Pat Petersen

In today’s digital-first world, customers expect to reach your business on their terms. This can be through a phone call, live chat, email, or social media. Dynamics 365 Contact Center rises to meet this challenge by delivering an Omnichannel experience that goes beyond traditional voice-only solutions.

As contact centers evolve from single-channel operations to omnichannel platforms, understanding the full spectrum of capabilities, and their technical requirements becomes important.

Beyond the Phone Call: A Multichannel Approach

Voice has historically been the cornerstone of contact center operations, modern customer service demands flexibility. Dynamics 365 Contact Center provides comprehensive support across multiple channels, ensuring your agents can meet customers wherever they are:

Digital Messaging Channels

• Live Chat: Real-time web-based conversations that allow customers to get immediate assistance while browsing your website or mobile app
• SMS: Text messaging support for quick, convenient mobile interactions and proactive notifications
• Social Media: Native integration with platforms like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, meeting customers on their preferred social channels
• Microsoft Teams: Internal and external chat capabilities for seamless collaboration and employee helpdesk scenarios

Asynchronous Channels

• Email: Traditional but essential, with intelligent routing, case management, and automated response capabilities
• Social Media Posts: Monitor and respond to public mentions across social platforms with sentiment analysis

Voice Channel

• Phone: Traditional and VoIP calling with advanced conversational IVR, intelligent call routing, and Microsoft Teams Phone integration
• Video: Face-to-face customer interactions for high-value or complex service scenarios

The Microsoft Teams Dependency: Voice Done Right

Here’s what makes D365 Contact Center unique and what you need to understand about voice capabilities: voice functionality is powered by Microsoft Teams Phone. This isn’t a limitation; it’s a strategic advantage that brings enterprise-grade telephony into a unified platform.

What Contact Center Means for Your Organization

Teams as the Voice Engine: To enable voice capabilities in D365 Contact Center, your organization must have:

• Resource accounts created and associated with your Dynamics 365 application
• Microsoft Teams Phone licenses for agents handling voice interactions
• Calling Plans, Direct Routing, or Operator Connect configured for PSTN connectivity
• Teams infrastructure properly deployed in your environment

According to a Forrester Total Economic Impact study, organizations using Teams Phone with Dynamics 365 Contact Center could see projected ROI as high as 345% and benefits of $3.5M by year 3.

This dependency on Teams means your contact center voice solution benefits from:

Enterprise-Grade Reliability

Microsoft Teams’ global infrastructure ensures high availability and quality voice calls, with 99.999% uptime SLA backed by Microsoft’s commitment to performance. This same reliability extends to your contact center operations.

Unified Communications

Agents don’t need separate applications for voice, chat, and collaboration. IT manages an environment they already know, reducing training time and improving efficiency. In the Teams Phone extensibility announcement, this convergence of UCaaS and CCaaS platforms eliminates silos and complexity.

Advanced Voice Features

• Conversational IVR powered by Copilot Studio with natural language understanding
• Intelligent call routing based on skills, capacity, and customer context
• Call recording and compliance features with configurable retention policies
• Voicemail transcription and emergency calling (E911) support
• Call analytics and quality monitoring
• Enhanced phone matching for accurate customer identification
• Integration with Power BI for advanced reporting

Cost Efficiency

Organizations already investing in Microsoft 365 and Teams can leverage existing licenses and infrastructure, rather than purchasing standalone contact center telephony systems. By consolidating telephony on one platform, organizations reduce management costs and improve operational efficiency.

Collaboration Without Barriers

Service representatives can easily consult with Microsoft Teams users and subject matter experts within the enterprise. This may allow customer conversations without requiring those experts to have contact center licenses.

Implementing a Multichannel Contact Center Strategy

To maximize the value of D365 Contact Center’s multichannel capabilities:

• Start with Digital
  • Many organizations find it easier to implement digital channels first (chat, email, social) before adding voice, which requires Teams Phone setup. This approach allows you to:
    • Build agent familiarity with the platform
    • Establish routing rules and workflows
    • Test AI capabilities in lower-risk scenarios
    • Demonstrate value before major infrastructure changes
• Plan Your Teams Voice Rollout
  • Work with your IT team to ensure Microsoft Teams Phone is properly configured with:
    • Appropriate licensing for contact center agents
    • PSTN connectivity (Calling Plans, Direct Routing, or Operator Connect)
    • Phone number assignments and resource accounts
    • Emergency calling policies (E911)
    • External access policies and Azure Communication Services federation
    • PowerShell module installation for Teams administration

• The configuration process involves creating Teams resource accounts for each number, associating them with your Dynamics 365 application, and synchronizing phone numbers through the Copilot Service admin center.
• Enable Progressive Channels
  • Don’t feel pressured to launch all channels simultaneously. Start with the channels most requested by your customers and expand over time:
    • Week 1-2: Email and web chat
    • Week 3-4: SMS and social media
    • Week 5-6: Voice (after Teams Phone is configured)
    • Week 7+: Video and advanced scenarios
• Train for Omnichannel
  • Ensure agents are comfortable switching between channels and understand how to leverage the unified interface effectively:
    • Conduct hands-on training sessions with realistic scenarios
    • Emphasize context preservation across channels
    • Train supervisors on real-time monitoring and intervention
    • Practice escalation paths and Teams collaboration features
• Leverage the Companion App
  • Deploy the Companion App to ensure business continuity:
    • Maintains active call connections during web app issues
    • Provides in-app call controls (mute/unmute, end call)
    • Offers real-time visibility into call status
• Implement Data Governance
  • Establish policies for data retention and compliance:
  • Configure call recording retention based on regulatory requirements
  • Use Power Automate to automatically delete recordings older than your retention period
  • Balance compliance needs with storage costs
  • Ensure GDPR, HIPAA, or industry-specific compliance

Dynamics 365 Contact Center represents a fundamental shift from traditional voice-centric contact centers to modern omnichannel customer engagement platforms. While the Microsoft Teams dependency for voice might require some planning and infrastructure preparation, it delivers a more integrated, scalable, and future-ready solution.

The convergence of UCaaS and CCaaS; unified communications and contact center capabilities on a single platform isn’t just a technological advancement; it’s a business transformation. Organizations can:

• Reduce Complexity: One platform for all communications eliminates integration headaches
• Improve Collaboration: Contact center agents and back-office experts work together seamlessly
• Enhance Customer Experience: Context flows naturally across channels and touchpoints
• Drive Operational Efficiency: AI and automation handle routine tasks while humans focus on complex issues
• scale with Confidence: Cloud-native architecture grows with your business

By embracing all available channels (teams) powered voice as one component of a comprehensive strategy. Organizations can meet customers on their preferred channels, improve agent productivity, and drive better business outcomes.

The question isn’t whether to implement multichannel support; it’s how quickly you can enable your team to deliver exceptional customer experiences across every channel your customers choose.