Making the Call: Microsoft Teams Direct Routing for Voice

One of the fastest growing collaboration products in the world is Microsoft Teams. Today businesses and organizations are using Microsoft Teams for meetings, document management and sharing, and communication. While Microsoft Teams has proven that it is a great option for other forms of communication, it is beginning to prove to be a reliable option for voice.

For those who need voice systems, they need a solution that will be able to fulfill their analog needs and requirements. One of the features that Microsoft Teams has that can encourage more organizations to adopt Microsoft Teams is Direct Routing. 

What is Direct Routing?

When discussing Direct Routing, we are referring to the process of routing Microsoft Teams to the traditional phone network. While Microsoft Teams is mainly used as an effective and efficient internal communication platform, it has the proven ability to be set up as a phone system through Direct Routing.

When you receive an incoming call, the Session Border Controller will mediate a session with the Microsoft Phone System. Next, the session will go through to the client using Microsoft Teams and then to the intended user. When an outgoing call needs to be made, it is will also go through to the Session Border Controller. 

Direct Routing allows organizations to connect Microsoft Teams to a variety of voice providers. When using Direct Routing, your organization will be able to experience reduced call rates and increased flexibility. Direct Routing is also beneficial for users who are still under contract with a traditional phone network. For the organizations that are still with a voice provider, using Teams will not be viewed as a violation of the contract. 

For many businesses and organizations, the factors that appealed to them the most about the direct routing platform were the flexibility in choosing a provider and being able to use the phone system features that Teams offers.

How Can Direct Routing Expand Our Capabilities?

Direct routing can expand the capabilities of your employees by providing or allowing the following:

• Integration with analog devices, a third-party PBX, and phone systems from Microsoft
• Allowing you to migrate users in groups from one system to another
• Providing a DID per user
• The ability to be used when calling plans are not readily available
• The ability to use it in combination with a calling plan

Who Can Use Direct Routing?

Direct Routing has been designed for any business or organization that wants to use Microsoft Teams as their phone system. If you want to invest in Microsoft Teams as your platform for internal communications, you can easily use Teams for your external communication matters. When using Teams for internal and external communication, you can have better integration between your systems because you may longer find a need for a separate PBX.

If your business or organization has a small IT staff or no IT staff, this does not mean you cannot benefit from Direct Routing. Businesses and organizations without their own experienced IT staff can still consider using Teams as a phone system because of the level of support they will have. Microsoft partners and providers are available to help you effectively manage the solution. You can still get the most out of Teams even if you have a limited IT staff.

If you have tried using a Microsoft calling plan, you probably realized that it is not as flexible as you needed it to be. There are guidelines that need to be followed when using a Microsoft calling plan. However, Direct Routing gives you the flexibility you need because you can make an incredible amount of outbound calls, including to international phone numbers. 

Microsoft Teams Direct Routing for Voice provides an outstanding number of benefits. We understand that using Teams as a phone system is a major step for any business, but using Direct Routing for voice will allow you to have a full Unified Communications (UC) tool. In order for you to enjoy the benefits of Direct Routing, you will need to know if it can work for your business - click below for a free demo: