01
The box in the comms room
Hardware bought outright five or ten years ago, out of support, and understood by one person who may no longer work here. Any change means finding someone who still knows it.
Business telephony
Your phone system should be somebody else's problem.
Microsoft Teams calling or a hosted business phone system, managed end to end by a New Zealand team through Layer3's ISO/IEC 27001-certified ISMS. You keep your existing numbers.
Delivery
Teams calling or a hosted system
Your numbers
Kept and ported, often in days
Hosting
AWS or Layer3 private cloud
Certified
ISO/IEC 27001:2022
Two designs
Microsoft Teams calling, or Layer3 Hosted Voice powered by Yeastar. Which one fits depends on how your people already work, not on which one we would rather sell.
Microsoft licences
Teams calling needs a Teams Phone licence for each person making and receiving external calls, and not everyone needs one. Teams Premium and Microsoft 365 Copilot are only required for supervisor wallboards and AI call summaries. A hosted phone system carries none of them.
Your numbers
Existing numbers port across. Porting can take up to two weeks and is often done in days; your current service keeps running until they move, so there is no window where customers cannot reach you.
Where it runs
Either in AWS or in Layer3's own private cloud — chosen on data residency, how it integrates with the rest of your environment, and how the service is contracted.
Emergency calls
A 111 call routes from a registered address rather than from wherever the person is sitting. We register the correct address for every site at setup, and cover what that means for people working from home before we hand over.
How it is bought
Voice is delivered inside a Layer3 managed plan, not on its own. A phone system depends on the network it runs over, the identities that sign into it and the devices it reaches.
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The case for change
Telephony is easy to overlook until it fails, and everybody notices when it does. Equipment ages, configurations lose their owners and the way the business works changes faster than the system.
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Hardware bought outright five or ten years ago, out of support, and understood by one person who may no longer work here. Any change means finding someone who still knows it.
02
Desk phones ring at empty desks. Staff give out mobile numbers to get around it, and the organisation slowly loses control of how it is contacted.
03
Microsoft Teams already runs the meetings and the messaging. A separate phone system runs the calls. Staff switch between them all day and neither one holds the full picture.
Two ways to deliver it
There is no single right answer, which is why we deliver both. Organisations standardised on Microsoft 365 often want calls inside Teams. Reception desks, complex call flows and shift-based teams often suit a dedicated phone system. We scope the requirement before recommending either.
Path one
Full external calling inside the Teams app your staff already use, delivered by Direct Routing. One application for chat, meetings and the telephone, on the desktop and on mobile. Each user who makes and receives outside calls needs a Microsoft Teams Phone licence - we will tell you exactly how many before you commit.
Path two
A full business phone system, hosted on AWS or in Layer3's private cloud and managed entirely by us. Reception consoles, auto-attendants, queues, hunt groups and call reporting, with desk phones where people still want them. No hardware in your comms room and no licence per user to buy from Microsoft.
Keep your numbers
Desk phones if you want them
Auto-attendant and queues
Call reporting
Call recording
Either path is delivered and supported inside a Layer3 managed plan, not sold as a standalone phone contract.
Not sure which
The questions below identify which platform is likely to fit. If the result is mixed, we resolve it during scoping.
Question
Points to
Points to
Is Microsoft 365 already where your people work - chat, meetings, files?
Yes, Teams is the hub
Not really, or only some teams
Do you want calling to follow your existing Microsoft 365 identities and user lifecycle?
Users, policies and calling stay inside the Microsoft environment your team already administers
A separate telephony platform, administered and managed by Layer3 for you
Do you want AI call summaries, transcripts and follow-ups on ordinary phone calls?
Yes - Copilot does this inside Teams, with a Copilot licence
Not a priority
Do you run a reception desk, complex call queues or shift-based teams?
Occasionally
Every day - this is core to how we operate
Is the per-user licence cost the deciding factor?
No
Yes - no Teams Phone licence to buy
Do most of your staff need a physical desk phone?
A few do
Most do
Do you need supervisor wallboards, service levels and call coaching?
Yes - but it needs Teams Premium as well as Teams Phone
Included
Do customers reach you on WhatsApp, SMS or web chat as well as by phone?
Needs a third-party contact centre
Built in
Do calls need to log into a CRM that is not Microsoft's?
Usually through a connector
Direct integrations out of the box
Do you have existing SIP desk phones or DECT handsets to keep?
