The pandemic and the move to working from home sped up the multinational’s digital transformation plans. With 30,000 plus users working remotely across 370 sites in 130 countries, the multinational needed a global, secure, cost-effective collaboration infrastructure as quickly as possible.
Demands did not stop there. The system needed to provide voice and video so that colleagues could interact anywhere in the world and replace its Global Cisco IPT legacy telephony. This all needed to be integrated into its Microsoft Teams deployment.
The multinational opted to work with long-term partner Orange Business based on its track record, flexibility and integration expertise. The project involved extremely close collaboration between Orange, our partner AudioCodes, and the multinational – pivotal to making the ambitious migration plans work.
AudioCodes provided design, logistics and configuration and had a project manager and configuration engineer working alongside Orange Business to maximize efficiencies.
The cloud-based solution was delivered in just 18 months with no escalations. This equates to migrating one site per day. This was extremely challenging given the equipment-delivery hurdles that the pandemic put up. Three key elements were essential to making this migration work: solution availability, collaboration and on-time delivery.
Without this strong relationship between all of the parties, it would have been impossible to hit the ambitious targets, alongside solid integration, strict governance and a robust technical solution.
Unifying communications to improve productivity
For enterprises with Microsoft Teams, enterprise voice allows enterprises to use Teams as the organizations’ phone system, with users able to make and receive calls from within the platform. It includes features such as call routing, call control and voicemail capabilities.
The full solution was provided by Orange Business, including automation and data quality assurance, with AudioCodes providing hardware delivery and onsite implementation. Orange Business was also responsible for building automation into the multinational’s Microsoft Azure environment.
The core service includes Teams Direct Routing connectivity, Microsoft tenant management and user lifecycle management.
SIP trunking to reduce costs
Direct routing enables the multinational to use Microsoft Teams as a true unified communications platform, managing inbound and outbound calls the same as a traditional PBX system. This approach provides greater flexibility and cheaper call rates. Direct routing connects Microsoft Teams to the public switched telephone network (PTSN) using Orange Business SIP trunks to provision voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) connectivity.
One of the big advantages of using SIP trunking for the multinational is its ability to significantly reduce telephone bills. By using the Internet instead of telephone lines, it does not have to pay line rental charges, for example, or hefty long-distance charges.
A flexible, cloud-based phone system
The integrated solution has enabled the multinational’s workforce to make and receive calls from Microsoft Teams, regardless of device or location, securely and in compliance with complex country regulations.
As well as reducing costs, the solution has provided a simplified environment that is easier to manage and monitor. Its flexibility and scalability have had a positive outcome on overall productivity.
The success of the project highlights how teamwork can make the dream work.