Teams Phone Resource Account Overview

What is a Teams Resource Account

In Microsoft Teams, a resource account is required for each auto attendant or call queue. Resource Accounts allow users to interact with an Auto Attendant or Call Queue.

A resource account allows a user to not only dial the resource externally via a phone number, but also allows for the resource to be searchable internally via the Teams client, this will show the display name for the resource.

Each Auto Attendant or Call Queue will require a resource account to be assigned to the resource as well as a Teams Phone Resource Account License assigning to the resource account.

What is a Microsoft Teams Phone Resource Account License

To use a resource account with Auto Attendants and Call Queues in Microsoft Teams, it is necessary to have a Microsoft Teams Phone Resource Account license assigned to each account. For those who have subscribed to Teams Phone, there is a free allocation of these licenses available. However, if additional licenses are needed beyond the initial allocation, they can be purchased at a cost.

Please be aware that 25 licenses are available initially, for every 10 Teams Phone Standard licenses which are assigned to your tenant, an allocation of 1 Teams Phone Resource Account license will be provided. Most organizations will have enough Teams Phone Resource Account licenses based on this scaling plan. These licenses will not be automatically be added to your tenant so the steps outlined in the next section will need to be followed.

Obtaining Teams Phone Resource Account Licenses

There are three ways of obtaining the Teams Phone Resource Account license.

• Utilize your existing relationship with your license reseller.
• Utilize existing agreements from the following:
  • Enterprise Agreement (EA)
  • Enterprise Agreement Subscription (EAS)
  • Server and Cloud Enrollment (SCE)
  • Enrollment for Education Solutions (EES)
  • Cloud Solution Provider (CSP)
  • Web Direct
  • New Commerce Experience – Customer led / Partner led (NCE)
• Procure the licenses directly from Microsoft via the Microsoft 365 admin center.

If you have an existing reseller, then you may be restricted from purchasing licenses via the admin center.

Microsoft 365 Admin Center

1. Open the Microsoft 365 Admin Center and sign-in with a user that has the Global Administrator role.
2. In the left navigation pane, go to Billing, then Purchase services, and then Add-ons.
3. Scroll to find the Microsoft Teams Phone Resource Account license.
4. Select the Details button.
5. Choose the number of licenses you want to purchase and a billing frequency.
   1. You need one license for each Auto Attendant and Call Queue you plan to set up. We recommend selecting at least five licenses so you can easily set up more Auto Attendants and Call Queues in the future without having to purchase more licenses right away.
6. Select the Buy button.
7. Fill in the purchasing details.
8. Confirm your order details, and then select the Place order button.

There is zero cost for your allotment of licenses, but you still need to follow these steps to acquire the licenses.

Creating a Resource Account

You can create a resource account in the Microsoft Teams Admin Center.

1. Sign-in to the Microsoft Teams Admin Center.
2. Expand Voice, and then select Resource accounts.
3. Select Add.
4. In the Add resource account pane, fill out Display name, Username, and the Resource account type (either Auto Attendant or Call Queue, depending on how you intend to use this new resource account)
   1. The Display name will be visible when searching for the resource account in Teams
5. Select Save.

An example naming convention for resource acccount Usernames:

• ra-[AA/CQ]-[REGION]-[SITE]-[DEPARTMENT]

Assigning a Teams Phone Resource Account License

For each resource account, you must assign a Microsoft Teams Phone Resource Account license.

1. Sign into the Microsoft 365 Admin Center.
2. Expand Users, then select Active users.
3. Select the resource account to which you want to assign a license. The resource account's user pane will appear.
4. On the Licenses and Apps tab, under Licenses, select Microsoft Teams Phone Resource Account.
5. Select Save changes.

The license assignment process can also adhere to your existing internal process, for example utilizing group-based licensing.

Assigning a Telephone Number to a Resource Account

The below steps will guide you to successfully assign a telephone number to a resource account.

1. Sign into the Microsoft Teams Admin Center.
2. Expand Voice, and then select Resource accounts page.
3. Select the resource account to which you want to assign a phone number, and then select Assign/unassign.
4. In the Phone number type dropdown, choose Direct Routing or Operator Connect.
5. In the Assigned phone number box, type the number you want to use (for Direct Routing) and be sure to include the country code (for example, +1 250 555 0012), or select the number from the list (for Operator Connect).
6. Select Save.

Alternatively, if you are comfortable with PowerShell the below can be run to assign the required number to the resource account.

Set-CsPhoneNumberAssignment -Identity example@contoso.com -PhoneNumber +12505550012 -PhoneNumberType DirectRouting

or

Set-CsPhoneNumberAssignment -Identity example@contoso.com -PhoneNumber +12505550012 -PhoneNumberType OperatorConnect

Assigning a Resource Account to an Auto Attendant and/or Call Queue

To easily assign the resource account to an Auto Attendant or Call Queue the following steps can be followed.

1. Expand Voice, and then select Resource account page.
2. Select the resource account to which you want to assign to an Auto Attendant or Call Queue, and then select Assign/unassign.
3. Under the Assigned to heading search for the existing Auto Attendant or Call Queue display name.
4. Select Save.