Many work through SIP Gateway, with basic calling only
Broad SIP support, with full features
Must calls keep working independently of your Microsoft tenant?
Calling depends on Microsoft 365
Runs independently
A hosted system suits organisations where Microsoft Teams is not the main way people already work together, and where keeping the per-user cost down matters more than having calls in the same app as chat and meetings. Teams calling suits organisations already living in Microsoft 365 who want one application for everything.
Tell us how calls reach your business today and we will map the right option, the Microsoft licences required for the design, and how your numbers move across.
What Microsoft charges
Microsoft licenses Teams calling separately from Layer3’s service. Three licences may apply, although most organisations need only the first.
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Needed for each person who makes and receives external calls in Teams. Not everyone in the organisation needs one - plenty of staff never dial out. We work out who genuinely needs a licence and tell you the number before you commit.
02
Only if you want the supervisor side: live wallboards, service levels and call coaching. It sits on top of Teams Phone rather than replacing it. Most organisations do not need it, and we will say so if you do not.
03
Only if you want AI call summaries, transcripts and follow-up actions on ordinary phone calls. Microsoft prices it per user, and it may suit selected roles.
A hosted phone system carries none of these – there is no Microsoft licence attached to it. That changes the operating cost and should be included in the design decision.
What is included
Layer3 delivers and supports both designs. Shared inclusions and platform-specific differences are set out below.
Numbers and porting
Your existing numbers moved across, with new ranges added where you need them.
Handsets and softphones
Desk and conference phones supplied, provisioned and managed where they are wanted, and softphones on laptops and mobiles where they are not.
Call-flow design
Auto-attendants, business hours, holiday routing and escalation paths, built around how you operate rather than a default template.
Queues, ring groups and overflow
Calls routed so they reach a person rather than a voicemail box, with an agreed destination when no one is available.
Voicemail
Messages delivered to email, so they are picked up wherever people are working that day.
Reporting
Visibility of call volumes, answer rates and where calls are being missed.
Changes and ongoing support
New users, changed call flows and moved numbers handled by us as part of managing the system, through the same service desk as the rest of your IT.
Path one
Calling sits inside the Teams environment your people already use, with users and policies aligned to Microsoft 365.
Path two
A dedicated business communications platform hosted and managed by Layer3, suited to reception, service teams and more complex customer-contact workflows.
Call recording is optional with either design. Internet-based calling depends on working power and internet connectivity; keep a charged mobile phone or another independent way to call 111 available during an outage. Final scope and responsibilities are confirmed in your service schedule.
02
Extended functionality
Some organisations need conversations captured - for compliance, for dispute resolution, for training, or because a regulator or insurer asks. Where that applies we add a cloud recording layer to either path: calls captured with no length limits, keyword search from a browser or an app, and permission-based access so individuals, team leaders and administrators each see only what they should. It is an option rather than part of the base service, because most organisations do not need it and should not pay for it. It is also a different thing from Copilot's call summaries - Copilot recaps a call for the person who was on it, while a recording layer keeps the conversation itself, searchable and governed, for the organisation.
Recording conversations carries obligations under the Privacy Act 2020. Your organisation is responsible for the lawful purpose, notifying staff and customers, controlling access, responding to information requests and setting retention. Layer3 implements the agreed technical configuration.
How we run it
A phone system is only as good as the platform underneath it and the people looking after it. Both are ours to worry about, not yours.
Where it runs
We host the system either in AWS or in Layer3's own private cloud, chosen against your requirements rather than our convenience - data residency, integration with the rest of your environment, and how the service is contracted all feed into which one is right. Voice traffic reaches the network over multiple redundant paths with more than one outbound route, so a single failure does not take your phones with it.
What we manage
Full management of the phone system: monitoring, updates and patching, new users and leavers, changed call flows, added numbers, handset provisioning and fault resolution. You raise it with the same service desk that handles the rest of your IT, and it is handled - there is no separate telephony vendor to chase.
Moving across
Changing phone systems does not mean changing how customers reach you. Existing numbers port across to the new service. Porting can take up to two weeks, and is often completed in a matter of days.
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Before anything moves
We list every number you hold, where it currently terminates and what it is used for. This is where surprises get found, not on cutover day.
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In parallel
The new system is built alongside the old one - call flows, queues, users and handsets - so it is ready and tested before a single call moves.
