In an exciting new industry development, Blue Saffron Limited (BSL) has secured one of the very first test licenses issued for Direct Routing for Teams in the UK.

Whilst the rich functionality of Teams is prompting many Enterprises to adapt their working practices, configuring “out of the box” Teams to secure strong productivity gains can be challenging. Integrating the telephony facilities that organisations need – through Direct Routing – adds another layer of complexity to a Teams deployment.

Blue Saffron is using their Direct Routing test licence to investigate and clarify the best practice methods for incorporating PSTN telephony into a Teams working environment.

 

Enterprises need Direct routing

Last year, Microsoft announced that Direct Routing for Teams was to be made more generally available. This is good news in light of two recent announcements; the withdrawal of sale of Skype for Business Plan 1 and the retirement of Skype for Business Online in July 2021.

Enterprises need Direct Routing to connect them to the PSTN so that they can access the telephony facilities they rely on within a Teams deployment.  As delivered, there are fewer voice features in Teams than in Skype for Business and this will be the case for the foreseeable future. As a consequence, organisations looking to take advantage of the whole Teams portfolio should be taking a holistic view of how they communicate internally, and  consider incorporating Direct Routing in the initial design of their Teams roll-outs. Blue Saffron’s CEO, Neal Robinson, comments “Teams is an important product for workforce productivity improvement. But, as with any technology, its real power is in how it is configured, deployed and tailored to how an organisation does business. Blue Saffron’s raison d’être is to help Enterprises improve their productivity with technology. That’s why we wanted to be one of the first Managed IT providers to secure a Direct Routing test licence”.

Efficiency in communication and collaboration

More and more businesses are moving to cloud services, particularly organisations who are already using Microsoft Office 365. The new Direct Routing licence allows Blue Saffron to determine how companies can be more productive by integrating telephony into Teams so that call functions are merged properly with the associated collaboration facilities.

As pioneers of productivity, Blue Saffron will utilise one of these first licences to research and experiment to see how enterprises can get the best productivity gains from Teams with Direct Routing; armed with this knowledge they will be able to service their customers and partners more efficiently and effectively.

 

Productivity benefits of Direct Routing

– Employees can make and receive calls to and from existing PSTN/SIP connectivity

– Businesses can achieve a seamless migration between Teams and the legacy PBX estate, including Skype for Business.

– Businesses can decommission their PBX estate and any other unwanted legacy PSTN circuits