Applies To

Call2Teams - Customers


Latest Note

Microsoft are changing the name of the Phone System License to Teams Phone License. 

References to both may co-exist. 


Overview

During the Teams Service setup process there is a requirement for an unassigned Microsoft 365 user license. 

This article explains the reason for this.


Briefly, by providing the additional license the portal can perform set-up tasks on behalf of the user, and so removes the need for any specialist skills or training.


The unassigned licenses are only required once, for a few minutes during the initial set-up process. 

Once this is completed the licenses can be released.


Note: The spare license must include Teams, so a Phone System or Business Voice addon license is not sufficient.


Cost of additional licenses:

There are several ways to mitigate or completely eliminate the cost of providing the temporary license during set-up:

  • Apply a free-trial offer from Microsoft (recommended) 

Within the Microsoft portal customers can take up the following free-trial subscriptions without charge for 30 days:

  • E5 – 25 users
  • Business Premium – 25 users
  • Common Area Phone – 25 users (recommended)

The choice of the free trial taken depends on the existing SKUs, but any of the above SKUs will suffice.


See this article on finding Microsoft Free Licenses: Here

  • Temporarily removing a license from an existing user - Making the license unassigned

Microsoft support the temporary removal of a license for up to 30 days without affecting the configuration of the user. 

Our requirement is for about 15 minutes. 

Find out more here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/admin/manage/remove-licenses-from-users?view=o365-worldwide

 

  • Purchase an additional license for a short period

Microsoft 365 license billing is prorated to the day. 

See: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/common-billing-scenarios-monthly


The cost of adding and removing a business essentials license for one day is around USD $0.16


  • Common Area Phone (Free Trial)

In this example we will select the Common Area Phone free trial as this offer provides the required license for the set-up.

In addition, the free trial can be added for up to 25 users to provide the calling capability required for the service.

There is no limit to the number of licenses that can be purchased.


1. Go to the Admin console for Microsoft 365 and select the Billing tab on the left, then select “Purchase Services”



2.  On the right-hand pane a selection of Microsoft 365 services can be seen to review


3. In the Search box enter the string "Common Area"

This will show the Common Area Phone offer.


4: Select the offer


Note: the free-trial option may not show if the free trial has previously been used.


4. Click the “Get free trial” button


5. Microsoft may ask for identity verification by text message


6. A final confirmation is offered to start the trial and the licenses will be available on the account:

 

Why is the additional license required?

This requirement is for convenience of the set-up process and mitigates the need for users to perform domain-based set-up tasks.

Users can research the underlying mechanisms and why this is required for at: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/direct-routing-sbc-multiple-tenants

 

View the set up guide here.

Our automation removes the need for customer intervention by using a spare license to perform these tasks by proxy. If users prefer not to facilitate a space license then these steps will be required as detailed in our set-up process.


Where manual intervention is required

If it is not possible to provide the additional licenses, the portal will pause during the set-up process and provide instructions to manually perform some tasks. 

This will be indicated by the alert 'Manual Intervention Required'. Once performed the set-up automation will resume.

Note: This notification can also apply to the Teams Meeting Room setup.


Meaning

As per the Teams OneClick setup guide, it is a requirement to have a spare user license available to allow Call2Teams to automatically configure DNS entries. If this is not available the setup process cannot complete.


The simplest way to resolve this issue to to provide an unallocated user license on the Microsoft 365 account and run Sync Now again.


Domain activation requires at least one (preferably two) unused licenses of any the following types:

  • Microsoft 365 Business Basic
  • Microsoft 365 Business Premium*
  • Microsoft  365 E3
  • Microsoft  365 E5*
  • Common Area Phone*
  • Skype for Business Plan 2

 

If you there aren't any unused licenses of this type, then the options are:

  1. Take the 25-user free trial offer of one of the available licenses denoted with a * in the list above, or 
  2. Purchase additional Microsoft 365 Business basic subscription for a few hours and then cancel.


The spare license can be removed after the setup and Sync successfully completes.

This is the longest part of the automated process since DNS records have to migrate through many systems within Microsoft. Keep returning to the Call2Teams page and refreshing to stay informed of the setup status.


Teams Meeting Room Setup (Manual Intervention Required)

This notification may show during the Teams Meeting Room Setup:



The Teams meeting rooms users cannot be set up through the Sync Now automation so needs to be done manually.

Customers can refer to the Microsoft or the meeting room equipment provider who will have the ability to set this service up. As it is customer-specific we cannot provide specific guidance.

There is Microsoft guidance online: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/rooms/with-office-365

Normally this notification applies only to teams meeting Rooms users, and otherwise the Microsoft tenant will be set-up and the service is ready for use. 

The notification will clear when the meeting room users have been manually configured.


Note

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