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How Service Providers Can
Rapidly Onboard Customers
to Microsoft Teams Phone

Introduction
Microsoft Teams has become the world's leading unified communications and enterprise voice calling

platform, with over 320 million active users as of the third quarter of 20231. As a result, service providers
worldwide quite rightly regard the SMB/SME UCaaS market as a key revenue engine and are keen toexpand their range of offerings to enable them to migrate these customers to Microsoft Teams Phone
quickly and easily.

In this document, we will lay out guidelines to help service providers successfully onboard SMB
customers to a hosted Teams Phone service.

Service providers worldwide quite rightly regard the SMB/

SME UCaaS market as a key revenue engine and are keen toexpand their range of offerings.

Mapping Out the Customer Migration Journey
When transitioning to Microsoft Teams Phone, it is necessary to take a variety of considerations intoaccount, which can generally be broken down into Day 1 and Day 2 categories.

Day 1Day 1 considerations revolve around migration and onboarding, and include:•2Choosing the most suitable PSTN connectivity method. There are three ways to do this, eachwith its own advantages and disadvantages:•Microsoft Calling Plans allows for making and receiving calls directly from Teams, but
may not be the most cost-effective option. In addition, Calling Plans is not available inall geographic regions.

•Direct Routing uses a Microsoft-certified session border controller to mediate between
your current provider and Teams, offering more flexibility and cost savings. It also
simplifies the integration of legacy voice and contact center platforms with Teams.

•Operator Connect lets customers choose their preferred operator from a list ofqualified providers, but has less flexibility in terms of interoperability and customization.
How Service Providers Can Rapidly Onboard Customers to Microsoft Teams Phone

•

Integrating with the customer’s existing voice services and applications. Providers should
undertake a discovery and assessment process with the customer, which includes:•A full appraisal of all locations in multi-region and multi-site organizations.

•Taking an inventory of existing analog devices and SIP phones that the customer may
wish to retain.

•Examining how to integrate existing PBXs, contact centers and conversational IVRplatforms with Microsoft Teams Phone.

•Conducting a thorough survey of the customer’s communications requirements, suchas device needs for meeting rooms and individual use.

•Ensuring site resiliency and security to minimize downtime and maximize productivity.

•

Carefully planning the entire implementation and migration process from start tofinish.

Day 2Day 2 considerations are centered on operation and management, and include:•User management (MACD) and voice quality monitoring.

•IT staff and user training.

•Periodical analytics and reporting.

•Providing customer support.

When transitioning to Microsoft Teams Phone, it is necessary

to take a variety of considerations into account, which cangenerally be broken down into Day 1 and Day 2 categories.

3How Service Providers Can Rapidly Onboard Customers to Microsoft Teams Phone

The Challenge for Service Providers
Service providers can help customers to streamline their deployment and simplify the migration

process. However, many of them face Day 1 and Day 2 challenges around onboarding their small andmedium-sized customers in a cost-effective way. As a service provider, it is vital for you to ensure asmooth and quick onboarding process, that can be scaled up rapidly, so that you can start generating
revenues from as many customers as possible in the shortest amount of time.

As a service provider, it is vital for you to ensure a smooth and quick
onboarding process, that can be scaled up rapidly, so that you canstart generating revenues from as many customers as possible in theshortest amount of time.
These challenges include defining go-to-market strategy and various technical aspects. On thetechnical side, onboarding involves two main processes:••4Pre-onboarding and connecting to the customer’s Teams tenant:•Collecting the required information from the customer’s current telephony
infrastructure.

•Planning how to configure the multi-tenant SBC and Microsoft Teams.

•Connecting to the customer’s Microsoft 365 tenant and setting up the connection
between the tenant and the SIP trunk.

•Onboarding the tenant, which requires the service provider to maintain a multi-tenant
environment or a dedicated environment per customer.

Post-onboarding, including assigning user policies and phone numbers, managing global
tenant policies and enabling add-on apps like conversational IVR and contact center:•Setting up users and number assignment, which requires creating user accounts,
assigning phone numbers and configuring policies and dial plans.

•In many cases, service providers prefer to avoid handling the above steps, instead
asking the customer to perform them themselves. This can significantly delay the time
to revenue since SME and SMB customers do not usually have the necessary technicalknow-how.

•Provisioning user devices, which requires deploying compatible devices for each user
as seamlessly as possible.

