Call from Teams

After a long time, came the shift in landline telephony usage. The change is big, but not complex, in fact, it will simplify usage and change the way the landline is perceived – it's gone! Microsoft Teams is here!

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Starting point – why did we decide to implement it?

Combis has successfully cooperated with Microsoft for a number of years, continuously expanding its portfolio of services and solutions based on Microsoft technology, and when Microsoft announced an extension of the functionality of the Teams platform called Direct Routing, which enables calls from Teams, the team of Combis’ experts working on solutions for unified communication immediately became interested in the service and started studying all the functionalities of the solution.

The best way to get to know a solution in depth and all the advantages that the implementation of such a solution entails is an internal application, the so-called ‘in-house’ experience, especially if it is a complex implementation that requires continuous feedback from colleagues that work with the solution.

MS Teams, as a collaboration tool, has been actively used within Combis for several years, and this upgrade is an opportunity for Teams to further evolve and assume the role of a complete solution for unified communication.

All reasons for implementation are on the table, the decision has been made, what to do next?

Some of the initial prerequisites for implementation within Combis were:

certified Session Border Controller (SBC) by Microsoft
SIP trunk with telephone service provider
physical infrastructure that includes:
- sufficient data center resources
- firewall
- quality of service at the network level
configuration of MS Teams in O365
service monitoring and redundancy

The initial situation we found in Combis was:

300 phone numbers/phone connections…
MS Skype for Business and Cisco Call Manager
A combination of E5 and E3 Microsoft licenses

Implementation in 5 steps:

Configuration of MS Teams in O365
Firewall configuration for SBC connectivity with the MS Teams cloud service
Installation of Oracle SBC and configuration for receiving SIP trunks from telecommunication service providers
Connecting SBC to MS Teams tenant
Detailed testing and troubleshooting

Challenges are there to be overcome

After successfully establishing the first call to a fixed line, the team of experts who worked on the implementation were not fully satisfied with some functionalities, such as putting the interlocutor on hold, transfer to another number, redirection….

“The problems we encountered were diverse, from call dropouts during transfer, one-way audibility during call transfer, call return from waiting, incorrect presentation of the calling number, call drop when establishing a teleconference, ….

Each of the above and other minor problems after a mass implementation can become a major problem and the user can very quickly lose the will to use the service, which would decrease the effort invested and create doubt that it is possible to implement the service with quality. We knew that we had to eliminate all the problems and overcome all the challenges. Our goal was to make every aspect of landline telephony work perfectly,” said Darijo Puntarić, an engineer who worked on the project, and added: “After a long period of solving even the smallest problems, we could finally say – it works! We can start mass implementation!”

Did you know?

Until now, such implementations required having their own infrastructure, which many companies were reluctant to do because the implementation costs did not stop at the costs of equipment and services of a system integrator, but also included the costs of hosting the infrastructure in a data center. With the CALL FROM TEAMS service, there is no need to own your own infrastructure!

Still having doubts?

Maybe you are not ready to completely switch to MS Teams and still want to keep your own PBX infrastructure for part of your business? No worries, our solution allows you to connect your existing PBX system to the MS Teams platform for voice communication and calls.

We work with more than 500 satisfied customers.

We tailor solutions to fit your needs.