Ribbon Communications launches Microsoft Teams calling in ANZ

Communications and networking company Ribbon Communications has unveiled its first Microsoft Teams calling solution in Australia and New Zealand.

Dubbed Ribbon Connect for Microsoft Teams Direct Routing, the service is targeted at resellers and MSPs focussed on the SMB and mid-market sectors.

The company’s SVP for ANZ Robert Inshaw told CRN that the company was looking to focus more on its skilled partners targeting enterprise and government, and the solution allowed the vendor to serve the broader mid-market and SMB-focussed partner community.

“Connect enables us to service partners that potentially aren't going after such big enterprises because it's so easy to onboard and the level of commitment required from them in terms of their listening capital and training in using the services is very low,” he said.

Ribbon said the solution includes integration options that allow it to work in concert with existing PBX/phone systems and contact centres. This enables users to operate some elements of a legacy system in parallel with Teams, allowing them to manage existing investments or business processes until they are migrated.

The service runs in Microsoft Azure, includes a fully automated deployment process and is delivered on a per-user consumption basis.

Ribbon channel chief Manny Christophidis told CRN the company had streamlined the onboarding and provisioning process for partners so they could be more effective and quicker to market.

“We've taken an industry leading SPC (public connectivity system) that's been in the Australian market for the last 20 plus years. We understand all the PBX have probably been installed in Australia and New Zealand over this period, as well as great carrier relationships with all the big tier one telcos.”

“We've taken this industry, best practice solution, wrapped it up into an optics model, put a very simple, stylized GUI on the front of it, and then we're able to push this out to our channel partners to be more effective and more targeted to that top part of the market.

“Obviously, being able to crank the Microsoft machine that's already cranking due to the COVID and working from home needs. We'll be able to empower all our partners, and partners as well to say that haven’t traditionally sold voice to be able to be selling and effective in this market.”