This new cloud voice solution for businesses combines chat, calling, meetings, calendars, and email to offer a comprehensive package for collaboration and communication.
Microsoft is once again disrupting the communications market this week, with the introduction of a brand-new phone system solution designed for the UK small business sector customers already using the Microsoft Teams Platform to boost productivity and collaboration.
Its a real productivity boost for existing Microsoft teams users adding click to call and many more features meaning you never need to type a phone number into a handset again.
Designed for companies with up to 300 users, the phone system is a cloud-based offering that integrates with Microsoft Teams and Office 365.
Microsoft 365 Business Voice will work across all devices, including smartphones, desk phones, and computers, so that users can make crucial calls from anywhere. What’s more, the service also uses AI technology from Microsoft to translate chat messages, transcribe voice mails, and offer real-time captioning to users.
Some integrated VOIP services were already available for the Office 365 cloud platform however this required an Office 365 Enterprise licence for users which is a decent price jump.
Now you can quickly and easily get access to the integrated VOIP solution with a Microsoft 365 Business Voice licence (per user) in addition to your existing Office 365 Business Essentials or Business Premium licence.
Now I think its fair to say we like to try new and innovative solutions over here at the Hixon Group, So we decided to take the jump and migrate our existing stand alone VoIP phone system to the new platform to put it through its paces. The whole process look less than two hours to migrate and setup correctly including porting numbers, configuring call routing, auto attendants, greeting messages and hold music.
Jonathan Lawton – Cloud Solutions Specialist – Hixon Group
For those not so technically minded, the team at Hixon Group can help with a stress free migration and deployment that gives you peace of mind knowing your new phone system works as expected.
Please contact us for more information or any questions you might have regarding the new integrated VOIP solution for Microsoft Teams.
A small note for technical teams / system administrators trying to deploy the new VOIP solution:
Are you unable to add a phone number to resources in the Microsoft Teams Admin Portal?
It appears the Microsoft Teams Admin portal has a bug in the latest UI version that will not allow a service phone number to be applied to a resource using the new “free” licence that is used for virtual “hunt group” style accounts.
Previously you could jump back to the legacy SFB (Skype for Business) Admin portal and iron out this little crease, however this has now been retired and advises you that this needs to be completed on the new Microsoft Teams Admin Portal .
We found a simple fix that allowed us to overcome this issue, if you download the Microsoft Teams PowerShell Module and Connect using the PowerShell command terminal you can apply the Service number to the resource once the Virtual user licence has been applied.
PowerShell Commands to Add Service Phone Number to Resource:
1) – Install the PowerShell module for Microsoft Teams
Install-Module MicrosoftTeamsSelect “Y” to install the Microsoft Teams module from the PS Gallery
2) – Connect to Microsoft Teams
Connect-MicrosoftTeamsEnter Office 365 Admin credentials when requested.
You are now connected to the teams administration portal using PowerShell.
3) – Apply service telephone number to resource account.
Use the following command remembering to replace the resource identity and the Service telephone number you wish to assign…
Set-CsOnlineVoiceApplicationInstance -Identity USER@COMPANYNAME.COM -TelephoneNumber +441234567890Check the admin portal and the number should now be assigned correctly.