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Days to two weeks
Numbers are submitted for porting while your existing service continues, avoiding an interruption to how customers reach you.
04
Cutover
Calls begin arriving on the new system. We are on hand while it happens, watching the first calls land rather than waiting to hear that they did not.
05
The following weeks
Call flows are adjusted against usage, staff are shown what changed, and the service moves into normal management.
Before you hear a word
Almost every bad experience of internet telephony is a network problem wearing a telephony costume. Jitter, packet loss and a link that saturates every afternoon will ruin a call on any platform from any vendor. So we look at the network before we move your calls onto it, rather than after your staff start complaining.
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Each site is measured before cutover: available bandwidth, jitter, packet loss, and how the connection behaves when it is under load rather than when it is idle.
02
Call traffic is separated and prioritised, so somebody uploading a large file cannot degrade a conversation that is already in progress.
03
Quality is monitored after go-live. A connection that starts to degrade becomes something we raise with you, not something your people quietly put up with.
Where the connection itself is the limiting factor we will tell you plainly, and what it would take to fix - that work sits under Managed Network. One more thing worth knowing before you move: with internet telephony, emergency calls route from a registered address rather than from wherever the person happens to be sitting. We register the right address for every site and make sure your people know what happens when they dial 111 from a laptop somewhere else.
How it is bought
We do not sell telephony on its own. A phone system depends on its network, identities and devices; when different providers manage each layer, responsibility can become unclear when a call drops. Voice is delivered within a Layer3 managed plan by the same team and service desk that runs the rest of your IT.
Proof
Customer example
70 years
Cuttriss have surveyed and engineered the Wellington region since the 1950s. Their IT and phone systems were breaking down together; Layer3 took both on.
Read the Cuttriss case studyCommon questions
The questions we get asked most often about moving a phone system, keeping your numbers, and what it takes to run calls inside Microsoft Teams.
Book a discovery callYes. Your existing numbers port across to the new service. Porting can take up to two weeks and is often completed in a matter of days. Your current service keeps running until the numbers move, so there is no window where customers cannot reach you.
For calling inside Teams, yes - each person who makes and receives external calls needs a Microsoft Teams Phone licence. Not everyone in the organisation necessarily needs one, and we will tell you exactly how many before you commit. A hosted phone system avoids that per-user licence entirely, which is one of the things we weigh up when working out which path fits you.
For Teams calling, a Microsoft Teams Phone licence for each person who makes and receives external calls - and not everyone needs one. Teams Premium is only required if you want supervisor wallboards, service levels and call coaching. Microsoft 365 Copilot is only required if you want AI call summaries on phone calls. We work out which of these you actually need and give you the numbers before you commit. A hosted phone system carries none of them.
Either in AWS or in Layer3's own private cloud. Which one depends on your requirements rather than our convenience - data residency, how it needs to integrate with the rest of your environment, and how the service is contracted.
Voice reaches the network over multiple redundant paths with more than one outbound route, so a single failure does not take your phones with it. Call flows can also fail over to mobiles, so calls keep being answered while a site is offline.
With internet telephony an emergency call routes from a registered address rather than from wherever the person is sitting, so getting that address right matters. We register the correct address for every site during setup. Staff working from home or on the road should know that a 111 call from a laptop may not present the address they are actually at - we cover that when we hand the system over, and we would rather raise it now than have you discover it in an emergency.
Yes, where they are wanted. Desk and conference phones are supplied, provisioned and managed as part of the service. Plenty of organisations now run entirely on softphones and headsets, and we will not push handsets you do not need.
Recording conversations carries obligations under the Privacy Act, including how people are told they are being recorded and how long recordings are kept. Where recording is in use we walk you through consent, notification and retention before it is switched on. What gets recorded remains your decision.
No. Voice is delivered inside a Layer3 managed plan. A phone system depends on the network it runs over, the identities that sign into it and the devices it reaches - and when those are managed by somebody else, nobody owns the problem when a call drops.
Next step
Tell us how your people work and how customers reach you today. We will tell you whether Teams calling or a hosted system is the better answer, what it takes to move your numbers, and what it costs to run.
Layer3 is a managed IT provider operating an ISO/IEC 27001-certified ISMS, with offices across New Zealand.
Contact
0508 LAYER3 Book a discovery call Service status Notices
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84-90 Main Street
Upper Hutt, Wellington 5018
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