Do we keep our phone numbers?

Numbers live with the phone system rather than with Teams, so what you have now usually carries across, and callers dial the same number they always have. Tell us what numbers you hold and we will confirm before anything moves.

Do we still need desk phones?

Only where they earn their place. Some people can be entirely in Teams, others can keep a handset, and both can sit on the same system with the same numbers. A front counter or a workshop usually keeps a physical phone. An office desk often does not need one.

Can staff answer the office number from home?

Yes. That is most of the point. The call arrives at the phone system, the system applies your rules, and it rings in Teams wherever the person is signed in, on the desktop app, the browser or a mobile.

What happens to calls while someone is in a meeting?

Presence can drive it. When Teams shows in a meeting or do not disturb, the system can send the call to voicemail, to a colleague or to a queue, following rules that are set once rather than decided call by call.

Do we need a particular Microsoft licence?

The calling side of Teams has its own requirements on Microsoft’s end, and they depend on the plan you are on. That is one of the three things we check and put in writing before anything is ordered, rather than something to discover mid project.

Does the auto attendant still work?

Yes. The menu, the business hours rules, the queues and the recording all stay with the phone system, which still answers and routes every call. Teams changes where the call ends up ringing, not how your business handles it.

Microsoft Teams as your business phone system

Step 1The phone networkA customer dials your business number from a mobile or a landline.
Step 2The SIP trunkThe connection that carries calls between the network and your system.
Step 3Your phone systemThe PBX takes the call, exactly as it does today.
Step 4Your rules runThe auto attendant, the business hours rule and the queue, all unchanged.
Step 5It rings in TeamsOn a laptop, in the browser or on a mobile, wherever the person is signed in.

The path a call takes when Teams is the handset. The phone system is still doing the phone work, which is why your menus, hours and queues carry across untouched.

If your staff already spend their day in Microsoft Teams, the obvious question is whether the office phone can ring there too, instead of on a handset nobody is sitting near. It can. The phone system stays, and Teams becomes the thing you answer it with.

This page covers how that fits together, what your staff actually get, what stays with the phone system, and what to check before anything is ordered. We install and support the phone system side.

A call to your business number, answered in Microsoft Teams. The phone system is still running the call, the screen is where it lands.

How it fits together

A call to your business number arrives from the phone network, comes in over a SIP trunk, and lands on your phone system. The system decides what to do with it, the same as it does now: play the menu, apply the after hours rule, ring the right people. The difference is where it rings. Instead of a desk phone, the call turns up in Teams, on the desktop app, in the browser, or on a mobile.

On the Yeastar systems we install, this is essentially the Linkus softphone embedded inside Teams. The PBX keeps doing the phone work. Teams is the screen it happens on.

What your staff get

Office calls answered in Teams, on a laptop or a phone, with nothing extra to learn.
One business number that behaves the same whether they are at their desk, at home or on a site. Customers ring the number they already have.
Presence that means something. In a meeting can send calls to voicemail or on to somebody else, following rules you set once.
Transfers that work like a phone system, to a person, an extension or a queue, announced first or straight through.
Voicemail that follows the system’s rules, including being sent to email, depending on how the deployment is set up.

What stays with the phone system

Everything that makes a phone system worth having keeps working, because the PBX is still doing it. The auto attendant still answers. Business hours and holiday routing still apply. Calls still queue for sales or support and ring groups still ring, with the people in them answering from Teams instead of a handset. Recording, extension dialling and conference calls carry on as before.

That split is the point of this shape. Teams is where your people already are. The phone system is what knows how your business handles a call. Connecting them means neither pretends to be the other.

Who it suits, and who it does not

Offices already living in Microsoft 365, where Teams is open on every screen all day.
Hybrid and remote teams, where the office number has to work identically at home and nobody wants a desk phone couriered to a spare room.
Businesses that want to keep their phone system and its call handling, rather than replace it to get calls into Teams.

It suits a workshop floor, a shop counter or a clinic front desk much less well. If the job is done standing up, away from a screen, a desk phone or a cordless handset is still the right tool, and a mixed setup, some people in Teams, some on handsets, on the same system and the same numbers, is a normal way to run it.

There is more on phones for people who are not in the building in the best phone system for remote teams and hybrid work.

What to check before anything is ordered

Three things decide whether this works well for you, and all three are checkable before you spend anything. What your Microsoft plan covers, because the calling side of Teams has its own requirements on Microsoft’s end. What your current phone system supports, or what it would take to move to one that does. And whether your internet and numbers are ready for calls to run this way.

We check all three and put the answer in writing before anything is ordered. If the honest answer is that what you have today cannot do it well, we will say so first.

If what you actually want is customer records on screen when calls come in, that is a different integration: see HubSpot and Cliniko. The two can coexist on the same system.

What it costs

We do not publish a price for this, because what you pay depends on the phone system, the number of people, and what your Microsoft plan already covers. What goes into a phone system bill more generally is on what a VoIP system actually costs.

Before you ask us about it

Three things make the first conversation useful:

Roughly how many people need to make and take calls, and how many of them are ever out of the office.
What phone system and numbers you have now.
Who looks after your Microsoft 365 setup, so we can talk to them about the Teams side.

We are not Microsoft, and we are not one of their partners, resellers or authorised agents. We do the phone system side, and we will tell you plainly which parts are ours to fix and which sit with whoever runs your Microsoft accounts.

Call 1300 865 879, or send us the details and we will come back to you.

Common questions

Do we keep our phone numbers?: Numbers live with the phone system rather than with Teams, so what you have now usually carries across, and callers dial the same number they always have. Tell us what numbers you hold and we will confirm before anything moves.
Do we still need desk phones?: Only where they earn their place. Some people can be entirely in Teams, others can keep a handset, and both can sit on the same system with the same numbers. A front counter or a workshop usually keeps a physical phone. An office desk often does not need one.
Can staff answer the office number from home?: Yes. That is most of the point. The call arrives at the phone system, the system applies your rules, and it rings in Teams wherever the person is signed in, on the desktop app, the browser or a mobile.
What happens to calls while someone is in a meeting?: Presence can drive it. When Teams shows in a meeting or do not disturb, the system can send the call to voicemail, to a colleague or to a queue, following rules that are set once rather than decided call by call.
Do we need a particular Microsoft licence?: The calling side of Teams has its own requirements on Microsoft’s end, and they depend on the plan you are on. That is one of the three things we check and put in writing before anything is ordered, rather than something to discover mid project.
Does the auto attendant still work?: Yes. The menu, the business hours rules, the queues and the recording all stay with the phone system, which still answers and routes every call. Teams changes where the call ends up ringing, not how your business handles it.