Macquarie Telecom launches Microsoft Teams service to bring desk phone home

MACQUARIE Telecom, part of Macquarie Telecom Group (ASX: MAQ), today launched a Microsoft Teams service to allow customers to integrate their desk phones into their Teams clients and bring staff a step closer to being back in the office.

The cloud-based service uses a secure session initiation protocol (SIP) trunk system which allows users to make and receive direct calls via Teams on their mobile, laptop or other device, using their same office or desk number.

“Earlier this year we introduced a new desk phone, but needs have changed and we need to virtually bring that desk phone into customers’ home offices,” said David Flanagan, chief product officer at Macquarie Telecom.

“The mindset that apps like Teams are used for video meetings and group conference calls, while mobiles and desk phones are used for day-to-day calls, is changing," Mr Flanagan said.

"The combination of widely available reliable broadband and a normalised work-from-home is driving direct calling using collaboration software.”

The new service follows demand from a range of Macquarie’s existing and prospective customers across industries, with many citing that their work-from-home policies would continue after restrictions were lifted and that many staff did not have business mobile phones to use for work.

Macquarie estimates the SIP trunking service could reduce line rental costs for organisations, with additional setup and maintenance savings through reducing the number of PABXs on site.

“The ability and adaptability of workers in Australia to jump straight into working from home has been rightly hailed, but it’s taken for granted that many are using their personal devices to do so, which may not be preferred or appropriate," Mr Flanagan said.

"Businesses need services like this to maintain WFH policies, because we won’t return to the norm as we knew it

Macquarie has been a Microsoft partner for more than 10 years and recently entered an agreement to deliver Azure public cloud services as well as SD-WAN via the Azure Marketplace to Australian customers.

ends