07 May 2019

Francoise Boardman, senior product manager, global advanced VoIP services at Verizon

UK enterprises can now integrate with a Microsoft unified communications platform, thanks to a new collaboration service from Verizon Enterprise Solutions.

The collaboration service combines direct routing and SIP trunk connectivity and helps Verizon’s network customers embed their voice infrastructures in the Microsoft Teams platform. It is powered by Verizon’s session border control as a service (SBCaaS), the virtualised, the cloud-based service that reduces the need for organisations to invest in additional hardware.

Microsoft Teams is a unified communications platform that combines workplace chat, video meetings, file storage (including collaboration on files) and application integration. The service is built on Office365 Groups subscription office productivity suite and features extensions that can integrate with non-Microsoft products. The company recently announced that its Teams platform is now being used by 500,000 organisations worldwide including 91 companies in the Fortune 100.

Francoise Boardman, senior product manager, global advanced VoIP services at Verizon told Networking+ that the growth of workplace collaborations platforms has exploded in the last two years, particularly in countries such as the UK where employees often sit in disparate locations but need to be in constant communication.

“Additionally, implementing any type of unified communications solutions can often be a complex task due to the involvement of multiple vendors,” she said. “So, being able to integrate Verizon’s global IP Trunking capability with a Microsoft Teams environment is a logical extension and ensures that customers have a reliable voice-calling capability.”