You have no doubt heard of Microsoft Teams. For millions of Microsoft365 users, formerly Office365 users, Teams is something you got for free when you needed Outlook, Word, and Excel. You and your department probably started using it to send messages and conduct meetings. If your organization used Skype for Business, you were likely told it was the replacement, so you started to use the messaging and meeting capabilities also. Now as COVID has accelerated the move to the cloud, unified communications migration has become a priority to many organizations. The ability to receive and make phone calls, and conduct business from home is of paramount importance.
Bringing Voice to the Cloud
Microsoft Teams is actually 2 distinct pieces. The first is the Microsoft Teams client, and cloud servers that hold all of your chats, meetings, channels, and the like. Everyone who uses Teams uses this 1/2. The other piece is something we call PSTN, this is the part that lets Teams talk to the rest of the world through what you would normally think of as your business phone lines.
This PSTN Connectivity is how Microsoft Teams can replace your legacy business phone system, that is still likely confined to the walls of your office building. There are 2 ways to enable the PSTN Connectivity with your Microsoft Teams setup. The first is to buy the phone numbers and lines from Microsoft through something they call a Microsoft Calling Plan. Less than 15% of organization choose this route, largely due to the limited features, SLA, and relatively short track record for this service. Instead over 85% of organizations choose to use Direct Routing instead.
What is Direct Routing
Direct Routing is a cloud telephony solution enabling users to make and receive phone calls through the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or PBX or Cloud PBX to and from both landline and mobile numbers. Solutions such as RingCentral Cloud PBX for Microsoft Teams work by connecting your Teams and Microsoft 365 software to the relevant provider. This means that users can then make and receive external calls from any devices running natively via Teams. Unlike Microsoft Calling Plans, Direct Routing allows organizations to choose bundles or request tailored solutions from providers that meet their carrier and coverage needs. That often means they’re typically cheaper and more flexible than Microsoft’s limited options.
So Why RingCentral Direct Routing?
There are many reasons to choose RingCentral for direct routing, I am going to highlight a few that are common sense, and few you probably haven't considered.
First SLA is important. Microsoft lists 99.9% which sounds like those commercials where something is killing germs, good enough right? Well that does mean 1 entire business day a year you can expect to not have a phone, if that's good enough so be it, but RingCentral's 99.999% means only about 5 minutes year, which causes every good IT person less heartburn.
Secondly, front end flexibility is important. Every provider will make your Teams client ring, and let you make calls, there is little difference at all. Where you need to be careful is the front end, while your local phone company can deliver the lines, they aren't going to provide customizable IVR, and Call Queue features every modern business needs. The same is true, believe it or not, of Microsoft Calling Plans. Robust call routing is implemented very poorly there, and is one reason most organizations don't even consider it as a viable PSTN option.
Thirdly, geography matters. RingCentral has a global footprint with PSTN in 40+ countries. Your local PSTN provider is unlikely to be able to fight those regulatory battles, so neither should you, when they are already won.
Finally, the biggest advantage is one near to my heart, and one you likely won't consider until it's too late. Microsoft Calling Plans have a very limited Voice API for developers. Honestly it wreaks of the DOA product failure of TAP which they introduced on the Skype For Business Online API side, before quickly killing that off a few years ago. Worse, it doesn't have the client side controls Skype for Business online offered, which they also killed off. So Doug, why do I care about any of this? Without APIs your organization will have little chance of finding flexible solutions for call recording, call reports, attendant console, contact center, CRM plugins, or any of hundreds of other applications that compliment a business phone system. Without it, you will likely have 0 or at best 1 choice for some of these, and your flexibility gained by the cloud will be all but lost. RingCentral offers 200+ integrations of their own. They also have thousands of developer partners like us, Bridge Communications, who contribute to their massive app gallery.
Bridge Operator Console (below) for RingCentral allows direct routing customers to answers calls, see organization wide availability, and transfer them to end users who can use their native Teams app to answer.
Summary
RingCentral’s Direct Routing offer, Cloud PBX for Microsoft Teams, is a fully managed, carrier-class solution that connects your Teams and Microsoft 365 deployment to PSTN networks. This allows your users to make and receive external phone calls from anywhere on any handset or device running natively in the Teams application.
Direct Routing is a cloud telephony solution enabling users to make and receive phone calls through the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or PBX or Cloud PBX to and from both landline and mobile numbers. Solutions such as RingCentral Cloud PBX for Microsoft Teams work by connecting your Teams and Microsoft 365 software to the relevant provider. This means that users can then make and receive external calls from any devices running natively via Teams.
With cloud telephony, businesses and other organizations are no longer reliant on a physical private branch exchange (PBX) on-premises. This would require a dedicated space and administrators to manage the system. Cloud telephony, on the other hand, sends calls to a cloud PBX where call routing through a succession of switches allows them to reach the intended recipients.
If you are serious about using Microsoft Teams as your voice endpoint, you need to consider all the advantages of doing so in conjunction with RingCentral direct routing.
