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  • Unified Communications · Microsoft Teams Phone

Voice doesn't need a separate vendor.

Teams Phone, end to end. The operator side and the user side, both run by Braintree. One number, one identity, every endpoint. The dial tone most Microsoft partners leave to someone else.
Book a voice readiness review
Run the voice readiness check

Runs on

Microsoft Teams Phone

Operator Connect

Intune

Call-quality analytics

One number, every endpoint

Desk, mobile and meeting room. Same identity.

Operator Connect, carrier-grade

PSTN in the Microsoft Teams admin center. No SBC to run.

Move call to mobile, no drop

Same session, different endpoint.

One identity across desk, mobile and room
0 number
Microsoft Managed Partners in South Africa
0 of 9
South African businesses grown
1 +
Microsoft-certified professionals
1 +
  • The wedge a UC reseller cannot match

Most partners sell Teams licences. Braintree brings the dial tone.

Braintree is one of nine Microsoft Managed Partners in South Africa. A reseller sells you the Teams Phone licence and leaves the operator side to a telco. Braintree runs both, Operator Connect or Direct Routing, the network design, the number porting and the 24/7 monitoring. One Microsoft Customer Agreement. One SA team. The licence and the dial tone, owned by the same people.
  • The platform you land on

Teams Phone, end to end. Five parts. One identity.

Microsoft Teams Phone

Cloud PBX inside Teams. Inbound and outbound PSTN calls, queues, auto attendants, voicemail and recording. One identity across desk, mobile and meeting room.

The same number on every endpoint

Calling, meetings and chat in one app

Move a live call from desktop to mobile, no drop

Operator Connect

Microsoft-certified PSTN. Pick the operator in the Teams admin centerr. No SBC to deploy, no on-prem voice to maintain.

Direct Routing

SIP trunk and session border controller. The path when you need PBX coexistence, custom routing or specific in-country number ranges.

Admin and Analytics

Call queues, auto attendants, voicemail, compliance recording and call-quality dashboards. The voice side of the Teams admin center, governed.

Microsoft Purview

Data governance, lineage and POPIA-aligned cataloguing. Required for auditable AI on operational data.

  • The deployment lifecycle. End to end.

Every stage. From current voice estate to live Teams calling.

From network readiness to a managed voice estate, the move to Teams Phone is organised by lifecycle stage. The first four get you live. The fifth is where the relationship begins.
01 · Readiness
Before a single number moves
Network and dial-plan assessment
Bandwidth, firewall ports, QoS and call-path tested. Dial plan, number-range mapping and licensing alignment. The Operator Connect or Direct Routing decision made on the evidence.
Current-estate audit
PBX contracts, SBC footprint, telco minutes and DDI ranges. What you run today, costed, before anything is replaced.
02 · Design
The path, on paper first
Call-flow and routing design
Auto attendants, call queues, emergency calling and after-hours routing designed against how the business actually answers the phone.
Number strategy
Porting plan for fixed-line and DDI ranges. ICASA lead times mapped. New ranges where porting does not fit.
03 · Pilot
Proven on a real group
Representative pilot
A user group across desks, mobile and meeting rooms. Call quality, devices and workflows validated on live numbers.
The gate
Rollout is gated on the pilot passing. Call-quality telemetry, not a thumbs-up, decides.
04 · Rollout
In waves, not a weekend gamble
Phased migration
By department or site. PBX coexistence where required. End-user enablement on calling, voicemail, queues and mobile.
Cut-over control
Numbers ported in planned waves. The old PBX stays live until each wave is proven on Teams.
05 · Operate
Where the relationship begins
Managed voice, 24/7
Call-quality dashboards monitored. Voice spend reviewed against the baseline monthly. Anomalous traffic flagged. One SLA, under the agreement.
Continuous optimisation
Devices, licences and routing tuned as the business changes. The monthly summary the CFO and the CIO both read.

Run by Braintree, monitored 24/7. On Microsoft Foundry where it helps.

