Contents
Background
For a forward-thinking intellectual property firm operating across multiple continents, communication is far more than a supporting function – it is core to client service delivery. Murgitroyd, with approximately 400 employees across Europe, the US and Central America, has built a hybrid, mobile workforce of patent and trademark attorneys, paralegals and support staff who need to be reachable and productive wherever they are.
Headquartered in Glasgow and celebrating 50 years in 2025, the firm has grown steadily through strategic acquisitions, each adding new geographies, clients and technology layers.
Rather than letting that growth create fragmentation, Murgitroyd took a deliberately progressive stance: standardize on Microsoft as the single strategic platform, eliminate legacy tools and simplify every aspect of collaboration and telephony. The result is a modern, unified communications environment powered by Microsoft Teams Phone and LoopUp’s cloud telephony services via Operator Connect.
Growth that exposed complexity
Acquisitions brought a patchwork of on-premises PBX systems, regional carriers and multiple telephony platforms. At one stage the firm was running a mix of Mitel, hosted solutions and Mitel BP before standardising on Avaya – chosen originally for its fax capabilities. Over time the operational overhead became unsustainable.
“As the years have gone on, there’s been less and less demand for faxing,” explained Andrew Hastings, IT leader at Murgitroyd. “Avaya became over-the-top complicated for what we actually needed. Support was inconsistent, the portal was a mess, and there were three different ways of doing the same thing. It worked, but it was high maintenance.”
The firm’s IT team recognized that continuing with fragmented, regionally managed telephony would only slow their Microsoft-first transformation and hinder scalability.
Building on Microsoft as the standard platform
Murgitroyd had already made a decisive move to the Microsoft ecosystem. Legacy collaboration tools (Zoom, Slack, Webex) were retired, everyone was migrated to Microsoft 365 and Exchange Online, and Teams became the single pane of glass for meetings, chat, and collaboration.
“Technology transformation within the business was really baked around Microsoft,” Andrew noted. “Modern desktops, modern tools, Exchange Online – we migrated everybody to the cloud and standardised on Teams as our collaboration tool.”
Telephony was the final piece. With users already comfortable in Teams, extending it to calling was a natural, low-disruption step that aligned perfectly with the firm’s hybrid working model and its commitment to a frictionless Microsoft workplace.
“People had already rewired their brains around Teams,” Andrew explained. “So bringing telephony into that same interface was a natural extension.”
Choosing Operator Connect and LoopUp
Global coverage was non-negotiable. One of the first test locations was the firm’s office in Managua, Nicaragua – historically one of the most challenging places to provision reliable PSTN connectivity.
“Operator Connect was a no-brainer for me,” said Andrew. “We were looking for organisations that could give us true global coverage, particularly Nicaragua, which isn’t the easiest part of the world to service.”
LoopUp stood out immediately as one of the few providers able to deliver seamless PSTN connectivity in that location through Microsoft Operator Connect. The initial proof-of-concept was deliberately small – one phone and one DDI – yet it proved the solution was every bit as straightforward as promised.
When the Avaya RingCentral contract approached renewal, the decision was already made. “We absolutely knew we had no intention of renewing,” Andrew recalled. The firm expanded its LoopUp deployment and fully migrated the entire estate to Microsoft Teams Phone powered by LoopUp’s cloud telephony services.
A migration grounded in partnership
Porting just shy of 1,300 numbers across multiple countries was a significant undertaking, especially with legacy number ranges the business was deeply attached to. LoopUp’s number porting and onboarding teams guided Murgitroyd through every country-specific requirement, letters of authority, data challenges inherited from the previous provider, rejections and resubmissions.
“The communication, the cadence of updates, the quality of engagement was brilliant,” Andrew said. “The team were incredibly structured and supportive throughout. They handheld us through the process.”
The result was a smooth, low-risk transition with minimal disruption to users – exactly the experience LoopUp’s Operator Connect model is designed to deliver.
Day-to-day operations without friction
Now live across the business, the difference is stark. “We barely have tickets. We’ve not had complaints,” Andrew reported. “From a reliability, performance and stability perspective, there are no issues whatsoever.”
LoopUp’s global management portal sits alongside the Microsoft Teams admin centre, providing an intuitive, modern interface for number management, grouping and tagging. “It’s set and forget really. It just works, which is rare in technology.” Andrew said. “It’s nice and neat. It’s intuitive, modern, and it does what you need it to do. Number management, grouping, tagging, all of it required next to no training.”
Call quality is consistently excellent, nuisance calls are easily blocked, and the entire global telephony estate is now managed centrally – eliminating the regional complexity and vendor coordination that previously consumed IT time.
Security and governance built in
Security was never an afterthought. LoopUp’s tight integration with Microsoft Entra ID allows administrators to sign in with existing Microsoft credentials and enforce conditional access policies.
This alignment with the firm’s Microsoft security model simplified internal assurance reviews and strengthened overall governance – another key benefit of LoopUp’s cloud telephony approach.
Clear commercial structure at global scale
Moving to a single global provider delivered immediate clarity on pricing and billing. “I still never understood the Avaya licensing – we even had separate tenants for different regions,” Andrew shared. “With LoopUp, you don’t need a PhD in mathematics to understand the invoicing. It’s very straightforward.”
Budgeting and forecasting are now simple, with no hidden regional costs or misaligned renewal cycles.
Ready for future growth
As Murgitroyd continues to expand through acquisition, telephony is no longer a limiting factor.
“If we acquire another company in three different countries, we know the process,” Andrew said. “We would standardise them on Teams Phone, with LoopUp powering it in the background.”
The combination of LoopUp’s extensive country coverage, seamless Operator Connect integration and global SIP trunking capability gives the firm the flexibility to add new locations quickly, support hybrid working patterns and scale without new hardware or operational overhead. For Andrew, the real differentiator is the partnership.
“Country coverage was a big decision point, but what really stands out is the people and the partnership. Consistent account managers, no hard sell, and a genuine sense that LoopUp came on the journey with us.”
When asked what he would say to another professional services firm considering the same move, his answer was unequivocal:
“Absolutely do it. Give LoopUp first refusal.”
And perhaps the strongest endorsement came at the close of the conversation:
“I don’t have to think about it anymore. It just works.”
That simplicity, reliability and future-proof scalability are exactly what LoopUp’s Microsoft Teams cloud telephony services are built to deliver – helping progressive organisations like Murgitroyd focus on what matters most: serving clients and driving growth.
