Background
Established in 1993, AudioCodes is a leading vendor of advanced communications software, products and productivity solutions for the digital workplace. AudioCodes enables enterprises and service providers to build and operate all-IP voice networks for unified communications, contact centers, and hosted business services. The company offers a broad range of innovative products, solutions and services that are used by large multinational enterprises and leading tier-1 operators around the world.
For over 15 years, AudioCodes has been partnering with Microsoft to develop voice connectivity solutions for Microsoft’s unified communications offerings. This started with OCS and continued with Lync and Skype for Business (Server and Online), right up to today’s Teams solution. While the solutions AudioCodes developed were primarily aimed at serving its customers, the company also recognized early on the benefits of Microsoft UC and deployed it along with AudioCodes voice solutions at its offices around the world.
Challenges
At the beginning of 2020, AudioCodes employees were connected for the most part using Skype for Business, with some departments beginning to use Teams, especially for conference calls and collaboration. “We had deployed Skype for Business at our head office in Tel Aviv and at a number of smaller local offices using our all-in-one CloudBond solution,” explained Moshe Mizrachi, director of IT infrastructure at AudioCodes. “However, the growing number of remote users working in SoHo [small office, home office] environments posed a major challenge for telephony services as we could not provide them with DID direct numbering.” The upshot of this was that many calls to and from all parts of the world were being directed via AudioCodes’ main Skype for Business servers in Israel, opening the door for voice quality degradation and significantly racking up communications costs.
Challenges
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Migration to Teams UC with full voice calling services
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Rapid migration necessary in response to Covid-19 crisis
"Thanks to Microsoft Teams and AudioCodes Direct Routing SBCs, all our employees can now enjoy high quality voice and video calls, along with full collaboration with colleagues and external partners around the globe.”
Solution
Moshe realized that Teams could offer a simple solution to this problem. The combination of a cloud-based solution and the Teams Direct Routing feature meant that the physical location of any employee would not be a barrier to enjoying a full voice service with local DIDs. AudioCodes Mediant session border controllers are certified by Microsoft for Direct Routing so there would be no issues involved in getting the service up and running.
Moshe and his team had been planning a gradual company migration to Teams but then in March 2020 Covid-19 struck. Suddenly, the vast majority of AudioCodes’ staff found themselves working from home. Almost overnight, Teams became an essential tool for everyday work and it only made sense that it should also become the default platform for voice communications within the company.
Remarkably, Moshe, aided by his global IT team and the AudioCodes professional services organization, managed to plan and implement the migration of AudioCodes’ entire workforce – 900 users – to Teams voice calling within just two weeks! Using a combination of existing SBCs and some additional ones (including virtual devices deployed in the Azure public cloud), all AudioCodes employees now rely entirely on Teams for all their business communications and collaboration needs.
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Direct Routing SBCs for Microsoft Teams
AudioCodes Direct Routing SBCs offer flexible SIP connectivity for Microsoft Teams customers and service providers
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Results
According to Moshe Mizrachi, the whole migration project has been an overwhelming success. “Although we already had plans in place to migrate our users to Teams, the coronavirus crisis became a catalyst to speed up the process,” he explained. “Despite the short time frame, the results have been extremely positive. Thanks to Microsoft Teams and AudioCodes Direct Routing SBCs, all our employees can now enjoy high quality voice and video calls, along with full collaboration with colleagues and external partners around the globe.”
The winning combination of Teams and AudioCodes voice-enabling solutions has proved itself many times for AudioCodes’ customers. When the time came for AudioCodes to put its money where its mouth is and employ its own field-proven technology to improve its employees’ work experience, the company was not disappointed.
