Better availability and less management thanks to Teams Calling

Employees are no longer tied to their home base. They work in the office, at home or on the road. In order to guarantee the availability of its employees via telephone and video under all circumstances, AR Metallizing made the switch to Microsoft Teams. Inetum-Realdolmen plotted out the appropriate solution and accompanied the migration.

One solution

Efficient communication is crucial for the smooth operation of an organization. "However, over the years, there were just too many solutions being used," says Zelim Bashaev, in charge of AR Metallizing's global IT infrastructure. "Not only did we have a telephone exchange, we also used Skype and had a professional solution for video conferencing." Having more than one channel available gave rise to an increasing amount of confusion. "It all boiled down to the fact that you had to agree on which solution you would use to contact someone."

To streamline the use of video in the meantime, AR Metallizing decided to switch to Microsoft Teams, both for meetings via PC and in the video conference room. "When the coronavirus crisis hit, it seemed only logical to us to expand the solution to include Teams Calling," explains Zelim Bashaev. "That would avoid the need for another softphone solution in addition to Teams. We felt it was the best choice to incorporate unified communications as a whole into Teams."

Proof of concept

For AR Metallizing, the project also offered a good opportunity to learn about Inetum-Realdolmen's solutions and service. There was no room for error. "When phones don't work, everyone notices it straight away. And complaints about it immediately reach the local IT department," Zelim Bashaev winks. "However, Inetum-Realdolmen worked out a very solid plan of action."

For the end user, it seems simple. They rely on the phone to do their work. Behind the scenes, however, things were quite complex. The project in Genk acted as a proof of concept: the blueprint for the further rollout of the solution at other AR Metallizing sites. Microsoft Teams was the starting point in combination with a new IP telephone exchange from Yeastar. Locally, a session border controller (SBC) was provided, which is connected to Teams Direct Routing. 

"This provides a link between the telephone exchange and Teams," explains Zelim Bashaev. "When an employee receives a call, it happens simultaneously on the Teams client and on the landline phones we have kept in the office. The employee can then choose which way to answer the call." The fact that AR Metallizing still uses a PBX is entirely due to the production environment. "There we use DECT, which is not compatible with Teams. But the switchboard we needed for that thereby provides us with a backup for Teams at the same time."
 

Less management, more cost-effective contract

The benefits of migrating to Teams Calling are already quite clear. "Our employees all had a fixed number in the office," explains Zelim Bashaev. "If they were not present, they missed calls to that number." That situation was no longer workable, especially with regard to working from home. "Thanks to the switch to Teams Calling, employees are much more accessible. And if they miss a call, they can very easily call back from wherever they are."

In addition, the IT department also benefits from the switch to Teams. "Actually, the classic administration of the telephony environment has completely shifted to Teams. And given that that's a cloud solution, the traditional tasks involving updates and maintenance are no longer necessary as a result." Inetum-Realdolmen provided the IT department with another additional benefit. As an independent consultant, Inetum-Realdolmen conducted an analysis of AR Metallizing's specific needs. The analysis showed that the company would benefit from switching to Orange.

Good knowledge transfer

Following the successful process in Genk, AR Metallizing applied an identical procedure at its site in Italy. "That too went very smoothly, thanks to our experience with the migration in Genk and the fact that Inetum-Realdolmen attaches great importance to good knowledge transfer," says Zelim Bashaev. "We're going to roll out the same setup in Brazil and the United States. And as things are going now, we'll be able to do that all by ourselves, without outside help. That, too, is an important advantage of the cooperation with Inetum-Realdolmen for us: we've learned a lot from it ourselves."