Call-quality dashboards watched, voice spend reviewed against the baseline, anomalous traffic flagged. Where Microsoft does not ship a named agent, custom call-analytics and reporting on Microsoft Foundry and Power BI. SA-grounded. POPIA-aligned. The monthly summary the CFO and the CIO both read.

Built by Braintree

  • How we deploy. The AI Value Framework.

Discover, Evaluate, Deploy, Build.

Four stages. The readiness evidence first. The full TCO modelled. Cut over only where the case proves out.
01

Discover

Assess the network, the number ranges, the current voice spend and the PBX footprint. Map where Teams Phone carries the strongest TCO case.

02

Evaluate

Full TCO and payback model against the legacy estate, with the Operator Connect or Direct Routing recommendation. Presented to management. Sign-off before any cut-over.

Management sign-off gate

03

Deploy

Pilot, then phased rollout on live numbers. PBX coexistence where required. Call quality gated on the pilot proving out.

04

Build

Custom call-analytics, reporting and routing automation on Microsoft Foundry where Microsoft does not ship a named agent.

  • The dial tone, owned end to end

Braintree doesn't sell you Teams licences and leave. We bring the dial tone, then run it.

  • Two PSTN paths. Pick one.

Operator Connect or Direct Routing. The fork is where you start, not where you land.

Different estates need different PSTN paths. Read the column that applies.

Operator Connect

Best fit. Most organisations. You want PSTN in Teams without running voice infrastructure, on a Microsoft-certified operator.
  • Pick the operator in the Teams admin center. No SBC to deploy or maintain.
  • Fastest path to live numbers. Carrier-grade PSTN, managed in the cloud.
  • Braintree runs the operator relationship, the design and the monitoring.
  • Live in weeks once numbers are ported. Scope an Operator Connect deployment.

Direct Routing

Best fit. Organisations that need PBX coexistence, custom routing logic or in-country number ranges an operator cannot carry.
  • SIP trunk and session border controller. Full control over the call path.
  • PBX coexistence during a phased migration. Specific routing and number ranges.
  • More to run, more control. Braintree designs, deploys and manages the SBC.
  • Scoped against your coexistence needs. Model a Direct Routing deployment.

Most SA mid-market lands on Operator Connect. We assess the network and the number ranges before recommending one.

  • One agreement. The commercial case.

One Microsoft agreement. Not a vendor per layer.

How the commercial model changes when the licence, the operator and the management run on one Microsoft agreement.
A vendor per layer.

Before. Licence here, minutes there, integrator in between.

  • Microsoft reseller for the Teams licence. A telco for the PSTN minutes. An integrator for the SBC and the porting
  • A dropped call is three vendors pointing at each other. The PBX maintainer bills separately
  • Voice spend sits outside the Microsoft agreement. Nobody owns call quality end to end
One agreement. One team.

After. One Intelligent Agreement.

  • Teams Phone, Operator Connect, the design and the management under one Microsoft Customer Agreement
  • One SA team owns the call from the network to the endpoint. One escalation lane with Microsoft-direct fall-back
  • One bill, one SLA, one renewal. Voice spend reviewed against the baseline every month
uc proof | Braintree
The call behind the number. One identity, reached at the desk, on the mobile app or in the room.
  • Proof, not promises

1 of 9

Microsoft Managed Partners in South Africa. The accreditation that puts the escalation lane, and the design depth, on a different tier.
Microsoft Teams Phone carries tens of millions of PSTN users globally and Microsoft is a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as a Service. Behind the deployment: 220+ SA businesses grown, 100+ Microsoft-certified professionals, 10+ years on the Microsoft estate, and a readiness review that tests call quality on the network before a single number moves. The dial tone is designed, not switched on and hoped.

Quality gated on the pilot

Call-quality telemetry, not a thumbs-up, decides when rollout proceeds.

Gartner UCaaS Leader

Microsoft, independent analyst evaluation across the calling platform.

