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“Talkdesk for MS Teams” connects Talkdesk agents and Teams users seamlessly, creating an integrated user experience and allowing knowledge sharing in organizations, promoting teamwork between agents and SMEs to increase productivity and improve customer satisfaction through first-contact resolution.
 

Available features:

• Directory Sync: Talkdesk allows you to import Teams users into Talkdesk, increasing productivity and improving customer satisfaction through first-contact resolution.
  • Status View: Talkdesk subscribes to and actively integrates presence updates from Teams, enabling Talkdesk agents to stay informed about the availability of Teams users.
  • Calls Routing: Talkdesk supports several forms of establishing calls between Talkdesk and Teams.
• Notifications & Alerts: Talkdesk administrators and supervisors can automate notifications and alerts to Teams users regarding critical contact center events.
• Talkdesk Embedded in MS Teams: Talkdesk Workspace is now embedded within Microsoft Teams user client, offering it full capabilities like Talkdesk  CCaaS, TD Office, CoPilot, Voice, Digital interactions, among others.

Requirements:

To ensure the proper functioning of Talkdesk for MS Teams, please make sure you follow these criteria:

• You are located in one of these regions:
  • United States of America (US)
  • Canada (CA)
  • Europe (EMEA)
  • Asia/Pacific (APAC)
• You have a Microsoft license: E1 or E3 with Phone License or E5 license.
• You have a Microsoft or third-party calling plan for Teams.
• You are not using any of these integrations simultaneously:
  • Zoom Connector.
  • Talkdesk Phone.
  • Other third-party UC integrations.
  • Other integrations that provide Short Number Dialing.
    
     

Directory Sync: Overview & Configuration

Talkdesk allows you to import Teams users into Talkdesk, increasing productivity and improving customer satisfaction through first-contact resolution.

As an Admin, please follow these steps to configure this feature.

 

On Teams:

1. Make sure that your Teams users are correctly configured: enter your Microsoft Azure account > click on Manage Microsoft Entra ID > click on Manage Users > click on any user > Properties > fill in the fields, following the instructions:

• Email: the email address is used to match Teams users with Talkdesk agents. If an agent and a Teams user have the same email address, then Talkdesk will create one single person on the Talkdesk Directory, and add the contact details from both Talkdesk and Teams to that person. If the email addresses are different, they will be considered as two distinct persons and two entries will be created on the Talkdesk Directory. If the email address is not filled in, no information will be imported from Teams into Talkdesk.
• Business Phone: the Business Phone is used by Talkdesk to support on-net calls to Teams. Please ensure that the Business Phone matches the phone number assigned to the user on Teams. If the business phone is not configured or is incorrect, it will not be possible to call the Teams user from Talkdesk.
• Display Name: the Display Name field is imported to Talkdesk as the Teams user name.
• Mobile Phone: if configured, it will also be imported to the Talkdesk Directory as an “External Number”. Then, it’s possible to call Teams’ users using their Mobile Phone, but the calls will be off-net.

2. Make sure you log out of your Microsoft account(s) before setting up the integration on the Talkdesk side.

 

On Talkdesk:

3. Log into your Talkdesk account as an Admin. 

4. Click on the Builder app in the menu  [1] > Select the option Integrations [2] > Click on Add Integration > Scroll down until you find the Microsoft Teams Directory > Select Add [3]. 

5. Once you are in the “Microsoft Teams Directory” integration, tick next to Synchronize Contacts and Contact Types [4] and click on the Connect Microsoft Teams Directory option [5]. The Synchronize Contacts option is unticked by default. Tick it to initiate directory sync once all steps are followed.

Note: If Synchronize Contacts is ticked and no filters are added, full contact sync will be done from MS Teams to the Talkdesk. Admins must use filters for limited contact sync.
 

6. The Microsoft login page will pop up. Enter your credentials and sign in to your Teams account by clicking Next.

Note: This credential must belong to a user with a “Microsoft Global Administrator role”.

