Microsoft Teams Phone System: Operator Connect vs. Direct Routing as a Service

What is the difference between Operator Connect and Direct Routing as a Service, for Microsoft Teams Phone System?

In the video below, Mike explains the key differentiators you need to know, when you are evaluating Teams Phone System, to replace your company’s PBX.

Want Mike’s recommendations on the best vendors for your organization to quote, for dial tone, for Teams Phone System? Click the button below and ask him today.

About Mike

Mike Smith is the Founder and President of AeroCom and has been helping companies with telecom and cloud services since 1999. He has been the recipient of numerous business telecommunications industry awards, including being recognized as one of the top 40 business people in Orange County, CA., under 40 years old. You can also hear him as the host of the popular Information Technology podcast, ITsmiths with Mike Smith. Follow Mike on YouTube, LinkedIn, Reddit and SpiceWorks.

Transcript

Your company is looking into Microsoft Teams phone system to replace your existing phone system. And one thing you’ve heard about is Direct Routing as a service, where you go to a third party and they provide your calling and for Microsoft Teams phone system.

But then you heard of this thing called Operator Connect or maybe you saw it in your Microsoft admin portal. And you’re wondering, what is this? And how is it different than Direct Routing as a service?

Well, that’s a great question. I want to make a quick video explaining the differences between the two.

Shortcut

But before it gets started really quick, if you want to know which Operator Connect providers or which Direct Routing as service providers you should quote for your company, don’t search on the internet for it, just contact me on email or by phone (714.593.0011)… more information on that at the end of the video.

Okay. So what’s the difference between Operator Connect and Direct Routing as a service? As I mentioned, that’s a great question. They are very similar in terms of deploying Microsoft Teams phone system, but they’re definitely different solutions. You really want to know which one you should use for your company and why.

It’s not about price

Well, first right out of the gate, I can tell you don’t have to worry about pricing.

Pricing is not a differentiating factor between the two. You’re not going to choose one or the other based on pricing. One is not lower price than the other. So they’re both the same price. For instance, some service providers offer either Operator Connect or Direct Routing as a service and the pricing for their calling plans is exactly the same.

So pricing, take that off your list, that’s not the differentiator between the two.

Which portal do you use, to manage the phone numbers?

The big differentiator between Operator Connect and Direct Routing as a service is with Direct Routing as a service, all of your phone numbers are managed by the third party service provider. So for instance, if you want to assign a new phone number to somebody, or you want to delete a user, something like that, you’re going to have to go into that third party service provider’s cloud PBX portal or their management portal to do that, to assign a new phone number to somebody.

So the phone numbers are actually owned and managed by that third party service provider and managed within their own cloud PBX portal. So that’s Direct Routing as a service.

So why would you want to do that as opposed to Operator Connect where Operator Connect has all those phone numbers managed within your Microsoft admin portal? So if you want to sign a new user a new phone number, you can do it right within your Microsoft admin portal. So that’s the main difference, is where the phone numbers are managed.

More Features and Failover Options

So you might be thinking, well, why would I want to manage it in a third party portal when I can manage it within the Microsoft portal? Well, that’s a great question. And the reason why you would want to do that is because with Direct Routing as it service, you’re going to get more features and functionality and more redundancy than with Operator Connect.

Operator Connect, think of it as almost a very clean, exact solution to Microsoft Teams phone system. You’re going to get all the same features and functionality and redundancy for your dial tone as if you’re going to Microsoft directly for your dial tone. Direct Routing as a service however, can offer you some of those extra features and functionality.

Redundancy

So for instance, if Teams goes down, the app itself is down, with Direct Routing as a service provider, a lot of them offer the ability of using their cloud PBX application as a backup.

So all of the phones that are on site are registered to that third party provider, not to Microsoft directly. So if Teams goes down, the phones on your desk will still ring. Also, you can use SSO to log into that third party’s cloud PBX application and still make and receive phone calls because Teams is actually being powered through Direct Routing as a service by that third party’s cloud PBX application. So that cloud PBX application is still up even though Teams is down.

So you can still make and receive calls from that other application by just going on to a web browser and using SSO to log in to that third party cloud PBX app. So to summarize the main difference between Operator Connect and Direct Routing as a service is with Direct Routing a service, you get some additional features, you get some additional redundancy. But the caveat is that you have to manage your phone numbers through a third party portal. With Operator Connect, you get the same exact features and same exact redundancy as Microsoft Teams phone system directly, which is a little lacking in features and a little lacking in redundancy, just a little bit.

But the advantage is that you can manage your phone numbers through the Microsoft admin portal. So I hope that makes sense. I hope that helps a little bit.

Want some recommendations on Teams Phone System?

Again, if you want to know which service providers you should quote for these things for Direct Routing as a service or for Operator Connect, don’t just guess through the portal, don’t reach out to them and start asking for quotes. You’ll probably end up with the wrong service provider.

Instead, just reach out and contact me by email or phone (714.593.0011). I’m a broker for all these service providers. This is what I do. I represent all of them. And based on your company’s unique needs, I’ll actually find the best handful of service providers you should be quoting and help you get those quotes, help you talk to the right companies and the right people within those companies. And an extra bonus for you is that I won’t charge you anything for doing that for you.

If you find something that you like, those third party companies will pay me my broker fee. So I’ve been doing this for 18 years, I know this industry inside and out and within a few questions, I can tell you right away, which service providers you should be quoting and why. So no excuse not to reach out to me, I’m happy to help. I Hope you like the video. If so, don’t forget to like it and subscribe to the channel and I will catch you on the next one.