  • The honest comparison

Legacy PBX, Teams Calling with Braintree, and the practical winner.

What matters Legacy PBX plus telco
One identity Desk phone, mobile and softphone are separate numbers and systems
✓ One number across desk, mobile app and meeting room
Mobility Calls tied to the desk. Forwarding and second SIMs to reach people
✓ Move a live call from desktop to mobile with no drop. Reachable anywhere
Vendors PBX maintainer plus telco plus integrator. Finger-pointing on a fault
✓ One SA team owns the call end to end. Microsoft-direct escalation
Data residency Recording and call data wherever the PBX or telco platform runs
✓ Recording and telemetry on Microsoft Azure South Africa. POPIA-aligned
Cost shape PBX maintenance plus SBC plus telco minutes plus line rental
✓ Teams Phone licensing plus Operator Connect minutes, under one agreement
Hardware Winner
Existing handsets keep working until they fail		 Some device refresh to Teams-certified hardware over time
5 to 1 in Braintree's favour. Legacy PBX wins on sweating old hardware. Honest.
  • Talk to a specialist

Three specialists. One direct line. Plus the 8-minute readiness check.

We match you to the right specialist when you book the voice readiness review. Names land in your calendar invite, not on a page you scrolled past.

TV

Teams Voice Practice
Lead

Teams Phone deployment & adoption

Microsoft Certified · Teams Voice Engineer

OC

Operator Connect & Telephony Architect

PSTN, Direct Routing, SBC & porting

Microsoft Certified · Teams Voice Engineer Expert

CL

Commercial Lead, One Intelligent Agreement

Voice on the one agreement

Microsoft Customer Agreement · CSP
  • 8-minute benchmark

How does your voice estate compare to the SA enterprise median?

8 questions, mapped against benchmarks from 220+ SA clients. You get a tier. Above median, At median, Below median fixable in 90 days, Below median fixable in 12 months. Plus the actions to close the gap.
Run the benchmark
  • How it works

Three steps. One-day SLA. No sales pitch.

01

Tell us what you run today

Current PBX or telco setup, rough user count, number ranges and the sites in scope. Five to ten minutes on your side.

02

Get the readiness report

Braintree returns a voice readiness report. Network findings, the Operator Connect or Direct Routing recommendation, the porting plan and the TCO baseline. Inside one business day.

03

Pick the path

Operator Connect or Direct Routing. Discuss the porting waves, the emergency-calling design and the South African data residency answer. No sales pitch.

Book the 30-minute scoping call
  • FAQ

What CIOs and CFOs ask before they book.

