Teams Phone System for outbound calls – MS 365 Phone System and Calling Plan licences for participating GP practices
16/12/2021 09:52:00 AM (GMT)
If you are a Local Administrator for a participating GP practice, you will see start to see duplicate user policies appear in the NHSmail Portal from the 17th December 2021. This is expected as part of a phased rollout process over the coming days, please do not delete or remove these policies. This could impact the rollout of MS 365 Phone System and Calling Plan licences.
To support GP practices with legacy telephony systems, Teams Phone System for outbound calls is being enabled on Microsoft (MS) Teams for some organisations. This service enables MS 365 Phone System and Calling Plan licences to allow users at these practices to make anonymised outbound only calls independently of their existing telephone solutions. This will free up the existing lines for incoming calls. This is a cloud-based functionality and will not require installation of additional physical equipment.
Teams Phone System for outbound calls is reserved specifically for GP practices and members of staff. This is primarily to support with line capacity challenges during this pressure period. Local Administrators should not assign Phone System or Calling Plan licenses to any non-GP staff following the initial rollout. This will be audited and monitored across the platform.
Practices that are part of the national NHSmail tenant and have expressed an interest in onboarding to Teams Phone System for outbound calls will automatically be given access to the capability. If you are part of a GP practice that would like to participate and have not yet expressed an interest, please contact scwcsu.nhsei.winterpressures.advancedtelephony@nhs.net citing your practice name and ODS code.
Please see the following guidance for information available to Local Admins. Troubleshooting tips and further guidance is available in the Frequently Asked Questions section. The guidance available for your user base which can be reused is available in the User Guide.
