The Microsoft 365 Phone System (sometimes called the Office 365 Phone System) is a product that enables private branch exchange (PBX) capabilities and automated call controls on the cloud. It works with Microsoft Teams as your primary user client, as well as Skype for Business and Microsoft-certified hardware devices. Read on to learn exactly what is Microsoft 365 Phone System and how to use the product for better collaboration and contact centre productivity at your organisation.

Microsoft 365 Phone System: Definition and Prerequisites

Technically, Microsoft’s phone system comes under its 365 Business Voice licence. The company has been toying with a telephony product ever since the late 1990s when it introduced a now-obsolete cordless telephone with a PC integration.

As Microsoft pushed more and more into the cloud market, it made sense for it to offer cloud-native telephony systems that would bypass the usual Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) environment. Microsoft has gone one step further, giving you the option of retaining your own PSTN carrier with a Direct Routing plan.

Therefore, you could define the Microsoft 365 Phone System as:

“A cloud-based, on-premises-enabled or hybrid calling solution that lets you use Teams, Skype, or a Microsoft-certified handheld device as the telephony interface.”

Importantly, Microsoft 365 Phone System is not available as a standalone product. You would have to purchase a Microsoft 365 E5 or an Office 365 E5 plan for access to cloud-based telephony.

While cheaper options like Microsoft 365 apps, 365 E1, and 365 E3 support partial voice options, these don’t really constitute business telephony systems. With these cheaper options, what you get is a powerful voice meeting experience on Teams, Kaizala, or Skype without compatibility with dedicated contact centre endpoints. But depending on your location, you might be able to add on the phone system to an E3 plan as well.

The prerequisites for using this phone system are as follows:

  • Microsoft Business Voice licence – You can activate this from the 365 admin centre
  • A calling plan – Available at $12/$24 for E3; supports inbound calls from around the world and outbound calls to 196 countries
  • PSTN connectivity – Instead of buying phone numbers from Microsoft under the Calling Plan, you can stay with your existing PSTN carrier
  • Direct Routing – Microsoft 365 Phone System with PSTN requires direct routing to connect the public network and the cloud

Let’s now move on to the core features you can expect with Microsoft 365 Phone System.

Top 10 Features in Microsoft 365 Phone System

The product boasts of an incredible 35 discrete features, sure to deliver a holistic telephony experience in any given scenario. Here are our top ten:

  1. Auto-attendant – From the admin centre, you can set up a different auto-attendant for each number, specifying the conditions where an auto-attendant takes over the call. You can specify a greeting message, upload music, or even configure an IVR menu. The feature is hosted entirely on the cloud, which means you get automatic patch updates (but might face the rate downtime in case Teams goes through an outage)
  2. Voicemail transcription – The Microsoft 365 Phone System comes with voicemail on the cloud, and this goes beyond your typical audio recording. Voicemails are converted into a text transcription that you can access from your Microsoft Exchange mailbox
  3. Call escalation – Here’s where the Phone System’s cloud capabilities really kick in. if you’re using the product for collaboration, and not in a contact centre scenario, call escalation will let you morph 1-on-1 calls into a group conference. This means that you can directly jump from a telephonic conversation into a more expansive conference with screen sharing, video, etc., without missing a beat
  4. Secure telephony – This features would come in handy for those in the public sector or dealing with sensitive data. Phone calls between different Microsoft Teams’ tenants are fully secure. You can conduct safe, compliant telephony sessions with partners and other companies also using the Microsoft Cloud
  5. Analytics dashboard – Key metrics from the  Microsoft 365 Phone System feeds into a comprehensive dashboard on the admin centre. From this interface, admins can monitor the health of the telephony environment and do basic troubleshooting
  6. Number porting – This feature might sound simple on paper but is absolutely essential for established businesses looking to modernise their telephony capabilities. The Microsoft 365 Phone System lets you port your existing numbers into a Microsoft Calling Plan, in case you want to switch from your current PSTN provider. The advantage of this approach is that Microsoft manages end-to-end access to PSTN, reducing costs and upkeep at your end
  7. Contact centre-facing features – Microsoft has packed in several features that would be useful in a contact centre setting. For example, the user can park a phone call if they are unable to solve a customer query, and someone else would be able to step in by entering the call park code. Further, there is full delegation support letting one user answer a call on behalf of others. Simultaneous ringing lets the same call arrive on multiple devices so you can choose to answer from a device of your choice. And you can set up location-based routing to comply with the PSTN regulatory needs in a particular environment
  8. Media bypass – This feature brings the benefits of minimal media distortion to a PSTN environment. Calls/media are routed directly to the SBC instead of passing through a Microsoft data centre, dramatically improving call quality while reducing network congestion
  9. Basic telephony – Microsoft has all your essential bases covered even when you opt for a cloud-based solution. There is dynamic emergency calling for events when you would need to dial electronic 911. Incoming calls can be rejected with a busy signal, and you can hold/forward, transfer a call based on your availability. Like an analogue phone, you can even configure the Teams client with a digital “speed dial”
  10. One-click telephony – Companies using a Microsoft-certified endpoint with the phone system can gain from one-click telephony. These endpoint devices come with a dedicated Teams call button that you can press to initiate a conversation or answer an incoming call

As you can see from this feature set, the product is a perfect replacement for legacy phone systems, while adding on the benefits you’d expect from a cloud environment.

