Microsoft Teams
How Microsoft Teams works
Microsoft Teams runs in the Microsoft 365 cloud and is available as a desktop, mobile, and web app. Work is organized into teams, groups of people with shared access, and channels, topic-based spaces inside each team where conversations and files stay together. Files shared in channels are stored in SharePoint, files shared in private chats in OneDrive, so documents follow Microsoft 365 permissions rather than living inside the chat. Users sign in through Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD), and administrators manage policies, apps, and devices from the Teams admin center. Microsoft Teams replaced Skype for Business as Microsoft’s communication platform.
What a user can do in Microsoft Teams depends on three variables. Licensing decides which features are available: calling to external numbers, for example, requires the Teams Phone add-on and a PSTN connection through Calling Plans, Operator Connect, or Direct Routing. App governance decides which third-party apps users can add to the Teams client and who approves them. Network quality at each location decides whether meetings and calls hold up under load.
Microsoft Teams vs Microsoft Teams Phone: what’s the difference?
Microsoft Teams is the collaboration app: chat, channels, meetings, files, and voice or video calls between Teams users inside and across organizations.
Microsoft Teams Phone is a separately licensed add-on that turns Teams into a business phone system: a phone number, PSTN access, and cloud PBX features such as auto attendants and call queues.
An organization can run Microsoft Teams for years without Teams Phone. Employees call each other from the Teams app every day, but a customer dialing the company’s main number never reaches Teams, because that number only rings in Teams once Teams Phone is licensed and connected to the PSTN.
What Microsoft Teams is used for
The split that matters: is Microsoft Teams used only for internal collaboration, or also as the channel through which customers reach the organization?
- Internal collaboration. Teams replaces email threads and separate meeting tools with chat, channels, and meetings in one app.
- Business telephony. With Teams Phone, employees make and receive external calls from the same client they use for chat and meetings, replacing an on-premises PBX.
- Customer service. With certified contact center and recording integrations, Teams becomes the workspace where agents handle customer calls and digital conversations.
What to check before you roll out Microsoft Teams
- Which license actually includes Teams for you? Since April 2024, new enterprise subscriptions to Microsoft 365 and Office 365 no longer include Teams, which is sold separately. Whether you count as a “new” customer decides your price.
- What happens when a customer calls your main number on the first day? Teams alone doesn’t answer external calls. If the rollout plan doesn’t include Teams Phone and a PSTN model, the old phone system has to stay on.
- Who owns a team’s files when the person who created it leaves? Teams and channels can be created by any user unless policies say otherwise. Ownership and retention rules decide whether that content survives a departure.
- Where is a recorded customer call stored, and can you find it in an audit three years later? Recording a meeting is native to Teams. Keeping a customer call as compliance evidence requires a solution certified for Teams compliance recording.
- Who approves a new app in the Teams client? Every third-party app runs with permissions on your tenant. Without an approval process in the Teams admin center, users decide alone.
Where Imagicle fits
Imagicle applications for Microsoft Teams run inside the Teams client, and Imagicle Contact Center for Microsoft Teams has passed Microsoft’s Teams Contact Center and Microsoft 365 Privacy & Security certification programs. For call handling, Attendant Console, Advanced Queueing and Auto Attendant cover reception and queue management, while the contact center adds omnichannel agent workspaces and AI virtual agents. For compliance and insight, Compliance & AI Quality Recording records and secures Teams calls, and Call Analytics monitors external calls in both Direct Routing and Operator Connect modes. Contact Manager and Digital Fax are available as dedicated apps in the Teams client. Lastly, Call Analytics lets you stay on top of call traffic and costs with 50+ AI-powered reports.