7. Review the permissions, check the consent box [6], and click Accept [7].

Note: if you encounter the following error, please use the Web Browser instead of Talkdesk Electron Desktop application:

8. Click on the Builder app in the menu > Select the option MS Teams Connector [8] > Click on Contact Sync [9]. For the newly configured account, “Synchromize Contacts” [10] toggle will be set to “Inactive”. Click Edit [11] to configure directory filters.

9. Click on Synchronize Contact [12] toggle to make it active. Filter Contacts [13] section will appear with below options:

• No filter: selecting this option will lead to full directory sync from Microsoft Teams.
• By groups: only users belonging to selected groups will be imported to Talkdesk.
• By attributes: this is a user based filter and users who match the criteria configured under user attributes will be imported to Talkdesk.
  

10. Go to the Search Bar [14] within the group by filter and type to get the relevant group or click on the dropdown to select one or more groups in the list.

Note: Group by dropdown displays up to 50 groups. If there are more than 50, please use the search bar to find the right group from MS Teams active directory.

11. For by attributes [15], Talkdesk agents can add multiple filter criteria against the user attributes supported by Microsoft.

12. Directory sync is now configured. Go to the Contacts app [16] and choose the Colleagues tab [17]. Talkdesk agents can use the search box in the upper-right corner, to search for anyone within the organization. 

Important notes:

• The synchronization process may take a while, depending on the number of Teams users in your account. Any changes made to Teams users will be synced every 30 minutes.
• Teams users' names are imported from the “Display name” field on Microsoft Azure. If the Teams user is also a Talkdesk agent, the name defined in Talkdesk will take precedence over the name defined in Microsoft Azure.
• The Email field on Microsoft Azure should be filled with the user’s email on Talkdesk, otherwise, the Talkdesk Directory will consider that these are two different persons. Users need to have a valid email address, otherwise, they will not appear on the Talkdesk Directory.
• Make sure the Teams users have the type defined as “Member”. Guests, inactive users, calling groups, and auto-attendants will not be imported.
• “Synchronize contacts” must remain unchecked for the account if the admins want to use the Contact Filter option for the initial sync. If Directory filter settings are done, checking “Synchronize contacts” will initiate sync based on filters.
• If a Microsoft Teams user is a member of more than one filtered group, Talkdesk Agent can see only one listing within the Colleagues tab.
• Admins can use either a group based or user attributes based filter at one point in time.
• For group based contact filters, if a user is globally deleted from an Azure AD account without being disassociated from a group, it will not be updated in delta sync using Microsoft Graph api. This will lead to stale data.
• A maximum of 14 rules can be configured as part of the user attributes filters.

Status View: Overview & Configuration

Talkdesk subscribes to and actively integrates presence updates from Teams, enabling Talkdesk agents to stay informed about the availability of Teams users.

As an Admin, please follow these steps to configure this feature:

1. Find the “Microsoft Teams Status Management” app under Admin [1] > MS Teams Connector [2].

2. Enable access for specific Users, Roles, or Autoinstall. Go to My Apps [3] > Microsoft Teams Status Management app and click the cog to access the settings [4].

3. Select the users and roles allowed to access the application. 

4. The first time you enter the app, the status synchronization will be disabled and it requires proper configuration to be enabled, as described below.

5. Talkdesk subscribes to status updates using the “Microsoft Graph API”. This API has some known limitations that require customers to perform a few actions to ensure a resilient experience, namely the creation of “Virtual Users” to receive presence information from Teams:

• You will need to create at least 1 subscription (“Virtual User”) to obtain the presence status of Microsoft Teams users.
• If you enable presence synchronization between Microsoft Teams and Talkdesk, 1 subscription (“Virtual User”) is required for each batch of 650 users that are configured as agents on Talkdesk and have a corresponding Microsoft Teams account.
• You may need to create new subscriptions as the number of users that are configured as agents on Talkdesk and have a corresponding Microsoft Teams account increases.
• These users are required to have a “Microsoft Application Admin role”.

Note: For more information, please visit: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/changenotifications-for-presence

 

Subscription Authorization

Authentication is granted by User Delegation - i.e. a Teams user with proper permissions delegates his permissions to Talkdesk for MS Teams.

