Unless you’ve spent the past few years holidaying on the dark side of the moon, you’ll no doubt be aware of the stunning success of Microsoft Teams in the ultra-competitive unified communications arena.
But there are two words that often come up when IT departments start talking about Teams adoption: ‘direct’ and ‘routing’. So what exactly is Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams? More importantly, why should you care about it?
Talk Is Cheap (or Should Be)
As the events of the past year or so have shown, with many organizations moving to a hybrid work model, the ability to make calls and participate in online meetings from any location is vital for maintaining productivity and ensuring continued business success. And as it happens, one of the best things about Teams is its voice communications capabilities.
Using the Teams platform, you can make, receive and transfer calls to and from landlines and mobile phones on the public switched telephone network (PSTN) either through Microsoft’s Teams Phone and Calling Plans or via your own carrier using Direct Routing for Teams.
However, if you’re still under contract with your current provider, the switch to Microsoft’s Teams Phone and Calling Plans might incur a penalty. Not only that, your existing call plans and line costs may be more cost-effective than a calling plan from Microsoft.
This is precisely where Direct Routing comes in.
Get the Best of Both Worlds
Direct Routing for Microsoft Teams gives you the best of both worlds by allowing you to leverage all the benefits of Teams while staying with your current provider for your lines and minutes. In essence, Direct Routing enables a session border controller (SBC) to mediate between your on-premises PSTN or SIP trunk and the Microsoft Teams service.
Enabled on a physical or virtual SBC, and located either on-premises or in a data center/cloud, Direct Routing works on the same principle as an SBC connecting one SIP communication entity to another SIP entity running a different flavor of the SIP protocol.
When an incoming call is received, the SBC mediates a session from the carrier and transforms it to match the flavor and requirements of Microsoft Teams. It is then passed through to the Microsoft Teams client and on to the intended user. In the same way, an outgoing call is routed through to the SBC and then to the recipient via the existing PSTN or SIP trunk.
One of the best things about this solution is that it’s fully scalable, from just a few users to tens of thousands. It reduces the total cost of ownership by giving you lower calling charges and helps you get total control of your communications solution. For example, you can connect additional communications systems in parallel via the same SBC.
We’ve Got It All Covered!
If you want to go down this route, we’ve got everything you need to get started right away. Even better, AudioCodes is certified by Microsoft to provide a Direct Routing for Teams solution through our Mediant family of SBCs, so you know you’re in good hands.
Say hello to productivity-boosting Microsoft Teams calling today – you won’t look back.
Want to know more about how to harness the power of Direct Routing for Teams calling productivity?
