Revolutionise your communication with Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams – the seamless integration for an unbeatable calling experience!

Direct Routing lets you connect your on-premises phone system to Microsoft Teams without hassles. By connecting the supported on-premises Session Border Controller (SBC) to Direct Routing, you can easily set up Teams users to use Direct Routing to connect to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

In the Technical post, each action of Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams is explained at a high level. Also, the article has links to other articles that can help you learn more about how the configuration process works. With Direct Routing, you can make it easier for people to talk to each other, work together, and improve the flow of your work.

Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams is now available to all users, making us optimistic. With this feature, Teams users can choose their own phone service, which lets them create and take calls within the platform. At the moment, there are two ways to call PSTN numbers from Microsoft Teams: Direct Routing and Calling Plans. In this article, I’ll briefly overview these two ways to deploy Microsoft Teams, which customers often use. Whether you’ve used Teams before or not, knowing about these options will help you get the most out of this powerful collaboration tool.

Client Deployed Scenario

 This scenario consists of three distinct parts:

1. Session Border Controllers (SBC) from a Microsoft-certified partner,
2. such as AudioCodes or Ribbon Trunks from your voice provider,
3. Needed for the Office 365 Phone System.

Customers have been able to try out this scenario since May 2018. It works well for people who would instead manage their infrastructure on-premises.

Partner Hosted Scenario

As a partner, we have been working with several providers to offer options for Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams customers who want a hosted architecture. Some of these options include hosted SBCs, extra features, and other services. This allows customers to choose the best solutions that meet their needs. In fact, Microsoft thinks that shortly, even more providers will offer Direct Routing solutions and services similar to what they already provide. Customers can feel confident using Microsoft Teams Direct Routing and taking their communication skills to the next level because of this support and innovation.

As a Microsoft Solutions partner, TOS is able to improve Direct Routing by adding better support for escalating calls, media bypass, and trunks. If a Teams user is on a call and needs to transfer it to someone who is not, they can do so easily by escalating the call. Media bypass is a feature that makes calls better by skipping the Teams infrastructure and sending voice traffic straight to the PSTN or SIP trunk. Direct Routing can work with more types of trunks if trunk support is made better. This will make it easier for Microsoft partners to scale their solutions and work with more phone companies.

This quick look at what Direct Routing can do is just the tip of the iceberg. If you want to learn more about this technology, watch a series on Direct Routing that goes into more detail. You can also check back often to see what’s new with Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams since Microsoft constantly improves its communication tools and adds new features.

Certified Session Border Controllers (SBC) for Direct Routing

As a Microsoft partner, we work with confident Session Border Controller (SBC) vendors to ensure their SBCs work with Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams.

Together, we work on the SIP interconnection protocols with them:

• Use a lab run by someone else to do tough tests. Certified devices are only those that pass the tests.
• Test every certified device every day in both production and pre-production environments. Validating the devices in pre-production environments ensures that new versions of Direct Routing code in the cloud will work with certified SBCs.
• Set up a process for joint support with the SBC vendors.

TOS Joins Certified SBC Vendors for Enhanced Support of Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams

Is Direct Routing a suitable choice for you?

Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams is a great way to get integrated communication. Here are some of the biggest pros and cons of this method:

• Interoperability: It makes it easier for computerised systems to talk to each other by eliminating the need to buy new phone systems and use the ones already in place.
• Ease of migration: Batch migrations are possible, so companies don’t have to plan to move the whole company at once.
• Utilisation of existing contracts: Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams lets you use your current infrastructure and phone contracts with service providers.
• Simplified deployment: It gives you more flexibility and makes it easier to set up than Microsoft calling plans. That is because you don’t need call-carrying equipment.
• Availability and cost efficiency: Teams direct routing has affordable monthly payments, excellent customer service, and coverage in every country.

The only problem with using Direct Routing is that there are lots of providers to choose from. So, organisations should carefully review and select the right one for their needs.

Now that we know the basics of both plans, it’s evident that Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams offers more benefits to organisations than Microsoft Calling Plans.

Which Organisations Should Use Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams?

Direct Routing is a great option for organisations that want worldwide flexibility, support, and coverage. According to reports, Microsoft Teams had 145 million daily users in earlier years. Businesses can pick a provider like TOS that meets their unique requirements to ensure their workforce receives support in every region, often at a lower cost than Microsoft’s plans.

Research indicates that about 80% to 90% of enterprise companies with a Teams strategy will utilise Direct Routing for voice.

The utilisation of Direct Routing with Microsoft Teams has skyrocketed during the pandemic.

Considering a move with Microsoft Teams Direct Routing

Without a doubt, Microsoft Teams is the future platform, and Direct Routing is a crucial way to improve your business’s voice communications. If you want to maximise your Microsoft licencing investment, consider your company’s goals and factors like the number of site-based offices, the need for global communication, and your IT bandwidth. This will help you choose the best implementation strategy.

As a Solutions Expert Australia, we deliver Direct Routing solutions that are flexible, reliable, and cost-effective. This ensures that your organisation’s communication needs are met hassle-free. Our team of experts can help you choose the right solution and handle licencing and infrastructure needs. We help in Deploying Microsoft Teams Direct Routing efficiently. 

Call us at +61 3 9005 6868 immediately to get started with Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams and take advantage of its benefits.