Set up and provision the Voice channel
Before you can use the voice channel in your environment, you first need to make sure that it's provisioned. After you have the necessary licensing in place, you can provision the Voice channel like you would other channels: by using the Omnichannel area of the Dynamics 365 administration center. You can access the Dynamics 365 admin center by expanding Resources and then selecting Dynamics 365 apps in the Microsoft Power Platform admin center. Locate Omnichannel for Customer Service, select the ellipsis (...), and then select Manage.
When you are in the administration area, select the environment that you want to provision the Voice channel in. If the Voice channel is made available for setup in the environment, it appears in the Omnichannel setup wizard. Make sure that you set the Voice toggle to Yes and then select the checkbox to accept the terms.
Manage phone numbers
Omnichannel for Customer Service uses Microsoft Azure Communication Services to provide calling and text capabilities. To ensure that you can apply the Voice feature, you need to purchase phone numbers and the necessary calling plans. Administrators in your organization can purchase phone numbers and call plans. Then you can decide whether you want to add calling and text services, or if you'd rather set up inbound or outbound calling options for your business.
After you provision the Voice channel, which could potentially take several hours, you need to create and assign phone numbers to different workstreams to ensure that calls can be placed, received, routed, and so on. You can create and define phone numbers by using the Customer Service admin center application.
Get started
When you first provision the Voice channel, it includes a trial phone number that includes 60 minutes of free calling. You don't need to connect to Azure Communication Services to use this number. Because you can't reuse or purchase the trial number, after the 60 minutes of free calling time elapses, you need to purchase a new number based on your Microsoft Azure subscription.
Add new phone numbers
Before your customers can begin engaging with your organization through voice, you need to ensure that you have phone numbers to communicate with them. Your organization can purchase different numbers based on your needs. You can add phone numbers in the Customer Service admin center app by navigating to Channels under the Customer Support group and selecting Manage in the Phone Numbers section.
When you first add a number, you need to connect to an Azure subscription where you can provision your new phone number(s) in Azure Communication Services. You can select to create a new resource or use existing resources.
If you select the option to create a new resource, enter the following details:
Azure subscription - Specifies which Azure subscription to use.
Azure resource group - Defines the name of the resource group where you want to store Azure Communication Services resources. Resource group names should be unique within a given subscription.
Resource name - Defines the name of the Azure Communications Services resource.
This first time is the only time when you need to enter these details. After you specify the Azure information, selecting New number takes you directly to the new phone number screen.
When you first add the new number, you need to specify a country/region from the dropdown list. Based on what you select, you're provided with a list of available plans for that country/region. For example, if you select the United States, you're presented with two number types to select from.
Toll-free (1-800) - Three options are available (855, 844, and 833).
Geographic (Uses local area codes) - You need to specify a state and city that you want to use as a basis for the number. The number of available cities vary based on the state that you select.
After you define the type of number to use, make sure that you define the calling and text options that you want on the number.
Calling plans - You can select to receive calls, make calls, or both. (You must select at least one calling plan option.)
SMS plans - Optionally, you can define if the number should be able to send and receive text messages.
Important
At the time of course publication, SMS (text) calling plans are only available on toll-free numbers.
After you specify the options, the system looks for an available number that includes those features. When you're allotted a new number, you have only 15 minutes to purchase the number. If the time lapses, you have to try purchasing again.
Edit and release phone numbers
Occasionally, you might want to change the calling plan or upgrade the calling or text (SMS) plans that are associated with a number. You can edit any numbers that aren't connected to a workstream. If a number is associated with a workstream, you need to remove it from the workstream before you make changes. Additionally, you can add more features to an existing number, and you can upgrade the existing features that have been added, as needed. You can't remove a feature after it has been granted to a phone number, but you can upgrade phone number features.
If you no longer need a phone number, you can release it from your number list by selecting the phone number and then selecting Release. When you release a number, it's deleted from Dynamics 365. Therefore, before you release a number, make sure that you're certain that you no longer need it.
Watch the following video for more information about setting up and provisioning the Voice channel.
Now that you've enabled the Voice channel and have a number to use, you can move forward to the process of creating a voice queue for routing voice conversations.