How Service Providers Can Rapidly Onboard Customers to Microsoft Teams PhoneThese steps can be time-consuming, complex and costly, especially if you have to manage multiple
customers with different needs and preferences. Moreover, some customers may need analog
gateways, desk phones or Microsoft Teams Rooms devices, while others may have existing analog
gateways or desk phones that they would like to continue to use with Teams. This can add anotherlayer of complexity to the migration process

Before You Start Onboarding
Before you begin the onboarding process, you need to discuss some important aspects with yourcustomer, such as their business goals, communication needs and existing infrastructure. This will help
you to adjust the solution to meet their requirements and expectations.
One of the key topics to cover is customer discovery. This involves:•Understanding the customer’s current voice solution and network.

•Determining the required device capabilities for each user persona.

•Evaluating number portability options.

Number portability is the process of transferring existing phone numbers from one service provider toanother. This is essential for customers who want to keep their current numbers when they switch toTeams, as it ensures continuity of service and minimizes disruption. Number portability also involves
technical and (in many cases) regulatory aspects, such as verifying the eligibility of the numbers,
submitting the required documentation, coordinating with the losing carrier and resolving any issues
that may arise during the porting process.
You also need to determine how many devices and what types of devices your customer needs
for their Teams deployment. Devices can include IP phones, headsets, meeting room devices likespeakerphones and webcams, and other peripherals that enhance the user experience and enabledifferent modes of communication. Depending on the customer’s preferences and budget, you canoffer them a range of device options. You also need to consider whether the customer wants tocontinue using their existing devices and, if so, whether they are compatible with Teams and how they
can be integrated with the solution.
Another type of device that might be required is an analog gateway, which is deployed to support
analog phones and other legacy communications equipment such as fax machines, intercoms oroverhead paging systems. These analog gateways can be migrated to Teams using the Teams SIP
Gateway. To do that, you need to define their location and, according to the number of devices to besupported, the number of analog gateway ports.

Before you begin the onboarding process, you need to discuss
some important aspects with your customer, such as theirbusiness goals, communication needs and existing infrastructure.

5How Service Providers Can Rapidly Onboard Customers to Microsoft Teams Phone

Introducing AudioCodes Live Platform forMicrosoft Teams
The Perfect Solution for Swift Customer Onboarding
AudioCodes Live Platform for Microsoft Teams, a white label, cloud-based service delivery platform, isthe perfect solution for service providers who want to swiftly onboard their customers to Microsoft Teams

Phone. Built in Azure, it offers a comprehensive and integrated solution that covers all aspects of thecustomer onboarding migration process, from tenant onboarding to user setup, device provisioning

and device migration. AudioCodes Live Platform enables service providers to cut the customer service

setup time from months to days or hours by leveraging the platform’s advanced automation andprovisioning tools. It also enables service providers to:•Deliver a fast and easy migration experience to their end customers.

•Manage a community of resellers.

•Reduce the complexity and cost of the migration process.

•Increase their operational efficiency and scalability.

•Enhance customer loyalty and retention.

•Grow their revenue and profitability.

AudioCodes Live Platform for Microsoft Teams is the perfect solution
for service providers who want to swiftly onboard their customers toMicrosoft Teams Phone. It offers a comprehensive and integrated
solution that covers all aspects of the customer onboarding migration
process, from tenant onboarding to user setup, device provisioning anddevice migration.
AudioCodes Live Platform enables service providers to offer their customers end-to-end visibility andcontrol over their voice and video network, as well as user and policy management, eliminating theneed for PowerShell expertise or outsourcing. It also includes a selection of innovative AI-powered

applications that power productivity and promote stickiness, including native Teams contact centers,

conversational IVR, call recording and meeting productivity. You can also further enhance your UC
offering with our Microsoft-certified business phones and meeting room solutions and manage themas part of the platform.

6How Service Providers Can Rapidly Onboard Customers to Microsoft Teams Phone

Tenant Onboarding – The Fast Way
AudioCodes Live Platform offers an ideal way to simplify and accelerate the tenant onboarding

process by automating and streamlining the configuration and management of Teams tenants.
It offers several benefits for service providers and their customers, such as:•Reducing the time and effort required to onboard a new tenant from hours to minutes.

•Eliminating the need for manual configuration and intervention.

•Providing a user-friendly web portal that allows service providers to easily monitor and manage•Ensuring compliance with Microsoft's best practices and security standards.

multiple tenants from a single dashboard.

With AudioCodes Live Platform, service providers can easily onboard new tenants, create Direct Routingpolicies and activate the customers’ users in a few simple steps.

