VOSS Unveils Microsoft Teams Direct Routing to further extend the benefits of VOSS-4-UC in Multi-Vendor Cisco and Microsoft UC

May 14, 2019

Tim Jalland, Solution Owner (Microsoft Teams), VOSS Solutions

The Power of Choice

Working with enterprise organisations around the globe, I’ve heard from and seen many, as an integral part of their application strategy, adopting the Microsoft Office 365 suite of productivity applications and moving to the cloud. They are also taking advantage of Microsoft Teams, included as part of the package, for their unified communication needs, particularly for knowledge workers who are regularly on the move and working with soft clients. Microsoft call this ‘Intelligent Communications’!

But this has created a challenging question that I’m often asked, and until now has not been satisfactorily answered.

How does this new population of users interconnect with existing systems, applications and users, often powered by Cisco solutions, so that everybody can freely communicate?

The answer lies with the recently announced Microsoft Teams Direct Routing technology and with our recent update to VOSS-4-UC – now extended to provide a single point for managing, in a secure, coherent and consistent way a mixed Cisco / Microsoft hybrid solution.

How Does It Work?

Integration of Microsoft Teams clients (which are registered with the Microsoft Phone System in the cloud) is through a Microsoft Teams supported technology called Direct Routing. This connects the Microsoft Phone System into the main Cisco communication service – providing robust voice calling, superior call control and break-out access to the Public Telephone Network.

The Direct Routing connection is carried over the Internet and is terminated in the data centre on an approved SBC, which has been formally tested and supported by Microsoft. Yesterday, we announced our first SBC partnership in this area – with AudioCodes.

What Does This Give Me?

Firstly – a combined Cisco / Microsoft solution supporting a wide range of end-points!

Both types of client are supported – all Cisco end-points as well as the Microsoft Teams client – the exact profile of client and attached services being defined when a user is provisioned into the estate. Clients may be selected, freely mixed and matched dependent on the exact use or application need – be that a mobile knowledge worker, a desktop-based user, meeting, lobby or conference rooms or full video conferencing facilities. Analog devices, in particular, are supported via the Cisco solution. Should a user’s needs change – then alternative services and end-points may be selected and provisioned from VOSS-4-UC.

Provisioning with either client is super simple through the VOSS-4-UC Quick Add Subscriber workflow (QAS) – allowing collaboration services, numbers and associated end points to be easily selected during the provisioning process.

By also including the central PSTN break-out point into the solution, full flexibility and control is opened up for call tariffs – ensuring these can be catered to the needs of individual enterprises, call costs can be reduced, existing commercial contracts if in place with an enterprise customer can be honoured and calls between different types of client can be kept fully on-net.

Most enterprise organisations make use of the Microsoft E3 user license (including Microsoft Exchange, the Office productivity suite and the Microsoft Teams client). The solution described here can make use of this existing user license, keeping the need to upgrade to the more expensive E5 license to a minimum.

Deeper insight into service operations and the quality of the integrated solution, including advanced analytics that measure how the service is being consumed, and the ability to automate responses to any issues that are raised.

Where changes to either part of the estate (Cisco or Microsoft) are made and these result in a billable change, these may be reported dynamically and automatically northbound into a suitable billing platform for timely and accurate raising of charges.

To find out more about Microsoft Teams Direct Routing and VOSS, please contact us.