Direct Routing is a trending term in the communications world. But what does it mean?
For those who want to make the most out of their Microsoft Teams investments, direct routing could be a valuable asset. Direct Routing is just one of the ways that business leaders can expand their Teams solution by adding telephony or business voice.
As companies become more dispersed, and remote working grows more popular, direct routing has emerged as one of the easiest ways to strengthen the Teams environment.
Here’s what you need to know.
Microsoft Teams is the state-of-the-art UCaaS solution designed by Microsoft. A valuable component of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, Teams supports collaboration in the digital workplace. Through Teams, employees can share files, work together on projects, discuss ideas via instant messaging and more. Teams even has conferencing solutions in place for audio and video meetings.
To transform Microsoft Teams into a full UCaaS solution, Microsoft even introduced a Business Phone offering. The cloud calling solution from Microsoft Teams ensures that users can handle incoming and outgoing business calls in the same app they use to connect with colleagues. You can unlock features like auto-attendant, cloud voicemail, and call queues, but many companies still feel that voice direct from Microsoft Teams isn’t enough.
Microsoft isn’t a communications vendor, and its business phone offerings aren’t designed to offer the same advanced solutions that you get from your current provider. That’s why Microsoft introduced another way for companies to implement calling into their Teams stack: direct routing.
Direct routing is a convenient way for companies to add business phone technology to their Teams environment. With this strategy, you can use Teams with your existing phone provider. This ensures that you get all the benefits of a Teams UCaaS solution, with the advanced phone solutions that you need for your organization.
To use Microsoft Teams for your business telephony solution, you’ll need two things (besides your Microsoft Teams subscription):
With Microsoft calling plans, there’s no need to work with any vendor other than Microsoft. You can choose domestic calling plans, or domestic and international plans, depending on your business. These offerings can be a quick and easy way for smaller companies to connect to the PSTN network.
There are a few drawbacks to the calling plan route, however. For instance, international coverage is limited, as Microsoft calling plans are only available for 16 countries. You may also find that the calling plans provided by Microsoft are a little expensive for your needs. This is particularly problematic when you consider that there’s limited customer support available too. If you lack any internal resources to help with managing your communication stack, you may need to pay for professional support.
Calling plans and technology from Microsoft Teams are constantly improving as the UCaaS offering evolves. However, there are still many companies that would prefer to take the alternative path: direct routing. Direct routing is another convenient way to link your phone system on Microsoft to the PSTN through a third-party telephony provider.
Your existing telephony vendor could offer the cloud infrastructure required to route incoming and outgoing calls through Teams. Currently, around 90% of large enterprises using Teams are predicted to use direct routing for telephony.
Direct routing is an appealing option for customers because it offers greater flexibility, more geographic coverage, and increased support from a dedicated communication provider. You can choose the vendor that suits you and create a tailored solution to suit your needs. In some cases, direct routing can also be more affordable, particularly if you have a global network.
Managed service providers offering direct routing will often support employees and teams that need help getting up-to-speed with their Teams UCaaS solution. If you need more assistance for your network, then this may be the choice for you.
So, how exactly does Direct Routing work?
A direct routing provider can combine your Teams calling system to the PSTN using two components: SIP trunks, and a Session Border Controller (SBC).
SIP Trunks are the tech that form connections between the internet, the business phone system, and your traditional PSTN environment. A crucial component of connecting your PBX to the PSTN, successful SIP trunking is essential to creating an all-in-one hosted communication system.
Your SBC, or Session Border Controller, is the border between various networks that support the proper movement of data. The SBC also provides a layer of protection and security against breaches and attacks in the communication landscape. SBC technology used to be hosted on the premise of the company using the service. However, increasingly, it’s becoming possible to access SBC technology in the cloud for greater flexibility.
The way you set up your Teams direct routing solution will depend on the needs of your business. If you’re using Microsoft Teams already, or you’re switching to Teams from Skype for Business, the process will be a little different from when you start from scratch.
Usually, the direct routing process goes as follows:
When implementing Microsoft Teams Direct Routing for your employees, it may be useful to introduce a few first-adopter employees to the environment before you roll the service out to everyone. An initial stage of “beta testing” could help you to pinpoint any issues that you need to address before everyone gets online.
Direct routing is usually the primary choice for organizations that want to use Microsoft Teams as a PBX, but also need more flexibility than they can get with the standard Microsoft calling plans. You may be well-suited to direct routing if you’re:
Through Microsoft Teams direct routing, you can combine the internal and external communications systems in your business into one single pane of glass. You get to choose your own provider, so you get full control over your PBX. You can save cash on upfront and long-term fees and work with a dedicated communications company that can offer specialist support.
Direct routing is one of the most exciting parts of the Microsoft Teams ecosystem today. As millions of companies continue to digitally transform for the new age of work, direct routing provides easy access to a comprehensive Microsoft UCaaS environment. With Microsoft Teams direct routing solutions from a trusted provider, you can build the right communication stack for your team, without compromising on performance, functionality, or security.
Direct routing might not be the only way to give a voice to Microsoft Teams, but it’s certainly one of the most popular choices. Maybe it’s time you started to consider whether direct routing is the right strategy for you?