The innovative approach to integrated comms, says IP Telecom’s Chamberlain
Skype for Business (SFB) is a corporate communications tool that has been used for internal messaging, conferencing, desktop sharing and voice calling. SFB is being retired soon, and all the communication functionality is being moved to Microsoft Teams. Our Skype for Business and Teams integration is designed to help companies communicate better by unifying the SFB experience with their corporate cloud IP Telecom Phone system.
Which problems does it address or solve?
In our experience, most companies that use SFB are also running a traditional phone system or VoIP/cloud PBX in tandem. But we have developed a game changer — it lets a company running SFB use the IP Telecom HostedPBX to route internal and external calls to their SFB clients. The company can also use traditional SIP endpoints.
Let us say Alice, on extension 100, has an SFB client on her desktop and mobile and also a traditional SIP device. If Bob calls Alice at extension 100, Alice’s SFB devices will ring as well as her desk phone. Our integration work unifies the company’s phone system with their SFB office 365. Unlike other solutions, very expensive session border controllers (SBC) are not required. “This is all done in the IP Telecom cloud. This is the only product of its type available in Ireland currently.
Why have you decided to do this?
Quite simply, customer demand. We have seen a gap where companies are using SFB and also doubling up with another system to look after their communications. We saw this, and our solution addresses this problem by allowing customers to unify SFB with their phone system to give rich unified communication experience all managed from within the IP Telecom Cloud PBX interface.
So, what is the trend in communications?
The trend is to go to the cloud. And our unique offering enables companies, which are using SFB or thinking about deploying it, to have a true cloud-based state of the art unified communication solution. It’s just so simple. Their phone system is linked directly to SFB and vice versa all managed in one place.
“The major benefit is to eliminate multiple different walled silos by using Skype for Business /Teams as a core part of a company’s cloud phone system. It’s a unique approach. It eliminates multiple clients on a PC or Mac. The end user receives and makes SFB calls and normal voice calls in the same client”
Who is your competition?
We’ve been providing Skype for Business PSTN connectivity since when companies were deploying LYNC on premises. We understand the strengths and weaknesses of the Microsoft communications suite, and with our many years of experience, no company is better placed to provide connectivity for SFB in Ireland. We were one of the first telecoms providers in Ireland to provide PSTN connectivity for the Office 365 Hosted edition of SFB. And this solution is custom built for Skype for Business and Teams. It is unique in Ireland.
Who can use this product and how does it work?
Any company currently using Office 365 with SFB, or just thinking about deploying it, can use our product. Technically, it’s very clever indeed. When a call arrives for a user that has an SFB device, as well as calling any SIP device we have, we also send the call into the IP Telecom cloud, where we craft a very special invite packet that is passed into Office 365 and routed to the SFB user. From the user’s perspective, it’s seamless, the call just arrives to whatever SFB client they are logged into plus any other SIP device that’s registered to their IP Telecom PBX. This works for direct calls, ring groups, call centre agents, forwarded calls or diverted calls. Any type of call that can be delivered to a traditional phone/VOIP endpoint is sent to the SFB user. The SFB user can also dial out, and we deliver these calls to the destination VIA the IP Telecom network. We’re very proud of this solution. And customer feedback has been amazing.
What are the top pains solved or gains delivered?
The major benefit is to eliminate multiple different walled silos by using SFB/Teams as a core part of a company’s cloud phone system. It’s a unique approach. It eliminates multiple clients on a PC or Mac. The end user receives and makes SFB calls and normal voice calls in the same client. If a company is using SFB already and needs a new phone system, we put in a new Cloud PBX and the customer can use their new system with their existing SFB Client. It allows IP Telecom customers to communicate better than their competition.
How will the product be used?
We have customers running their support queues — calls go into a queue and are sent to the agents in a rotation. When the call arrives at the agent, it’s delivered to their SFB client. The customers can get full call centre statistics, wallboards, all the features a high-end call centre demands, and the calls are ultimately being answered on the agent’s SFB clients.
Other customers are doing outbound call campaigns using their SFB clients and Microsoft Dynamics CRMS. They click to dial in Dynamics and the call begins in their SFB client.
Other customers are using SFB internationally across multiple countries, and they use the IP Telecom HostedPBX to manage call routing, IVRs, Time of Day based routing and all the other features of a high-end phone system to route calls to their SFB users.
Sound like the right choice for your company?
Get in touch now. Let’s see how we can help.
(01) 687 7777/solutions@iptelecom.ie
www.iptelecom.ie/skype-for-business-integration-with-hosted-pbx
Brian Chamberlain is CTO of IP Telecom
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