Rene Sugo (Symbio)
Communications software provider Symbio has joined Microsoft’s Operator Connect partner program to further its cloud calling standing.
Under the program, Symbio has launched its Operator Connect for Microsoft Teams solution in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore under its Symbio Enterprise division, which enables businesses to make and receive external calls within Teams.
Essentially, Symbio’s product allows businesses to connect to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) through a certified operator in the Microsoft Teams Admin Centre. Under the program, Symbio provides the PSTN connection which grants the external calling and receiving capability.
The solution launch in particular will support Symbio’s expansion across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, according to Symbio executive general manager for South-East Asia Yeo See Kiat.
“Growing our total addressable market (TAM) in the region is a key priority for Symbio as we further our ambition to become a global leader in cloud communications solutions,” he said.
Symbio also partnered with Israel-headquartered service and solution provider AudioCodes, an Operator Connect Accelerator, to undergo a testing and evaluation process to make sure its services work with Teams and whether it meets various requirements for the program.
“AudioCodes Live Cloud enables Symbio to dramatically streamline and accelerate the verification and onboarding processes for Microsoft Operator Connect while reducing the overall cost, as well as simplify user management, policy configuration and number assignment,” said Lior Aldema, chief business officer at AudioCodes.
The provider has been making progress in its expansion into South-East Asia over the last three years, which it initially flagged in 2020 before detailing its trials to go live in Singapore six months later in 2022.
Since then, it committed $7.6 million to its APAC expansion plans in August 2022, followed by moves into Taiwan two months later and Malaysia in May 2023. It also launched a South-East Asia regional hub also in May as part of its expansion plan.
“With the SEA Regional Hub, we’ll be able to serve customers in Malaysia and Singapore via a single interconnect in either region, saving the time and cost of building out carrier interconnects in both countries and allowing businesses to grow without barriers and increase their total addressable market,” said Rene Sugo, co-founder and CEO of Symbio at the time of the hub's launch.
“We also have plans to add more geographic and international number types in the future – all part of Symbio’s plan to provide simplified access to a very large and complex market, by consolidating connection points and giving our customers access to over 100 million end users through a single interconnect.”
By 2025, it is slated to enter additional APAC countries, including South Korea, Japan and Vietnam.
