In short: A Microsoft Teams contact centre can be built in four main ways: native Teams Phone call queues and auto attendants; the Queues app in Teams Premium for live metrics, reporting and supervisor tools; Dynamics 365 Contact Center for CRM-led, multi-channel service; or a third-party contact centre certified for Teams, connected through Microsoft's integration models or Direct Routing.
Four ways to run a contact centre on Teams
Microsoft's own guidance is that, for some organisations, Teams Phone auto attendants and call queues meet their needs, while others integrate a dedicated contact centre with Teams Phone. In practice the choice sits on a ladder:
| Route | What you get | Often suits |
|---|---|---|
| Teams Phone call queues and auto attendants | Menus, queues, routing methods, callback, presence-based routing | Reception teams and small service desks |
| Queues app (Teams Premium) | Queue and auto attendant management inside Teams, real-time metrics, historical reporting, monitor, whisper, barge and takeover | Teams with supervisors who need live figures and coaching tools |
| Dynamics 365 Contact Center | Microsoft's AI-led contact centre for voice and digital channels with unified routing, working with the CRM of your choice | Larger, CRM-centric service operations |
| Third-party contact centre certified for Teams | A dedicated contact centre product connected to Teams Phone | Organisations with specific contact centre requirements or an existing product |
All four rely on Microsoft Teams Phone and a way to reach the public phone network. For the licences involved, see Teams Phone licensing.
Native Teams Phone call queues and auto attendants
Every Teams Phone tenant can build auto attendants (menus) and call queues. Microsoft's set-up documentation covers these queue options:
- Routing methods: attendant routing (ring everyone at once), serial routing (one by one in a set order), round robin (an even share of calls) and longest idle (the agent who has been available longest).
- Presence-based routing, so only agents showing as available are offered calls. Agents can be allowed to opt in and out of a queue.
- Callback, so callers can leave the queue and be called back.
- Conference mode, which Microsoft recommends because it connects callers to agents faster.
- A service level threshold, used to measure how many calls are answered within your target time.
- Outbound caller ID, so agents can call out showing the queue's number rather than their own.
Each call queue or auto attendant that answers calls directly needs a resource account with a Microsoft Teams Phone Resource Account licence. Agents need Teams Phone themselves. If you already use Forever Teams or a Microsoft Calling Plan, you can start here and add more later.
The Queues app and Teams Premium
The Queues app is Microsoft's Teams-native tool for running call queues and auto attendants. Microsoft lists it under Teams Premium, and it requires a Teams Phone licence. With it, authorised users can:
- Manage call queues and auto attendants directly within Teams, without the admin centre
- See real-time metrics for call queues and auto attendants
- Run historical reports on queue and auto attendant performance
- Monitor customer calls, whisper privately to agents, and barge into or take over calls
Microsoft updated Teams Premium and Teams Enterprise licensing on 1 April 2026, moving some features between them, and states that Teams Premium continues to include the Queues app. Licensing in this area changes often, so we check the current Microsoft Learn entitlement before quoting. Ask us for a quote for Teams Premium.
Dynamics 365 Contact Center
Dynamics 365 Contact Center is Microsoft's cloud contact centre product. Microsoft describes it as Copilot-first: it manages conversations across voice and digital channels with unified routing, and adds IVR and AI agents for self-service, conversation summaries, sentiment analysis and live transcription and translation. It is designed to work with the CRM of your choice, not only Dynamics 365 (Microsoft lists prebuilt integrations with Salesforce and other CRMs), and lets agents bring in experts on Teams during a live conversation.
Microsoft lists Dynamics 365 Contact Center alongside separate Dynamics 365 Contact Center Digital and Dynamics 365 Contact Center Voice licences, so the licences you need depend on the channels you use. It suits larger service operations that want AI-assisted agents and CRM-led routing. For smaller teams it can be more than they need, so we compare it against queues and the Queues app first. See our guide to phone system CRM integration for what CRM-led service looks like.