This Authentication is valid for 90 days. After this period, the status subscription will no longer work, and re-Authentication is required. 

6. For status subscription, click on Add and Authenticate virtual user [5], followed by Continue [6].

Note: please make sure you are logged out from any Microsoft accounts.

7. A Microsoft prompt will pop up. Enter the credentials of the Teams user(s) created for the status subscription.

Note: ensure that the user belongs to the same account provided for Directory Sync. 

8. Accept the permissions and consent [7].

9. If only one Virtual User is needed, the setup is complete. Please check the integration status; it should state “Active” [8].

10. If more than one Virtual User is required, the setup is incomplete and the integration status remains “Inactive”. Please add as many Virtual Users as indicated.

11. Once all Virtual Users have been successfully added, the status sync will be activated and you can view the Teams status in Contacts app > Colleagues tab under the user’s name [9], or during a call by accessing the side panel during a Transfer or Consultation.

12. Although Talkdesk receives the MS Teams user status in real time, it is not updated automatically in the user interface (UI): both Talkdesk status and MS Teams status need to be refreshed using the “Refresh status” button [10] or the F5 key.

13. With the above configuration in place, the presence information of users on Microsoft Teams will be visible to Talkdesk agents. However, to enable presence synchronization between users who are configured as agents on Talkdesk and have a corresponding Microsoft Teams account, please visit this article.

Calls Routing: Overview & Configuration

Note: The enablement and configuration of call routing requires Talkdesk's involvement. Please reach out to your CXM to enable this feature.

Talkdesk supports two methods for establishing calls between Talkdesk and Teams:

• Direct Routing:  Talkdesk manages a direct SIP trunk connection between its Microsoft-certified Session Border Controller (SBC) and Microsoft Teams. This enables free, on-net calls between Talkdesk agents and Teams users.
• Carrier Routing: The carrier associated with your BYOC (Bring Your Own Carrier) trunk manages the connection to Microsoft Teams. No direct SIP connection between Talkdesk and Microsoft is required.

Note: The routing method used in your account is determined during scoping and will be detailed in your Statement of Work (SOW).

Direct Routing: Configuration

Direct Routing setup is a joint process between your organization (as a Microsoft Teams Administrator) and Talkdesk. The steps below outline what each party is responsible for.

Note: Calls from Teams to Talkdesk will fail until the complete domain verification process, including removal of DNS TXT records, is finished. Do not consider the setup complete until all steps below are closed out.

Step 1: Talkdesk configures your account

Your Talkdesk implementation team will configure the SIP Router and set the Call Routing mode to Direct Routing on your account. No action is required from you at this stage. Talkdesk team will notify you when this is complete and will share a Domain Verification Runbook with you to proceed.

Step 2: Add custom domains to your Microsoft Teams tenant

A Teams Administrator at your organization must add two Talkdesk-provided custom domains to your MS Teams tenant. The domain names depend on your region:

Important note: (Replace <account> with your Talkdesk account name.)

After adding the domains, Microsoft generates DNS TXT verification records. The records will look something like this:

Share those records with your Talkdesk team as they are required for the next step.

Note: You will also need PowerShell with the Microsoft Teams module for later steps. Install PowerShell 7 and the Microsoft Teams PowerShell module before your next session with your Talkdesk team.

Step 3: Domain verification (Talkdesk)

Once Talkdesk receives your DNS TXT records, we add them to Talkdesk's DNS and notify you when verification is ready. You will then confirm the domains in your Microsoft Teams Admin Center and let us know. Talkdesk will then remove the TXT records from the DNS as this removal step is required before calls from Teams to Talkdesk will work.

Step 4: Create test accounts for route validation

A Teams Administrator must create two temporary Microsoft Azure accounts whose primary domain matches the Talkdesk-verified domains (one account per domain). These are used to validate that voice routing is working correctly.

Requirements for these accounts:

• Assigned as the user's primary domain (not an alias).
• Assigned an E5 license, or E1/E3 with Phone System.
• Permission to configure voice routes and PSTN usages.