Microsoft 365 Phone System Deployment Options

Essentially, there are two options for using Microsoft’s phone system: with or without Calling Plans.

Microsoft recommends the with Calling Plan option as the simplest solution. The company would take care of PSTN access at their end (effectively becoming your PSTN carrier) eliminating the need for additional infrastructure. This phone system is an all-in-the-cloud solution that includes PBX functionality as well.

Microsoft 365 Phone System with Calling Plan

You won’t lose your existing phone numbers when moving to a fully cloud-based phone system with Microsoft, thanks to the number porting feature we mentioned earlier.

However, for more complex scenarios, Microsoft 365 Phone System without Calling Plans makes more sense. You can retain your PSTN carrier, adopting Microsoft Direct routing so that your telecom provider can seamlessly connect with Teams. This is useful if Calling Plans are yet to be available in your country, or you are considering a multi-national deployment with a layered number allocation and regulatory background.

As a third option, Microsoft also supports a combination of the two. I.e., you could opt for end-to-end cloud in one location, while going down the PSTN route in another – connecting back to the same Microsoft cloud tenant. Now, let’s look at the Calling Plan option in more detail.

You can check for your country availability  – for example, calling plans are available in the UK, but phone numbers are automatically assigned only for the city of London. In the UK, you get tolled numbers for 19 cities in total, including all the major ones like Birmingham, Manchester, Plymouth, Coventry, etc.

You can choose from four different Calling Plans:

  1. 120 minutes of domestic calls
  2. 240 minutes of domestic calls
  3. 1,200 minutes of domestic calls
  4. 1,200 domestic minutes or 600 international minutes, whichever is reached first

You can add on Communication Credits, which is a sort of recharge system for cloud-based telephony, for additional services.

If you can’t use Calling Plans (or do not want to for whatever reason), Microsoft allows you to stay with a preferred, local PSTN carrier with direct routing.

Microsoft 365 Phone System with PSTN and Direct Routing

The Microsoft 365 Phone System supports virtually every telephony carrier in the world, making Teams accessible to the widest possible user base. And, you can choose to configure/manage the solution in-house or get it done by your partner carrier, instead of leaving it to Microsoft.

You need the following to use Microsoft 365 Phone System with PSTN and Direct Routing:

  • A powerful internet connection to support uninterrupted access to Microsoft 365 or Office 365
  • Compatible Session Borders Controllers (SBC) that can work with Microsoft products
  • A contract with a telephony carrier at your location

Interestingly, this second deployment model works well with third-party equipment such as pagers, legacy phones, etc.

Trying Out Microsoft 365 Phone System for the First Time

If you’re still unsure about what is Microsoft 365 Phone System and if it is the solution for you, the company offers a free trial so that you can check out at least some of its features. And you don’t need an IT admin to intervene – here are the steps for trying out the Microsoft 365 Phone System, without going in for a more complex and finalised deployment:

  1. Let’s say you are currently trialling/using the E1 or E3 version of Microsoft’s product suite. Open your admin centre, and on your left pane, you will find an option to “Purchase services” under the billing category. On this page, navigate to Microsoft 365 Business Voice Trial. This option is now added to your cart, offering a one-month trial for 25 users. Click on “Try now” to confirm
  2. The next step is to add a free Phone System Virtual User, that will route toys calls to the right person. You can also set up call menus with numeric navigation. Click on “Activate it now” to check out
  3. Now you will be directed to a page where you can enter your usage location details. Enter your address, the city of use, and review your order. Since this is a free trial, payment value will be zero – but you will still have to enter your credit card details for Microsoft’s records (#ProTip: for purchases above a certain threshold, Microsoft offers payment through invoice, which you can use to avoid entering credit card details during the trial). Click on “Continue to setup”
  4. Now you’re all set to start configuring the Microsoft 365 Phone System and playing with its many features. You can create a few user accounts from the “Add a user” option on your Microsoft 365 admin centre home page. For every user, you will have to enter Display Name, User Licences, and User Name as the mandatory fields. Under user licences, you’ll be to choose from the various products you have purchased or are trialling
  5. Turn on Microsoft 365 Business Voice which will include the Phone System, a domestic Calling Plan, and audio conferencing by default
  6. From the admin centre’s left pane, look for the voice category, from where you can assign phone numbers. You can enter your city, area code, and the quantity of numbers required to generate phone numbers on the Microsoft 365 Phone System. Note that this might take a few seconds. These numbers will come unassigned, so you can allocate them to one of the user’s you set up in step 4

A Quick Recap

You should now have a working knowledge of what is Microsoft 365 Phone System and get started with a basic deployment. Remember a few key elements:

  • It is available built into an E5 plan or as an add on for E3
  • You don’t have to use PSTN numbers – but the option is there
  • The more detailed features like outbound calling, credit pricing, etc., varies based on location
  • It is partially/fully cloud-based, requiring uninterrupted connectivity

For companies already using Teams in a big way, and starting out with telephonic customer support, Microsoft 365 Phone System is an excellent investment. It has the ability to scale from a single location outfit to a global entity, adapting to your unique hardware environment as you grow.

Happy calling!

 

 



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