Modern administration for Omnichannel SMS via Communication Services (number management)
Important
This content is archived and is not being updated. For the latest documentation, go to Overview of Dynamics 365 Customer Service. For the latest release plans, go to Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform release plans.
| Enabled for | Public preview | Early access | General availability |
|---|---|---|---|
| Users by admins, makers, or analysts | - | - | 
Nov 1, 2021 |
Business value
Typically, customer service organizations must manually integrate standalone telephony and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, resulting in fragmented experiences and error-prone manual data integration. Administrators need to manage resources and phone numbers in the telephony provider’s app and manually bring over this information to the CRM solution. Very often, this setup process requires collaboration between business and IT administrators, adding more delay to an already lengthy process.
With the availability of Azure Communication Services, Omnichannel for Customer Service now offers a native new SMS channel. This all-in-one solution empowers business administrators to independently deploy SMS numbers and their acquisition in a few steps, offering a fast and consistent experience.
Feature details
Until now, administrators created resources and managed phone numbers for SMS in a separate application and then manually deployed the numbers in the CRM solution. The long and fragmented process is inconsistent and requires continuous maintenance to keep both applications in sync.
With the native SMS channel, business administrators can deploy the telephony resource and acquire phone numbers without leaving the Omnichannel admin center app.
The key highlights of this feature include:
- Telephony resource deployment using connection string or sign in to the Azure account.
- Acquisition and management of phone numbers for use as an SMS source.
See also
Manage phone numbers (docs)