Switch Connect, an Australia-based Enterprise Unified Communications and Managed Services provider recently announced it has joined Microsoft’s (News - Alert) Operator Connect program and is now offering a premium set of Teams services.

The announcement came just as Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, announced during an earnings with investors that Operator Connect grew by a factor of 8 in their third quarter.  

Introduced last year, Operator Connect gives businesses a more straightforward way than Direct Routing to plug third-party voice services into Microsoft Teams.

The number of calls made through the service has increased as Microsoft has accredited more carriers, with growth expected to continue with a new program, Operator Connect Accelerator.

Nadella was speaking as Microsoft reported another quarter of impressive growth, with sales rising 18 percent year over year to nearly $50 billion.

The CEO also noted that Teams’ spectacular growth is continuing, with expansion in every segment, from SMBs to large global enterprises, stating new “growth engines” are being rolled out to meet the demands of hybrid work, with Teams Rooms, Teams Phone (News - Alert), and Microsoft Viva.

Switch Connect is one of the region’s early adopters of Operator Connect, having worked closely with its technology partner, Ribbon, to launch the solution in record time. Switch Connect is the first service provider in the world to use the new Ribbon Connect for Operator Connect solution.

This innovative solution simplifies the required steps service providers need to join the Operator Connect program, reducing the cost and complexity of integration while accelerating deployment timelines from months to weeks.

“Operator Connect partners like Switch Connect are leading the way in making it easy for businesses to acquire and manage telecom services for Microsoft Team,” said Taimoor Husain, Modern Workplace Strategy and GTM Lead, Telcos at Microsoft.

The addition of Operator Connect extends Switch Connect’s extensive Microsoft Teams product portfolio, offering an organization of any size a simpler and more engaging way to add telecom services to their Microsoft Teams instances.

“We’re pleased to add Switch Connect to our roster of Operator Connect providers serving Australia and New Zealand,” said Taimoor Husain, Modern Workplace Strategy and GTM Lead, Telcos at Microsoft. “Operator Connect partners like Switch Connect are leading the way in making it easy for businesses to acquire and manage telecom services for Microsoft Team. They are helping us deliver the anywhere access that today’s hybrid workers need to stay connected and productive.”

“Switch Connect is a trusted, innovative partner for Ribbon and one of the first in the region to embrace Microsoft solutions. By leveraging our modern digital engagement platform, Switch Connect continues to recognize the changing nature of communications and deliver services that are designed to meet today’s IT organizations’ needs,” said Rob Inshaw, SVP Asia, Ribbon.

Organizations will now be able to select Switch Connect as their telecom provider directly from the Teams Admin Centre. Once selected, Switch Connect will provide a simple to follow digital engagement model that makes it easy for customers to get pricing, sign up for services and connect their Teams users, enabling them to make and receive calls from anywhere using the Teams desktop and mobile clients. The solution makes it easy for IT staff to instantly extend the value of their Teams deployments.

With more than 270 million daily active users, Microsoft Teams has become the collaboration platform of choice for businesses as they redefine what the modern workplace looks like and deliver hybrid working options to their staff.

Switch Connect offers a portfolio of solutions that extends Teams calling services to include Voice Analytics, Compliancy Recording, Paging and digital signage integration, and native Teams Contact Center offerings.