Infrastructure / Telephony / Ribbon Communications
Your phone lines connected to Microsoft Teams — without replacing what's already working.
Ribbon Communications, formerly Sonus.Migrating a company's phone system to Microsoft Teams isn't as simple as unplugging one PBX and plugging in another. There are still devices that don't speak the same language, a branch office that needs to keep making calls when the connection goes down, and often an existing PBX that needs to coexist during the migration. That’s the job of the Ribbon connectivity solution, and we design it together with you.
What complicates a migration telephony
The software is the easy part. What takes time is everything that was connected to the old switchboard and that no one has inventoried in the last ten years.
Devices that don't speak the same language
An elevator phone, a building alarm system, a building gate, or a fax machine operate on analog lines. They cannot register with Microsoft Teams, and most will never be replaced because they are subject to security requirements.
These devices determine the architecture.
An agency that has to make phone calls even when there's no connection
When telephone service is hosted off-site, an internet outage also cuts off the phone service. In a factory, a healthcare facility, or a remote office, this consequence is unacceptable.
Continuity is planned during installation.
An existing standard that can't be done away with overnight
A company with 200 employees doesn't switch all its phone numbers over in a single weekend. For several months, some users will be on Microsoft Teams and others on the old system, and both groups must be able to call each other just as before.
Living together lasts for months, not just a weekend.
Four Situations When Equipment Is Necessary
Microsoft documents four ways to connect Teams to the telephone network, and only one of them requires equipment on your premises. Here are the four situations where this is necessary: in each case, without the equipment, something will stop working on the day of the change.
Keep devices that cannot be replaced
Analog ports allow you to keep an elevator phone, a technical alarm, or a fax machine by connecting them to the same system as the rest. They can still make and receive calls.
Continue the call when the connection drops
The equipment can take over and route calls from the branch during a line outage or if the hosted service is unavailable. Internal calls and emergency numbers remain accessible.
Microsoft Teams : Coexistence with the Old Standard
During the migration, the system routes calls between users who are already on Microsoft Teams and those who are still on the existing system. The two halves of the company can call each other without even realizing it.
Two systems that don't understand each other
Number formats, protocol variations, conversion from one codec to another: two compliant devices may very well refuse to communicate with each other. The connection device is where this is handled—and it is the only place where it is handled.
The choice of connection is made first
Microsoft Calling Plans, Operator ConnectTeams , Phone Mobile, or direct connection: all four options are compared in detail, including how much each costs in terms of calling minutes, on the page dedicated to phone service on Microsoft’s website at Teams. If none of these four scenarios applies to you, you don’t need any equipment —and we’ll let you know.
Telephony at Microsoft TeamsHow We Do It
There are four steps, and the second one determines everything else. It takes place before the estimate is prepared, because that’s what determines whether you need any equipment—and, if so, what kind.
What Your Phone System Needs to Keep Doing
Important phone numbers, office hours, groups that play together, and cross-references. Nothing technical: these are the things that absolutely must not change for your contacts.
A list of everything that is currently connected
We identify every device connected to the current power supply, including those that no one thinks to count: elevators, gates, alarms, fax machines, payment terminals, and production machines.
This inventory determines whether a piece of equipment is needed and what size it should be. It is done before the quote is prepared, never after.
Installation and Connection
Installation of the equipment, connection to your carrier's line and your Microsoft environment ( Teams), migration of analog devices, and two-way call testing.
The phased transition of numbers
The numbers are transferred in batches, with a fallback plan in place at each stage. The old system remains available until the entire migration is complete.
What You Need to Know Before Making a Decision
Four questions that come up in every project, along with our answers— even when they don’t go our way.
Do you really need equipment?
Often, no. If your carrier participates in the program Operator Connect, if there are no analog devices left, and if a connection outage is tolerable, the first two options are simpler and less expensive to implement.
We’ll let you know in Step 02, in writing. A system that nobody needs costs money to buy and then to maintain every year.
Has the name Sonus disappeared?
Sonus and Genband merged in 2017, and the combined company has been known as Ribbon Communications ever since. Any equipment you may have purchased under the Sonus name is part of the same product family.
One model name has changed along the way, and it comes up frequently in the documentation: SWe Lite is now called SBC SWe Edge. It’s the same product.
If you are still using equipment purchased under the former name, you don't necessarily need to replace it: we first check whether the installed version can do what Microsoft Teams requires.
One or two pieces of equipment?
A single piece of equipment is a single point of failure for the company's entire telephone system. Having a backup costs more to purchase but eliminates this risk.
The decision comes down to a single question—and it’s not a technical one: How long can your business go without a phone? It’s a management decision, and we frame it as such.
Does the installation require follow-up?
Connection equipment requires ongoing maintenance: software updates, certificates, and changes to Microsoft services. It’s not a piece of hardware you install and then forget about, and an expired certificate can cut off phone service without warning.
We can handle this as part of our operations services, or train your team to do so.
The questions that come with it
A company's telecommunications needs are rarely determined by a single factor. Here are the three factors that most often come into play at the same time.
Telephony at Microsoft Teams
Licenses, numbers, phone answering services, and call groups: the service itself, before the issue of connection.
AdministrationManaging Day-to-Day Telephony Operations
Assign a number, edit a group, or change office hours without using the Microsoft admin console.
The Other Answer3CX, when Microsoft Teams isn't the right answer
We also implement standards 3CX. Our ability to do both is what allows us to advise you on your challenges—not just on what we know how to sell.
Let's start with the inventory.
The assessment determines whether equipment is needed—and, if so, what kind. We conduct it with your teams on-site, and you’ll receive the results in writing— even if the assessment concludes that no equipment is needed.
Three offices in French-speaking Switzerland: Renens, Sion , and Châtel-Saint-Denis. What we offer is the opportunity to meet the engineers who will do the work.
The devices that no one counts
Elevators, technical alarms, gates, fax machines, payment terminals. These are the factors that determine the architecture, and these are the ones we discover three days before the switchover when the inventory hasn’t been taken.
We always start there.