Adding a guest to a team in Microsoft Teams
How do I create a team in Microsoft Teams?
Who are the Digital Learning Team?
KnowBe4 – How to check your team dashboard
Shared desks - How to see where your team and colleagues are sitting
This article guides you in setting up Microsoft Softphone and gives you information on using it from your device.
As part of our Organisational Excellence Strategic Plan, we are upgrading our IT systems to support mobile and flexible working. One of the key changes is replacing our MX One telephone system, now 25 years old, with a new softphone service provided by Microsoft Teams.
We are providing staff with a desk phone alternative - PC/laptop phones via Teams, also called Softphone. These new phones allow staff to make and receive calls just like the previous desk phones. They also allow for remote and flexible working.
iSolutions can provide handsets to University departments in circumstances where:
You will not need any training to use these phones.
As part of the move to Softphone, if you do not have an extension number, you will be assigned one. If you need help or further information, please contact your Telephony Liaison Officer.
You need to be logged onto your University IT account and have access to Microsoft Teams.
If you require a headset to use with your PC or laptop, you can request this from your Line Manager. The cost of standard headsets will be covered by the Softphone rollout.
If you need an amplified headset, please:
If you are moving over to Softphone and already have a telephone number, you will keep this number.
If you are moving over to Softphone and do not have a telephone number, you will be issued one.
No, any call diverts set up on an extension will be removed when migrated to Teams Softphone. You can easily set up a call divert in the calls section in Teams: to do that, follow the ‘How to use Microsoft Teams Softphone’ knowledge base article.
There is sometimes a misunderstanding of what the University telephony system is providing. The old phone system has a mix of hard-wired analogue and IP phones. All the phones in labs, offices, and teaching spaces across the university have always been routed via the network. None of the older, standard phones have been emergency phones.
The new Teams Softphone service will provide greater resilience, and the change to Teams telephony should reduce single points of failure, not increase them. Some emergency lines exist for some services, such as lifts and accessible toilets. These are managed separately by Estates & Facilities; they are out of scope for the Teams Softphone service and will continue to work in the same way.
The phones will stop working; this is nothing new. However, the new phones will be on the network and not dependent on the MX One system or hard-wired to it. The MX One system is over 25 years old and hosted in B54, which will be decommissioned because it has been subject to leaking and flooding, which puts an increased risk to the old phone system. Please be reassured that the university’s network is highly resilient and will be upgraded further as part of the network replacement project with new equipment.
We understand that some mobile phone networks have different signal strengths around campus. Please be reassured that if your network is unavailable and a signal is available on another network, your phone will use this alternative network to connect to the emergency services. All 999 calls are free.
As we replace the old phone system, we are also looking at opportunities to reduce the number of physical phones in buildings. All staff will now have access to Teams phones, and those in common spaces, such as a lab, will be shared. Health and safety is always a priority, so all labs where it isn’t always appropriate to use PCs will be provided with a handset. You can request more than one shared phone if a lab is very big.
Lab phones will now be location phones; the extension will be associated with the room, not a person. This means the phone will stay active even if a person leaves the university.
This is out of scope, but if a phone is attached to equipment for alerts to notify staff that the equipment is failing, technicians need to consider alternative alarms/alerts for the equipment.
A desk phone will be provided.
In a place where staff need to be moving around a lot, for example, a children’s nursery, they could be useful; however, there is an additional cost, and they are not as safe because they require charging and putting back where staff can find them. Each request for these cordless phones will be considered individually and must be backed up by reasonable justification.
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Softphone will replace your desk phone therefore you just need to unplug your phone from the floor or wall port and:
We will let you know where the phone collection boxes or storage locations are.
If your phone has more than one cable plugged into it, please do not unplug it as it’s most likely connected to another device – for example, a printer or a PC. We will disconnect your phone on your behalf to ensure there is no disruption to the other device. Please let your Line Manager know if this is the case.
If you would rather not disconnect the desk phone yourself, please let your Line Manager know and we will arrange to have it removed.
It could be that your telephone number and location are not up to date.
For calls to be routed correctly, please check your telephone number and location in Subscribe are correct. If you are still having issues with Softphone, please contact ServiceLine.
If you use a hearing aid, you can pair this with your PC, enabling you to make and take calls through Teams. Both your hearing aid and PC will need to have a Bluetooth connection to do this.
Likewise, if you have your own Bluetooth headphones or headset which you prefer to use, you can pair them with your PC.
You can pair your hearing aid or headphones under ‘Settings’ on your PC.
If you have a call forward or a call queue set up on your desk phone, it will be cancelled, and you will need to recreate this in Teams. In Teams, 'hunt groups' are referred to as 'call queues'.
The Microsoft 365 Support Centre gives guidance on how to do this.
Once your team has moved over to Softphone, you will need to ensure your new starter has a telephone extension. If a new number is needed, please make a telephony request in the Service Portal. The ‘Request Type’ is ‘Telephone Extensions’ and complete the details.
If the phone has been unplugged it will need to be logged back in. Please get in touch with ServiceLine for support with details of the extension number to arrange to have it reconnected. Please note that if a handset has been unplugged from the port for more than 3 months, the Microsoft licence will be locked out and the phone will be removed as it will be assumed it is not needed.
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For Softphone to work, each person needs their own number in Teams.
If you share a phone number, then you may be allocated a different number. You will be told this number once you have been moved to Teams Softphone. If you have a specific reason why you need to keep your number, please tell your manager who will liaise with the project team.
Within Teams, you can set your working hours so you are not disturbed outside these hours. Find full guidance in the knowledge base article “Setting up Quiet Times on Teams”.
With the rollout of the Softphone, all staff will have the ability to make international calls via Teams. Common area phone in reception areas will be restricted to internal calls and 3 digit numbers such as 999 only.
No, the person you are calling cannot view your phone number. The number presented to the caller is known as the Call Line Identity (CLI), the University’s main switchboard number.
Your phone number will not be published unless you set your contact details as public in Subscribe. When calling people, they will not be able to view your phone number, only the University’s main switchboard number.
Yes, it will stop all call notifications in the Teams Mobile app.
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How to use Microsoft Teams Softphone
"Getting to know Teams Softphone" (video)
M365 Support Centre - Softphones
Telephone Liaison Officer (TLO) list
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