Microsoft Phone System — Canadian Style (now Generally Available — May 1, 2018)

Microsoft has now officially launched local calling plans for Canadian-based users (as of May 1, 2018). This is big news and Arkadin is working closely with Microsoft and Canadian-based clients to optimize Office 365 for Microsoft Phone System with local Canadian calling plans.

Microsoft Calling Plans for Office 365 are now GENERALLY AVAILABLE in Canada and it’s creating a lot of buzz in the Canadian market. It’s also creating a lot of questions. Here are the questions that I’ve been asked the most in the last few months about Canada Calling Plans for Office 365:

1. Are Canadian Calling Plans live in Canada?

YES they are! Microsoft Canada announced general availability of Microsoft Calling plans on May 1, 2018 after 3 months in preview mode and multiple successful pilots with early adopters. See full announcement here.

2. What is Microsoft Calling Plans?

Microsoft Calling Plans are per user telephony bundles for inbound/outbound PSTN minutes that are added to Microsoft Phone System (within Skype for Business Online and/or Microsoft Teams).

3. What Office 365 licensing is required to add Microsoft Calling Plans?

With E5 licenses: Microsoft Phone System is included in the core license. Calling Plans are an additional charge per user per month.

With E1 & E3 licenses: Microsoft Phone System and Calling Plans are each an additional charge per user per month.

It’s important to point out that you can mix E licenses (e.g. 20% of users have E1, 60% of users have E3, 20% of users with E5).

4. How do we figure out which Office 365 license type to buy when looking at Microsoft Phone System?

It depends on what features/functionality (outside of Phone System) your users need. There are 3 different enterprise licenses (E1, E3, E5) that Phone System can be added to. The functionality varies between each license type.

Here are questions to help decide which license type to deploy:

• Do end users need a full version of office apps on their desktop? (If yes; E3 or E5. If an online version of Office apps will work; E1 may work.)
• Do end users need access to business and end user analytics (Power BI?) (if yes; E5 may make more sense then an E3.)
• Do end users need comprehensive enterprise security features? (if yes; E5 makes more sense then an E3.)

If an end user needs phone system, analytics and enterprise security, then E5 is 100% the way to go. If end users don’t require analytics and/or additional security, then E3 may make more sense.

Comparison of Office 365 Enterprise Licensing (including cost for optional add-on services — all rates are list in CAD)

Each Office 365 licensing type has the ability to add services to address additional requirements. When the majority of add-on services are required, the E5 license becomes the most cost-efficient option.

5. How much does it cost to enable the different Office 365 enterprise licenses specifically for Microsoft Phone System ?

In order to activate Microsoft Phone System for Office 365, the first step is deploying the add-on license called “Phone System”. The “Phone System” add-on has a list rate of $9.70 per user per month (CAD). The second step is selecting voice services (including conferencing and calling plans). If a user requires dial-in conferencing access, the conferencing add-on needs to be added and has a list rate of $4.86 per user per month (CAD). If a user needs inbound/outbound calling services, there are 3 calling plans from Microsoft starting at $7.30 per user per month (CAD). The following table shows the total monthly charges per user per month based on the 3 different enterprise licensing models with all different voice options:

The above charge shows list rates (in CAD) for Office 365 services related to Microsoft Phone System & Microsoft Calling Plans.

6. What are the different Microsoft Calling Plan options?

There are 3 options available with Microsoft Calling Plans:

• Domestic Calling Plan (120 minutes): small package for occasional phone users that communicate mostly internally.
• Domestic Calling Plan (3,000 minutes; equivalent to 150 minutes per day): standard package for an end user that places calls with outside parties (within Canada/USA) on a regular basis.
• Domestic & International Calling Plan (3,000 minutes and/or 600 international minutes): enhanced package for end users that call internationally (inside North America and internationally) on a regular basis

Microsoft is also offering 2 additional useful features for US and Canadian customers. Calling plans assigned to Canadian users will pool minutes with calling plans assigned to US users. A larger pool of users helps customers balance the demand for minutes across their user base.

And calls made between US and Canada users (in both directions) will be considered domestic, not international. This was a request Microsoft heard multiple times during the preview process.

See more info here: https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/voice-calling

7. Are there alternative options for calling plans with Microsoft Phone System?

Yes. For organisations that require calling plans for countries not supported yet today by Microsoft, there are partners (like Arkadin) that provide local calling plans in 24+ countries for Microsoft Phone System (for both Skype for Business Online/ Teams).

8. What countries are currently supported with Microsoft Calling Plans?

Microsoft officially supports 10 countries today and 1 more country is currently in preview.

Australia (preview via Telstra), Belgium, Canada (now generally available), France, Germany, Ireland, Puerto Rico, Netherlands, Spain, United Kingdom, United States

9. How do we move from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams?

It depends on where your users are today and how to manage the user change. A peer based in the UK, Tom Arbuthnot has done a great write up on this journey and the different options. Below is the diagram that shows the different options for the user journey from SfB to Teams. To read more, check out Tom’s article here.

10. What are our options to bring calling plans/SIP services into Microsoft Teams?

Microsoft announced (in July 2017) that the future of intelligent communications with Microsoft will be with Microsoft Teams. All future cloud developments for voice services are going to focus on Teams which means Microsoft Phone System is coming to Teams in a big way.

Direct Routing is the ability for companies to “bring their own trunk” (BYOT) or SIP services into Microsoft Teams. This is a huge step to democratizing (yup, I used that word) cloud voice services with Office 365.

High-level architecture for Direct Routing with Microsoft Teams

Direct routing will be available in 2 deployment approaches:

• customer-hosted: client will need to purchase a certified SBC (from either Ribbon or AudioCodes) and then manage the appliance, SIP circuits and call quality in their environment
• partner-hosted: a service provider (like Arkadin) will host the required infrastructure and take care of SIP services and platform management in the cloud as a service. Clients will be able to outsource the day-to-day complexities to a service provider and take advantage of global calling plans without any upfront or ongoing hardware investment. This service is coming very soon to Canadian-based clients.

11. How do we figure out what is the best way to move forward and how do we get started?

Cloud voice transformation projects are mission critical to the business and have to be done right. It’s important to focus first on the people and then deploy the technology to empower your people. Arkadin works closely with Microsoft to guide clients through the cloud voice transformation journey with Microsoft Phone System. To get started with a free Microsoft Phone System Assessment, contact Arkadin today.

12. When does it make sense to evaluate moving to Microsoft Phone System?

It depends on where you are in your current IT Transformation. Typically, the project drivers are when an existing PBX is coming up for maintenance renewal or hardware refresh. Another common driver is when there is a pending office move. If you’re interested in learning more or figuring out if it makes sense to make the move, contact Arkadin today for a free Microsoft Cloud Voice Readiness Assessment.