Third-party contact centres certified for Teams
Microsoft runs a contact center for Microsoft Teams certification program, which tests that a provider's solution works reliably with Teams. Providers connect using one of three integration models that Microsoft documents:
| Model | How it connects |
|---|---|
| Unify | The contact centre is built on Azure Communication Services and Teams calling infrastructure |
| Extend | The contact centre runs as an app inside Teams using Microsoft Graph and Teams APIs, and Teams Phone carries the calls |
| Connect | The contact centre connects to Teams Phone through certified session border controllers and Teams Direct Routing |
Microsoft publishes the list of certified solutions, and we refer customers to it rather than recommend from memory. The right model depends on whether agents should work inside Teams, in the contact centre's own app, or both.
Keep an existing PBX contact centre with Teams
If your current phone system already has the queues, wallboards and recording you rely on, you do not have to give them up to work in Teams. Call2Teams for PBX, a Dstny product, registers Teams users to your existing PBX as SIP extensions, so the PBX keeps its hunt groups, IVR and call routing while users make and take calls in Teams. We check which of your PBX's queue, wallboard and recording features carry across before you switch.
If the PBX is 3CX, the 3CX Microsoft Teams integration (an AI edition feature) does a similar job, with 3CX handling routing, queues and reporting. Our 3CX vs Teams comparison sets out when each approach makes sense.
Choosing by fit
We recommend by three questions: how many agents, which channels, and which CRM.
| Your situation | Usually a good starting point |
|---|---|
| A few agents, calls only, Microsoft 365 already in place | Teams Phone call queues and auto attendants |
| Supervisors need live figures and coaching | Add the Queues app with Teams Premium |
| Many agents, several channels, CRM-led service | Dynamics 365 Contact Center or a certified contact centre |
| An existing PBX contact centre that works well | Call2Teams PBX or the 3CX Teams integration |
Contact us and we will map your call flows and recommend a route.
Why choose your cloud phone system with Forever Systems
We are vendor-neutral. Forever Group supplies and supports several cloud phone platforms, so we recommend the one that fits how your organisation works rather than the one we happen to sell.
- Side-by-side comparison of hosted 3CX, Microsoft Teams Phone, Forever UC, Forever Teams and Webex Calling for your users
- Contact centre and call recording options matched to your call volumes and CRM
- Number porting, handsets and set-up handled for you, including the move off analogue and ISDN lines
- Connectivity checked so call quality is right from day one
- UK support for moves, adds, changes and faults
- For BT Cloud Voice, see our BT Business Partner site cloudvoice.cloud
We work with businesses, schools, charities and public sector organisations. We do not sell consumer phone services.
Want a vendor-neutral cloud phone system comparison and quote?
Tell Forever Systems what you need and we will come back to you by email with options, not a hard sell.
Contact usFrequently asked questions
Can Microsoft Teams be used as a contact centre?
Yes. Teams Phone includes call queues and auto attendants for basic contact centre needs. For live metrics and supervisor tools you can add the Queues app with Teams Premium, and for larger multi-channel operations you can use Dynamics 365 Contact Center or a third-party contact centre certified for Teams.
Does Teams have wallboards and real-time reporting?
The Queues app, licensed with Teams Premium, provides real-time metrics and historical reporting for call queues and auto attendants inside Teams. Dedicated contact centre products add fuller wallboards and reporting on top.
Do contact centre agents need a Teams Phone licence?
Agents who take queue calls in Teams need Teams Phone, and each queue or auto attendant that answers calls needs a resource account with a Teams Phone Resource Account licence. Some third-party contact centres handle calls in their own app, so requirements vary by product.
Can we record Teams call queue calls?
Yes, through a third-party compliance recording solution certified by Microsoft. Compliance Recording for Call Queues records agent-answered inbound queue calls without assigning a recording policy to each agent; outbound calls need a policy on the agent.
What is the Queues app in Teams?
The Queues app is Microsoft's tool for managing call queues and auto attendants inside Teams. It shows real-time metrics and historical reports, and lets authorised users monitor calls, whisper to agents and barge in. Microsoft lists it under Teams Premium.