INTERVIEW
THE ROAD TO TEAMS
Microsoft released Offi ce
Communicator and launched it in
October 2007. It was followed by Offi ce
Communicator 2007 R2 in March 2009.
The company released the successor to
Offi ce Communicator, Lync 2010, in January 2011.
Lync 2010 was succeeded by Lync and Lync Server 2013, which were
both released in 2012.
In November 2014, Microsoft announced that Lync would be replaced
by Skype for Business in 2015, which would combine features of Lync and
the consumer Skype software. In April 2015, Microsoft offi cially launched
Skype for Business and in September 2015, Skype for Business 2016
was released alongside Offi ce 2016. On 27 October 2016, the Skype for
Business for Mac client was released.
By September 2017, users began noticing a message that stated
‘Skype for Business is now Microsoft Teams’. This was confi rmed on 25
September 2017, at Microsoft’s annual Ignite conference.
This January Microsoft announced the rebranding of its Skype Room
Systems product line of partner-built videoconferencing and meeting
room devices, which are now called ‘Microsoft Teams Rooms’.
Green this option is “Rather
expensive, calling minutes are
limited – as are international
dialling destinations, but it has
the bene t of Microsoft doing
everything.
Secondly, you can chose
to have Direct Connection.
is involves having SIP
trunks provided by a Microsoft
compliant vendor which enables
Teams to be connected to the
PSTN via your service provider.
Green says that it’s “early
days’ for this solution in the UK
as there are very few compliant
suppliers but with the promise
that more suppliers will be
joining up.
365 – The Magic Bullet
In this long game Microsoft
has some major advantages – it
has O ce 365 which has a 9%
market penetration amongst
SMEs but a far more signi cant
30% penetration in the midmarket.
Yes, I know this is the
same/similar argument trotted
out for Microsoft Lync and
O ce, but the advantage now
has been augmented by the fact
that Microsoft recent made the
client available free of charge.
Additionally, users of Skype
for Business with less than
500 seats will be automatically
‘transferred to Microsoft Teams
– sorry, I meant to say they will
be ‘encouraged’ to transfer to
Teams plus Voice.
“Look,” says Lucy Green,
“Microsoft is not a telco so this
represents a huge opportunity
for the channel. ese are the
apps that users want, the users
want to buy from a reseller and
the resellers are voice experts.
is will change the way
business buys voice services
and will therefore open up the
opportunity for resellers to sell
Teams at the same time.”
At the same time Green
cautions the channel by saying,
“With more and more click to
dial and calling via applications,
phone numbers are becoming
increasing less important and
therefore telecom specialisms are
being hidden. So this is also a
threat to telecom resellers whilst
also being an opportunity for IT
based resellers.
The Reseller
Charles Ricketts is founder and
Managing Director of Swindon
based communications service
provider V12 Telecom and
bizarrely was once my home ISP
about a dozen years ago.
V12 is a Microsoft voice
compliant provider who o ers
12, 24 and 36 month voice
contracts for Teams users
who want to enable voice.
e company also specialise
in providing the same service
to Teams users with global
footprints as well as a range of
services based upon the Jola
portfolio.
Rickets says that the session
border controllers (SBCs)
they use from Audiocodes
are Microsoft Teams voice
compliant for the Direct
Connection option to over 150
countries.
So how much does the voice
service cost?
Well, Rickets has a number
of options and cost will be
somewhat related to the length
of the contract term but, he will
add voice to Teams for £8.00
per user per month which will
include unlimited UK calls,
International call plans will
be more expensive but cheaper
than the Microsoft Call Plan
which works out at £9.10 per
user per month for UK calls and
£18.10 per user per month for
international option.
According to Rickets,
Microsoft would really like to
bundle all this up and replace
the entire global installed base
of PBX systems and hosted
Telephone solutions out there.
Hesitantly, I had to ask the
legacy, old school question,
“So, err, what handsets are you
providing for voice enabled
Teams applications then?”
Apparently there is but one
handset approved and that is
from Yealink. But, says Rickets,
“Do people still require handsets
on the desktop?’”
When he says that handset
user are becoming the ‘minority
and not the herd’ I can see where
he’s coming from but believe
there’s still quite a ways to go
with that synopsis.
©Andrey Popov-stock.adobe.com
16 | IP Telephony 2019 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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