Ribbon Communications has always supported a range of Microsoft certified SBCs, enabling service providers, partners, and enterprises to select the Microsoft Teams calling deployment model which best suits their needs on a business and technical front. The addition of support for Operator Connect offers new options for service providers and customers.
Supporting voice adoption within Teams
I spoke with Greg Zweig, Director of Solutions Marketing, who explained, “Microsoft is extremely well known on the collaboration side for Teams — but only between 5 and 10% of Teams license holders have enabled Teams calling. Most are still using their existing PBX, their mobile phone, or something else.”
Microsoft already offers its own PSTN services, Calling Plans, as well as Direct Routing which is Microsoft’s name for connecting SIP Trunks from a service provider. The launch of Operator Connect creates a third option, which will open up new opportunities to reach customers, and drive adoption of cloud communications transformations.
As Zweig explained, “This new option is a bit different, as it’s really a peering relationship between Microsoft and service providers that includes a set of APIs that integrate the purchase and deployment process. It’s a significant step beyond just connectivity”
“Moving forward, enterprise administrators will be able to go into Teams, select a service provider, and directly administer their telephone numbers”, he explained, comparing the experience and ease of use to using an app store.
“Administrators will have the option to login and say, well, I’m opening a new office, I want to pick a service provider and add a new batch of numbers. I can do all of these steps inside the administrative panel in Operator Connect, set up all my numbers and assign them to users”
Simplifying voice deployment
Providing a straightforward web-based interface will make Operator Connect much more accessible than the command line oriented approach. “They’ve taken away the need to use PowerShell. In some respects Operator Connect is a recognition from Microsoft, that they needed to make their existing services easier to engage with,” Zweig continued.
Many of the first wave of service providers deploying Operator Connect are already Ribbon customers. That means that Ribbon is already working with service providers during the rollout, ensuring their end users have the best solution put in place to meet their unique needs.