After routing is validated, you can remove the licenses from these accounts and disable login. Talkdesk does not need credentials or access to these accounts.

Step 5:  Configure on-net routing from Teams to Talkdesk (optional)

This step is only required if you want Teams users to reach Talkdesk numbers via the on-net Direct Routing trunk (at no additional PSTN cost). If not needed, Direct Routing configuration is complete after Step 4.

Note: Numbers used for PCI Payments must not be included in this configuration.

The Talkdesk team will provide a PowerShell script and instructions for configuring Teams to route calls to your Talkdesk numbers via the Direct Routing trunk. 

Carrier Routing: Configuration

For Carrier Routing, your BYOC SIP trunk must already be established and verified with your carrier. Your carrier must have confirmed it can route calls between Talkdesk and Teams through that trunk.

Once BYOC is in place, Talkdesk implementation team will configure the SIP Router and set the Call Routing mode to Carrier Routing on your account.

After configuration is complete, test calls in both directions (Talkdesk Agent → Teams user and Teams user → Talkdesk number). If issues arise, contact Talkdesk Support with your implementation project details.

Supported and unsupported calling scenarios

When a Talkdesk user starts a call with a Teams user, they cannot add a second Teams user or a PSTN caller to start a conference. However, multiple CCaaS Agents and Teams users can be on the same call. Either party can add participants regardless of which system they are using.

The following scenarios are not supported via Direct or Carrier Routing (these calls should be handled by Microsoft Teams routing directly to the PSTN):

• New calls, consultations, transfers, and conferences initiated by Teams users to Talkdesk Agents (note: these calls are charged as BYOC calls. Billing configuration may be required)
• Calls from Teams to PSTN via Talkdesk
• Calls from Teams to emergency numbers (e.g., 911) via Talkdesk
• Calls from Teams to short numbers via Talkdesk
• Calls between a Teams DID, or Agent DID belonging to a different Talkdesk account (these route off-net via PSTN)

Regional availability

When Talkdesk agents require some assistance, they can easily search and click-to-call a Teams user to join the conversation, all within the Agent Workspace. 

1. Whenever call routing is configured, agents can go to the Colleagues tab [1] on the Contacts app and use click-to-call [2] to start a call to a Teams user. Calls will be handled in the Conversations app.

2. Consultations and transfers during a call are also possible by accessing the Colleagues tab [3] in the side panel during a call.

Prerequisites

Before call routing can be configured, confirm the following:

• Teams users have an MS Teams E5 license, or an E1/E3 license with the Phone System / Voice add-on.
• A PSTN Calling Plan is active (Microsoft or third-party).
• Every MS Teams user who will place or receive calls has an assigned +E.164 formatted phone number configured as their Business Phone in Microsoft Azure.
• Talkdesk for Microsoft Teams is licensed and included in your SOW.

Note: Call routing is not supported in FedRAMP or GCC (Government Community Cloud) environments, or on accounts that have Zoom Connector, Talkdesk Phone, or other UC integrations already active.

Important notes:

• Calls will fail:
  • Prior to the configuration of this feature.
  • If the “Business Phone” field (on Microsoft Azure) does not match the Teams number, as it is the number Talkdesk will use for routing on-net calls between Talkdesk agents and Teams users.
  • If the Teams numbers are not in the E.164 format.
  • Regional availability varies. Call routing is currently available in the US, Canada (via US), EMEA, and APAC. LATAM support is in delivery.

Notifications & Alerts: Overview & Configuration

This feature gives supervisors the ability to set up automatic and customized alerts that notify individuals and teams of important contact center events in real time, improving agent efficiency and productivity and helping customers get their issues resolved faster.

Note: Please reach out to your CXM to enable this feature.

Talkdesk Embedded in MS Teams

Talkdesk Embedded delivers a unified, “single pane of glass” experience by integrating full Talkdesk capabilities directly within the Microsoft Teams interface — boosting efficiency across both front and back-office operations.

For more details, go to Talkdesk Embedded in MS teams.