Communicativ was launched in 2009 at a registered address at Schiphol next to Microsoft’s office. From day one, our focus has been exclusively on Microsoft communication solutions, on which we have also based our entire strategy.

The focus that year was on:

• Microsoft Exchange 2007
• Microsoft OCS2007r2
• BPOS, Business Productivity Online Suite, the first online collaboration platform developed by Microsoft.

In 2010, we were active with different Microsoft Exchange and BPOS projects. Our small number of clients at the time included several organisations interested in the newest of the newest. A few of these clients came up with the idea to link their existing telephone system to a Microsoft OCS solution. With these initial projects, we experienced that there was a significant knowledge divide between the telephony and IT worlds. At the end of 2010, Lync2010 was launched and the first telephone exchange replacement was positioned by Microsoft.

After more than two years of actively doing business in the telephone system replacement branch, we were often confronted by the primarily technical-driven project approach from our clients. They had not yet seen how the advantages of introducing a different communication process could result in a better workplace experience. The initial demand for replacement was based more on the depreciation of replacement.

Key

• Microsoft Lync 2013
• Project management
• Replacement of the telephony environment in 13 countries with the installation of an AudioCodes Mediant 1000 SBS at each location linked to a dual data centre set up in the Netherlands. This project resulted in an annual cost savings of 300,000 euros in the client’s internal communication costs.

In 2015, Microsoft once again made a name change: Microsoft Lync became Microsoft Skype for Business. The product underwent a drastic upgrade, with a completely new user interface and mobile telephone application. At the end of that year, we had migrated more than 310,000 end users to Skype for Business.

• Microsoft Lync 2013 to Microsoft Skype for Business migration projects
• Our team was expanded and three business units established: Communications, Collaboration and Interop
• Proud: proclaimed the number one Microsoft partner in the Netherlands!

In February, Microsoft introduced the Microsoft Surface Hub, a completely new device for Skype support in the meeting room. Thanks to our prior knowledge, as well as our belief in the added value for the market, Communicativ immediately established a Surface Hub team.

The Surface Hub is a real game-changer and has opened a world of Collaboration to the Enterprise and Corporate market. After nine months of waiting, we were finally able to install the first Surface Hub for clients.

• Installation of first Microsoft Surface Hub

We began carrying out projects in Belgium in 2016. Because of the positive results there, we rented an office in Brussels next to the Microsoft Belgium headquarters.

To demonstrate the mobile communication and collaboration possibilities of Office365, our management team joined the Arctic Challenge. During the 8,500 km journey to the North Cape and back – with temperatures as low as -35°C – Communicativ was managed from the car using simple data connections. Using Microsoft Skype Cloud PBX, headsets and a laptop equipped with Skype Client, the team made a total of 124 conference calls (56 with video ) and 259 Skype calls during the car trip.

That same year, Microsoft chose us as Microsoft Launch Partner for Office 365 Cloud PBX, later renamed the Microsoft Phone system.

• New office in Brussels
• Ultimate challenge: Arctic Challenge
• Proclaimed Microsoft Launch Partner

In January, we launched our very own platform for Teams telephony: DirectRoute365. The platform and the power of support in over 60 countries immediately convinced the first clients. Teams has been embraced by many organisations and the DirectRoute365 platform handled by the end of 2019 an average of 2.7 million conversations per month.

• Introduction of DirectRoute365, the telephone system-as-a-service platform for Teams.