MS TEAMS - DIRECT ROUTING

[finest]

Has anyone successfully set this up?
Any notes, caveat, or comments on setting this up?
Does the customer actually use this/do they like this?
Has anyone implemented both the Avaya Calling / Teams and Direct Routing - pros and cons of each?
My Customer is considering implementing Microsoft Teams - and they would also integrate it with IPO SE using Direct Routing.
They do not like the Avaya Workplace app particularly - its not a great UI and takes forever to connect on the first call of the day or after a long period of non-use
The main thing we’d like to figure out the feedback from both installers and users on using teams with a direct connect

 

[Wanet Telecoms Ltd]

I am using TEAMS with KX-TDA200 without any issues.
The customer had soo many analog phones on the KX-TDA200 and were not willing to overhaul yet want to use teams.
So i intergrated the KX-TDA200 to FreePBX using PRI interfaces on both systems.
The FreePBX is then intergrated to teams. The call routing between TEAMS and KX-TDA200 is done by FreePBX.

Most customers in my city have gotten rid of Panasonic, Avaya, Alcatel, Ericksson generally most proprietary PBXs.

 

[John Tel]

We have a customer whose corporate is pushing Teams and Teams phones. The customer is wanting a new on-prem IPO coming from old Nortel Option 11 installed in the early 90’s. Due to internet outages and integrations with their Emergency Notification System (Valcom) tied into building systems detecting equipment, they choose to not have a cloud system or cloud oriented phone system. Most times the internet is out is when they have building emergencies and need to use the phones and paging. Therefore they will be using Avaya calling to tie Teams into the IPO’s ability. I agree that Workplace lacks in a few ways but to click on a number within Teams and the call gets placed out of the desk phone puts Workplace in the background in a way. They can also get away with only an E3 MS license. I’ve unfortunately not had opportunity to install either way but this is a scenario.

 

[IPOriface]

We've used AudioCodes Mediant SBC's (appliance and virtualised) and it's been smooth experience. SIP Trunk registers on SBC then forks to Teams & Avaya (either IP500 or SE). Users can make/receive calls on their Teams app or on their Avaya endpoint. It's been a good way for customers who aren't 100% sure about Teams to transition on a use-case basis rather than cutting the entire site over in one hit.

The only painful bit (that I can remember) is if a call is answered on an Avaya handset, transferring to a Teams endpoint is fiddly (especially if the user also has an Avaya endpoint). Kinda need mobility twinning but to Teams instead of a mobile (or as well, typical customers always asking for more features lol). We may have solved this and I've forgotten, but if anyone else has experience to share re this, that'd be great.

The SBC can be deployed in HA and configured for failover to secondary site in the event the primary is unreachable. For what they cost, it's a very reasonable way to have a pretty bulletproof setup.

 

[Geordie12567]

We migrated a large Cisco on premise system to Teams via OPerator Connect. Simple and low cost initial setup, very easy to manage. E911 implementation simple. Adding alanogs easy also

 

[Westi]

My old company has had several customers that simply had a SIP trunk to Teams and then routed via shortcodes to the Teams extensions to get calls there. No SBC, simply a router/firewall and an IP trunk in the IP Office.

 

[finest]

I would imagine this provided only a simple integration basically forwarding calls that were meant for teams users to them rather than the full experience of having both a IP office phone ringing at the same time as a teams extension.

 

[Westi]

That is correct
usually the Teams extension was set as mobile twinning target to get the calls on both at the same time.

 

[finest]

How are you able to have a sip trunk to Teams without going through all the integration session board controller etc