Telephony Replacement project: information for TCs and ITSS

The Chorus VoIP and Teams Phone systems are connected (via the University’s telephony providers) so the basic telephony functions listed below work between them:  

• calling internal numbers 
• transferring calls (whether this is a blind transfer or a consulted transfer) 

• automatically forwarding calls  

However, there are some features that do not operate if people are using different telephony systems so should be taken into account when planning your transition to Teams Phone: 

• Chorus Hunt Groups, or Teams Phone Call Queues, will only work if all the members of the Group or Queue are using the same system

• Executive Assistant functions do not operate across the two systems 

• call monitoring of other users’ busy status does not work if the other user is on a different system 

• intercoms which are video enabled on Chorus will not display the video for Teams Phone user 

In addition, there are some network considerations that colleges and departments need to take in account when deploying Teams Phone handsets. IT Services will enable a port on the Frodo for the Teams Phone network. ITSS will then need to manage two voice Vlans on their internal network.

Please see Teams Phone features - Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Learn.

The main reasons for somebody needing to retain a personal telephone line are:

• if they need to make or receive external calls​ from a University number (excluding calls to the central Service Desk or emergency services)
• if they want to mask their caller-id from external contacts, which they can do by completing a change caller id Service Request

If a phone line can be linked to a person, it should be.

A common area line is appropriate if it needs to be:

• linked to a role (e.g, bursar or tenured position) 
• linked to a location (e.g. library, lobby, laboratory) which is staffed by multiple colleagues performing the same role 

See Telephony replacement: analogue and critical lines.

See Telephony replacement: digital lines (VoIP telephony).

• Generally the advice for personal lines is to use headsets (or the computer's inbuilt microphone and speaker, or the mobile app) unless there is a specific preference or accessibility requirement that can be better met by a handset
• Common area lines will need handsets

• After logging in to your personal Teams handset for the first time you will remain logged in until until your SSO login expires
• You are strongly recommended to set up a phone lock pin on your handset to ensure the security of your account and prevent others from accessing your information.  See the Poly Edge E series Quick Guide

• If you use a Chorus desk phone to receive a phone call as your way of authenticating your Oxford SSO (Multi Factor Authentication), you can continue to do so because the phone call will come through Teams Phone but you need to be logged in to Teams for this to work.    
• You should also set up an alternative method and further information is available on the IT Help website. By doing this, you can still authenticate your account if you are not logged in to Teams, or you are in a Teams call (when incoming phone calls are sent to voicemail), or when your computer is shut down. 
• If you are accessing Teams Phone through a handset (like a desk phone) you will need to set up an alternative method before you log into your handset in order to access your handset.  Thereafter you can use a Teams Phone call as your way of authenticating your SSO

No, you should not use Teams Phone for calls to the emergency services.

The location you're calling from will not be correctly presented to the emergency services, which could delay their response.

Teams meeting rooms are not in scope for the Telephony Replacement Project but guidance on how to set one up is available on the IT Help website.

The Teams Meeting Room Pro licence includes telephony.  Please contact the project team if you want a phone number set up on your meeting room device.