One of the ways to simplify and accelerate the tenant

onboarding process is to use AudioCodes Live Platform forMicrosoft Teams.

7How Service Providers Can Rapidly Onboard Customers to Microsoft Teams PhoneSelf-Service Tools for Customer Admins
Another way Live Platform simplifies and accelerates the user setup process is to go beyond selfprovisioning features and give customers self-service tools to help them automate the migration
process to Teams. This enables customers to:•

Automatically sync their user accounts between Microsoft 365 and AudioCodes Live Platform,
eliminating the need for manual configuration and intervention.

•

Automatically assign phone numbers and policies to users based on predefined rules andtemplates.

•Self-provision their users and their phone numbers.

These features accelerate the onboarding of customers by reducing the manual work and thepotential for errors involved in the user setup process, leading to an enhanced user experience andgreater satisfaction.

These features accelerate the onboarding of customers

by reducing the manual work and the potential for errors
involved in the user setup process, leading to an enhanceduser experience and greater satisfaction.

8How Service Providers Can Rapidly Onboard Customers to Microsoft Teams Phone

Automatic Provisioning of Meeting Space and End
User Devices
An important part of simplifying and accelerating the onboarding process relates to UC device

provisioning. The AudioCodes Live Platform Device Manager’s automatic provisioning capabilities,

available as an add-on to the standard Live Platform offering, automate the process so that service
providers can:•Automatically define initial end customer device templates and configuration, including branch,region and language settings.

•Apply automatic upgrades to devices and perform bulk configurations.

•Provision and update compatible devices for users based on their assigned policies and dialplans.

•Configure customer users with home office devices via a global redirect SaaS service, using zerotouch provisioning to enable devices to automatically connect to AudioCodes Live Platform andreceive the required Teams configuration without any user intervention.

•Monitor health dashboards and alarms to avoid any service-impacting issues with meeting room
devices or those belonging to key personas.

These capabilities make the physical installation and configuration of the devices much easier, as

well as reducing the maintenance and support costs. They also allow customer admins to monitor thevoice quality of their Teams users, devices and SIP trunks.

Migrating Customers with Analog Gateways
Service providers can help customers with existing devices like analog gateways and business phones
protect their previous investments by verifying that they are compatible with the Microsoft Teams SIP
Gateway.

With AudioCodes Live Platform, there are two recommended methods that depend on the size ofthe customer:•In a large enterprise, a DHCP server is used to tell devices where the software and configuration
information is held. The enterprise should update the DHCP server with the AudioCodes Live
Platform Device Manager’s URL address. There is also the option for gradual migration by manually
updating each device using the SIP Gateway Device Manager.

•In smaller organizations, it is recommended to change the provisioning URL manually in the analoggateways or replace these gateways with newer models that are preconfigured to work with theMicrosoft SIP Gateway.

9How Service Providers Can Rapidly Onboard Customers to Microsoft Teams Phone

AudioCodes analog gateways make it possible for service providers to configure their customers’ports in bulk, enabling them to quickly provision each device to connect with Teams.

Migrating Customers’ SIP Phones
As part of migrating a customer to Microsoft Teams Phone, an important stage is identifying whichusers will use the Teams client, who will use an IP phone and who will keep their existing SIP phones.
For customers with non-Teams native AudioCodes IP phones, AudioCodes Live Platform Device
Manager offers an automated way to migrate to Teams by configuring them automatically to workwith Microsoft Teams SIP Gateway.
For third-party phones, the service provider will have to set up the vendor’s redirect server to provisionthese phones for the SIP Gateway. Once this is done and the phones are registered on the SIP Gateway,customers can use AudioCodes Live Platform’s tenant management batch tools to reconfigure thephones for all their users.
In this way, AudioCodes Live Platform enables service providers to leverage their customers’ existing
investments and assets, as well as ensure a smooth and seamless transition to Teams.

Get Started Today
AudioCodes Live Platform is a unique offering that combines certified solutions for Microsoft Teams
Phone and contact centers, leveraging AI and Azure to enhance user, agent and customer experience.
Complemented by advanced onboarding automation and management tools, this innovative, cloudbased solution delivers seamless PSTN connectivity along with a range of services to offer a complete
calling and contact center experience for Microsoft Teams.

To learn more about AudioCodes Live Platform for Microsoft Teams andhow it can help you onboard your customers to Teams quickly and easily,
visit our website or contact us.

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10How Service Providers Can Rapidly Onboard Customers to Microsoft Teams Phone