Operator Connect or Direct Routing. Which PSTN path fits us?
The honest rule of thumb. Operator Connect suits most organisations. You pick a Microsoft-certified operator in the Teams admin center, there is no session border controller to deploy and no on-prem voice infrastructure to maintain. Direct Routing is the path when you need PBX coexistence, custom routing logic or specific in-country number ranges an operator cannot carry. It uses a SIP trunk and an SBC, so it carries more control and more to run. We assess your network, your number ranges and your coexistence needs, then recommend one. Most SA mid-market lands on Operator Connect.
Yes, in almost every case. Fixed-line and DDI ranges port into Teams Phone. The SA-specific reality is lead time and process. ICASA rules, operator paperwork and cut-over windows mean porting is planned in weeks, not days, and run in waves over a weekend per range. Where a range cannot port cleanly, we map new ranges and a forwarding plan so no caller hits a dead number. The porting plan is part of the readiness review, costed and dated, before any cut-over.
Fair, and it is the first thing we test. Teams Phone call quality depends on the network path, not the Teams app. The readiness review measures bandwidth, jitter, packet loss and QoS end to end before a single user moves. We design the network for voice, set QoS policies, and validate on the pilot group on live calls. Call-quality telemetry runs from the moment each call connects, so a degradation shows on the dashboard before a user logs a ticket. We gate rollout on the pilot proving quality, not on a promise.
Emergency calling is configured per site and per user, mapped to a dynamic or static location so an emergency call routes correctly and carries the right address. This is part of the design stage, not an afterthought, because a mobile-first voice estate changes how location is determined. We document the emergency-calling design and test it before go-live. It is one of the checks that separates a properly deployed Teams Phone estate from a licence someone switched on.
Yes. Microsoft-certified Teams Rooms devices and handsets are part of the design. The meeting room dials out and receives calls on the same number plan as the desktop and the mobile app. Device choice, provisioning through Intune, and call-quality validation on room hardware are part of the pilot and rollout. One identity reaches the user whether they are at the desk, on the mobile app or in the boardroom.
The honest baseline first. PBX maintenance contracts, SBC licensing, telco minutes, line rental and the hardware refresh cycle, against Teams Phone licensing plus the calling plan or Operator Connect minutes. The saving is usually real, but it is specific to your estate, so we cost the baseline before we claim it. The softer case. One vendor instead of a PBX maintainer plus a telco plus an integrator. One bill, one SLA, one number that follows the user. We name the rand figure in the readiness review, not in the brochure.
Compliance recording, call analytics and voice telemetry sit in your Microsoft tenant, on Microsoft Azure South Africa where data residency applies, governed by Microsoft Purview retention and access policies. Braintree designs the recording and retention posture to your POPIA obligations and manages it from SA-resident workstations under POPIA-compliant access controls. A voice estate that records customer calls is a POPIA surface. We treat it as one, from the design stage.
Three answers. Credentials. Braintree is one of nine Microsoft Managed Partners in South Africa. 220+ SA clients. 100+ Microsoft-certified professionals. 10+ years on the Microsoft estate. Depth. We run the operator side and the user side, Operator Connect or Direct Routing, with the network and emergency-calling design a telco rarely touches. Continuity. Voice sits under the same One Intelligent Agreement as your Microsoft 365, security and support, run by the same SA team. A telco sells you minutes. A reseller sells you licences. Braintree brings the dial tone and runs it.
  • From the practice

Insights for CIOs and CFOs evaluating Teams Phone.

uc ins1 | Braintree

Decision

Operator Connect or Direct Routing. The five tests that decide it.

Speed, control, PBX coexistence, number ranges and the support model. The practical framework for choosing your PSTN path, not a feature table.
  • In production
uc ins2 | Braintree

Porting numbers into Teams Phone. The SA-specific reality nobody warns you about.

SA reality

Fixed-line and DDI ranges, ICASA lead times, cut-over weekends and the forwarding plan that stops a caller hitting a dead number. What to plan for in South Africa.
  • In production
uc ins3 | Braintree

TCO

Legacy PBX or Teams Calling. The honest TCO baseline before you claim a saving.

PBX maintenance, telco minutes, SBC contracts and the line items in between, against Teams Phone licensing. How to build the baseline the CFO will believe.
  • In production
  • Where this connects

Voice is one surface of the Microsoft estate.

Microsoft 365 logo (2022)

Modern Workplace

The estate voice rides on. Teams Phone is the calling layer of Microsoft 365. The Modern Workplace practice deploys, governs and drives adoption on the same identity your voice runs on.

Visit Modern Workplace

Support & Managed Services

The team that runs the dial tone. Managed voice sits inside the same Microsoft-direct support estate. One escalation lane covers a dropped call and a down workload alike.

Visit Support

Devices & Hardware

The room and the handset. Microsoft-certified Teams Rooms, headsets and handsets, provisioned through Intune. The voice design and the device fleet, from one team.

Visit Devices
  • Get your voice estate on one bill. One number. One agreement.

Let's grow.

30-minute voice readiness review. We assess your network, your number ranges and your current voice spend,
and recommend the Operator Connect or Direct Routing path. The report lands within one business day. No pitch deck.
Book a voice readiness review
Run the voice readiness check
Specialists in Business Applications, Modern Workplace and Azure.