their portfolio and increase revenue, earning approval can be difficult.
Dstny offers a simple solution for service providers embracing the potential of Operator Connect, with Carrier Automate. This all-in-one enablement platform offers access to world-leading API bridging and voice-processing media SBCs, enabling carriers to enable PTSN efficiently and effectively and make UCaaS connections.
The solution is developed in partnership with Ribbon, ensuring Dstny stands as an approved Operator Connect Accelerator Partner. With Dstny Carrier Automate, carries can access:
- Quick and frictionless connections: As an approved Operator Connect Accelerator partner, Dstny can help service providers access quick, simple onboarding for Operator Connect. Carrier Automate offers a guided, frictionless route for a speedy go-to-market strategy.
- Launch support: Dstny offers go-to-market assistance with proactive product, support, and engineering teams. They can work to ensure the G2M strategy for a carrier is successful, and help them pave the way for future growth. Users can even access go-to-market support, and mapped customer journeys.
- Increased scalability: Thanks to a simple platform and robust foundation, carriers can leverage Carrier Automate to unlock new opportunities for success in the future. With the onboard once and connect to many strategy, the product allows vendors to tap into multiple UCaaS options simultaneously, increasing income potential.
Choosing the Right Dstny Teams Voice Solution
As a leading Microsoft partner, Dstny offers service providers and carriers possibly the most comprehensive range of opportunities for unlocking the value of Microsoft Teams. The Call2Teams product set offers access to valuable tools for Microsoft Teams direct routing, allowing companies to offer their end-users exceptional customization, flexibility, and agility.
Alternatively, the Carrier Automate solution, developed in partnership with Ribbon, ensures Dstny can assist carriers in joining the Operator Connect program at speed. With Carrier Automate, companies can rapidly position themselves as an easy-to-use and reliable vendor for Teams Voice integration, approved by the Microsoft ecosystem itself.
“As Microsoft expands its PSTN enabled userbase it is sensible to look for ways in which to be a part of its growth. At Dstny for Service Providers we have a dedicated team delivering and maintaining Teams voice integration, supporting over 350+ Service Providers world-wide. Call2Teams is different to other direct routing providers in that we connect to a PBX and not just to a PSTN SIP Trunk or just the general telephony world. Having that connection to a customer’s existing PBX and UC platform means that adoption of the Microsoft Teams calling experience is much easier. This ease has made this (we’ve been told by the market analysts in the business sector) the de facto way to voice-enable Microsoft Teams for a very large sector of the market. For Service Providers looking to address the new telephony market created by Operator Connect, then our Carrier Automate product provides a fast track to deliver this new service, tohelp acquire new and retain existing customers .” – Mark Herbert, Head of Partner Innovation, Dstny for Service Providers.
The right option for you all depends on your go-to-market strategy. However, you don’t have to choose between one or the other. You could even consider offering both direct routing and Operator Connect solutions to end users with Dstny’s modular ecosystem.
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