The popularity of Microsoft Teams has driven interest in Teams Direct Routing. Direct Routing is a cost-effective way for organizations to bring calling, via their existing PSTN, to Microsoft Teams.
How IT and Voice services have converged – the rise of UCaaS
In the last 12 months the convergence of IT and Telecoms has accelerated. Cloud technology, in particular UCaaS, has helped many adapt to Work-from-Anywhere. This shift in working, speeded by the pandemic, has helped make Unified Communications as-a-Service (UCaaS) one of the fastest-growing technology sectors.
UCaaS brings together voice, video, chat, file sharing within one platform. Breaking down information silos and improving collaboration.
One of the leading UCaaS solutions is Microsoft Teams. Microsoft, provide an interface for PSTN and PBX integration with Microsoft Teams. Meaning that voice and telco providers can participate in the UCaaS market, by bringing calling to Teams.
What is the demand for Microsoft Teams?
Teams is the fastest growing business app in Microsoft history. Microsoft Teams is a leader in the Gartner UCaaS and Meeting Solutions Magic Quadrants. According to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella “Microsoft Teams is on its way to becoming a digital platform as significant as the internet browser or a computer operating system.”
- Over 650,000 companies use a package that includes Teams (Source: Statista)
- Microsoft have 145 million daily active Teams users
- Estimates suggest that Microsoft Teams on its own generated around $6.8 billion in revenue during 2020. (Source: Business of Apps)
What is the demand for Teams Direct Routing?
- 70.4% of organizations adopting Microsoft Teams are using direct routing to connect to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN). (Source: Workplace Collaboration 2021 – 2022 Research Study)
- 4 times as many organizations are utilizing Teams direct routing vs. last year. (source: Stephens)
The Microsoft Teams UCaaS opportunity
The global unified communication-as-a-service (UCaaS) market is projected to expand at a CAGR of ~36% between 2019 and 2027. (Source: Transparency Research)
As of 2019, telephony represented 14.5% of the UCaaS market (Source: Fortune Business Insights).
85% of the world’s leading companies feel that APIs that extend business communications for both employees and customers are crucial to business growth. (Source: Nemertes)
For voice providers to compete in a market focussed on collaboration they need to evolve. The landscape means it is more about how to best support the end user business with their communications (across IT and voice) by providing a suite of unified solutions.
Before the pandemic, telecoms businesses had a relatively low growth profile but were extremely resilient. Now, with UCaaS taking the lead, voice providers need to consider how they participate. And Teams is a powerful UCaaS solution to have in your portfolio.