Bring business telephone calls into Microsoft Teams.
Solutions · Business Communications · Business Telephony · Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams telephony allows users to make and receive ordinary business telephone calls through Microsoft Teams using their business telephone numbers.
Teams is the user interface, not the public telephone network
The architecture remains a separate decision
Teams can form part of an on-premises, hosted or SIP-trunk-based telephony design. Choosing Teams as the interface does not automatically determine where the underlying phone system or telephone service must be hosted.
When Teams telephony may fit
Teams telephony may suit organisations that already use Microsoft Teams heavily and want employees to handle business calls from the same application used for meetings, messaging and collaboration.
- Remote, hybrid and multi-site teams
- Business telephone numbers for Teams users
- Fewer separate day-to-day communications applications for some users
- Teams linked with an existing or new business phone system
- A staged telephony change without forcing one underlying architecture
- Supported desk, computer and mobile calling where appropriate
Understand where Teams stops and the telephone system starts
The solution therefore needs to be considered as a complete operating design rather than simply enabling a Teams feature.
Dependencies to design around
- Appropriate Microsoft 365 and Teams telephone licensing
- Suitable Microsoft tenant administration
- Reliable internet access
- Appropriate local networking
- Supported external telephone-service design
- User devices, headsets or desk phones
- Number porting
- Emergency-calling arrangements
Resilience and support boundaries
Teams telephony can depend on Microsoft services, internet connectivity, the local network, user devices and an underlying telephone service. The resilience plan should consider what happens when any one of these is unavailable.
FVC Solutions can help define the architecture and supplier/support boundaries as part of the agreed project scope. Exact licensing, compatibility, supported functionality, devices, number-transfer arrangements, emergency calling, support scope and commercial terms must be verified for the specific design before commitment.
Legacy line-connected services, including lift alarm lines or elevator remote monitoring systems, alarm signalling, telecare, warden call systems, personal triggers and monitoring services, fax machines, are likely not to be supported in Microsoft Teams.
Emergency calling
Business telephony services may depend on mains power, internet connectivity, network equipment and correctly configured telephone services.
Calls to 999 and 112 should be available from appropriately configured services, but emergency-calling behaviour can vary depending on the telephone system, provider, device and location.
If phones, applications or users move between sites or are used remotely, the location information associated with an emergency call may not reflect the caller’s actual location. Callers should therefore clearly state their location and provide a reliable callback number.
Customers should keep site and service-location information up to date and consider how emergency calls will be made during a power, internet or equipment failure.
In an emergency, call 999 or 112. Do not contact FVC Solutions instead of the emergency services.
Make Teams part of the right telephony design
The objective is not to force all telephony into Teams. It is to use Teams where doing so supports the way your business works.