Plan Cloud call queues
Important
Skype for Business Online operated by 21Vianet in China will be retired on October 1, 2023. If you haven't upgraded your Skype for Business Online users yet, they will be automatically scheduled for an assisted upgrade. If you want to upgrade your organization to Teams yourself, we strongly recommend that you begin planning your upgrade path today. Remember that a successful upgrade aligns technical and user readiness, so be sure to leverage our upgrade guidance as you navigate your journey to Teams.
Skype for Business Online, excluding the service operated by 21Vianet in China, was retired on July 31, 2021.
Cloud call queue is a service that accepts customer calls, plays a greeting message, and then places these calls in a wait queue while searching a pre-configured list of agents to answer these calls. You can define the set of agents in mail-enabled distribution lists or security groups. Your organization can have one or many call queues. Call queues are often used in combination with auto attendants.
In addition, Cloud call queues can provide:
- Music while callers are waiting on hold
- Customized settings for call queue maximum size, timeout, and call handling options
Each call queue is assigned a resource account (see Configure resource accounts) on your Skype for Business Server 2019 system that will be linked directly to a call queue in the Microsoft Teams admin center. See Create a Cloud call queue for more detail on what call queues are and what options and features exist for call queues.
Note
You can assign multiple phone numbers to a call queue, but they must be Microsoft service numbers, Direct Routing numbers, or hybrid numbers.
Requirements
The following requirements assume that you already have Skype for Business Server 2019 deployed in a supported topology. Your requirements depend on your scenario:
- For a new configuration of Cloud call queues, follow the steps outlined in Configure resource accounts. You'll need to create resource accounts either online or in Skype for Business Server 2019, and you may also need to associate a phone number with the call queue.
In addition to the requirements above, the below requirements must be configured to connect to the Microsoft Cloud call queue service:
Hybrid connectivity. If you already have Skype for Business Server deployed, and you want to enable Cloud call queues for your on-premises users, you must ensure that you have hybrid connectivity set up between your on-premises and online environments. This is sometimes called a split domain configuration.
For more information, see Plan hybrid connectivity between Skype for Business Server and Microsoft 365 or Office 365 and Configure hybrid connectivity between Skype for Business Server and Microsoft 365 or Office 365.
If you're assigning a phone number to a resource account, you can now use the cost-free Microsoft Teams Phone Resource Account license. This provides Phone System capabilities to phone numbers at the organizational level, and allows you to create auto attendant and call queue capabilities.
Create an on-premises resource account for each call queue, and assign a license and phone number if required.
When you have a solid structure that meets your needs and a script that guides customers efficiently, proceed to Configure resource accounts.
See Also
Enable custom prompt recording using the telephone user interface
What are Cloud auto attendants?
Plan hybrid connectivity between Skype for Business Server and Microsoft 365 or Office 365
Configure hybrid connectivity between Skype for Business Server and Microsoft 365 or Office 365
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