To activate a dial pad in Teams you will need to have deployed voice.
The most important part of deploying voice in Teams is to choose the method that works for you: Calling Plan, Operator Connect or Direct Routing. Depending on which method you choose, you will also have to include some additional Microsoft licensing.
There are currently three options for organizations looking to route calls to and from Microsoft Teams. Those three ways of enabling voice in Microsoft Teams include:
These three options all provide a native Teams dial pad within the Teams interface, meaning that outbound, inbound, and call controls are within the Teams environment.
Direct Routing is a toolkit that allows the integration of an existing phone system with Microsoft Teams – allowing users to make and receive external phone calls via the Teams dial pad.
The technical explanation: Direct Routing enables you to make and receive phone calls via the public switched telephone network (PSTN). The connection is made using a Session Border Controller (SBC) and session initiation protocol (SIP) trunks.
The simple stuff: If you’re looking at Direct Routing as an option, one of the best ways to connect your existing phones to Teams with minimal investment, technical knowledge or technical setup required, is to deploy a Direct Routing as a Service (DRaaS) option. DRaaS provides all of the technical stack that you will need, including SBCs.
To start making external calls in Teams via PSTN, you will need the following licensing, as part of your Microsoft 365 tenant. For Microsoft 365 Enterprise licensing, those on level E1 or E3 may need to add a Teams Phone license. Level E5 comes with voice capabilities. Those on a Microsoft 365 Business tenant, would need to purchase voice as a bundle. Read more here.
Thanks to our Call2Teams Go product, users can get calling with minimal licensing costs.
As every Microsoft Tenant is different, setting up Call2Teams depends almost entirely upon your requirements. A simplified setup process includes contract signing, purchasing seats, adding configuration details, adding necessary authorisations and finally syncing to enable calling.
As part of your Call2Teams agreement you will also be able to work with our customer success team who will be able to smooth out any nuances and guide you through getting started.