Telstra and Microsoft integrate voice with Office 365

Giovanni Mezgec, general manager, Office 365 partners, Microsoft, and Gianpaolo Carraro, director global applications, global products, Telstra

Telstra and Microsoft have formed a partnership to deliver managed enterprise voice services to Office 365 customers, and to co-develop offerings that they say will be unique to the Australian market.

Giovanni Mezgec, general manager, Office 365 partners, at Microsoft, said the move would “put meetings and voice at the heart of Office 365."

Telstra and Microsoft said the partnership would give Australian businesses access to the full scope of Office 365 cloud productivity and collaboration apps, video conferencing and meeting broadcast capabilities combined with Telstra's voice services and delivered either from the cloud or from equipment on customers' premise.

“Skype for Business, Microsoft's meetings and voice communications offering delivered in Office 365 will be paired with Telstra provided managed voice services and network assessments to deliver a comprehensive productivity and collaboration solution,” a statement from the companies said.

Gianpaolo Carraro, Telstra’s director global applications, global products, said the partnership was designed to broaden Telstra’s offerings across along the technology value chain.

"When you combine this partnership, our core network and mobility capabilities, and our recent acquisitions of Kloud and Readify, we can provide customers with truly unique employee productivity solutions, designed specifically for their requirements,” he said.

Kloud, acquired by Telstra earlier this year, is an Australian startup that provides consultancy and migration services to organisations wanting to move their IT into the cloud.

Readify is an Australian provider of application development and software-focused consulting and managed services. It specialises in Microsoft products. It was acquired by Telstra in July.

Telstra said the new services would be available immediately. “Customers can start deploying their Office 365 with managed services including network assessments and voice provided by Telstra today.”