Globally, Microsoft (News - Alert) Teams has 280 million monthly active users (according to Microsoft) but only 30% of them are active Teams Phone (News - Alert) users and an even smaller percentage use PSTN. This presents a significant market opportunity for CSPs to develop their "with Teams" and “for Teams” strategies and to take advantage of the expanding Microsoft Teams ecosystem.
In comes a hurdle for CSPs, however. Many of them struggle with the complexities and hidden costs of setting up telephony for Microsoft Teams via Direct Routing or Operator Connect. Most of the time, they are forced to employ a third-party Microsoft partner to manage a Teams integration on their behalf.
Sheesh. Talk about being complex, especially with Teams being so frequently used worldwide.
As a way to overcome those complexities, Alianza has introduced Alianza for Microsoft Teams, a new solution that gives service providers a robust cloud PBX (News - Alert) voice solution for Microsoft Teams.
Think of the documentation that is offered to enable Direct Routing. At that point, users must be experts to get anywhere close to figuring it out. Alianza (News - Alert)'s turnkey, voice-enabled Teams integration goes beyond Direct Routing to simplify the heavy technical and administrative complexities of implementing Direct Routing.
The Alianza for Microsoft Teams solution offers a range of features, including unprecedented automation, robust PBX feature set, top PSTN coverage, extensive CPE interoperability, faster time-to-market, administrative ease and enhanced security.
One of the key highlights of Alianza for Microsoft Teams is the unprecedented automation that allows CSPs to add licenses and sync in just two simple steps. The solution simplifies Direct Routing for PSTN and PBX provisioning, eliminating the heavy technical lift for CSPs.
With comprehensive calling features, the Alianza solution (enabled and set up in minutes) supports knowledge workers who live and breathe Teams, while continuing to support non-Teams users within the organization who are primarily reliant on traditional telephony functionality and devices.
Alianza for Microsoft Teams, with its PSTN coverage, ensures that CSPs provide telephone numbers wherever their Teams users are located. The solution also supports various SIP endpoints, ranging from IP phones to high-density analog gateways, including devices from Cisco (News - Alert), Yealink, and Poly, empowering CSPs with the ability to deploy the right devices for their customers.
For those wondering if the solution is secure, end-to-end encryption of signaling and media is enforced between the integration and Microsoft 365. Additionally, administrative access is controlled by Azure/Microsoft 365 single sign-on, ensuring that no user credentials are stored by the portal.
“Alianza for Microsoft Teams is another example of how Alianza innovates to help CSPs grow their cloud communications portfolio and capitalize on large revenue opportunities and radically simplify voice and UC deployment at scale," said Dag Peak, Chief Product Officer at Alianza. "Service providers can leverage Microsoft Teams' popularity, market share and extensive customer base by using Alianza for Microsoft Teams as the ideal, voice integration solution."
No doubt, with its extensive features and benefits, Alianza for Microsoft Teams is set to be a game-changer in the cloud-based voice platform market. The solution better positions CSPs to deliver an enterprise-grade, feature-rich and administratively easy solution to their end users.
Edited by
Alex Passett
