Using Teams for Technical Support outside my Organization

Copper Contributor

I am a sole practioner in the Microsoft space - focus on Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft 365 support.  I am trying to do two new things and I am looking for the community to provide some assistance.

 

First, I want to know if I can use teams effectivily to support up to 50 different users, in likely 15 different organizations on my TEAMS system.  I want to have a Chanel per client so we can share technical question and answer and where they can post support requests.  Also so I can chat with them directly and quickly without fear of missing an email or phone call.

 

Secondly, I want to be able to 'call them' not just computer to computer ( ie: skype to skype ) but actually from my computer / ipad / tablet / phone to the company landline.  I used to use Skype for that, then they started to charge, and now I can not make any calls without paying on Skype, so now I am looking to make the most of TEAMS.

 

I am looking here, to the community for assistance.  What are my options?  How would I go about doing this?  Remember there is only one of me - not huge infrastructure

 

Bill C

skype: billc.edmonton

7 Replies
Hi Bill,

A Channel per client may not work because all users would have access to the general channel and be able to chat to each other, I suspect you wouldn't want that. Team per client probably the way to go if you want to use Teams.

@Andrew HodgesYou could turn off the ability for people except owners to post in the General channel and then that becomes a place where you can make general announcements etc. but not allow the clients to post or even reply to posts.  Then a private channel per client would ensure the clients only saw General and their own Channel.

@Bill CampbellRegarding the Phone side of things, you'd need either an E5 license or a Phone System license, together with a calling plan and communication credits to use Teams to make PSTN calls.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/microsoft-teams/voice-calling

@Dan Robson so if I follow your comment, if I want to call the landline I need to get the Cloud Voice and Calling Plans - if I want to meet and share information as well as SCREENS then I can just set up a Team per Client and invite the individual client members to join the Team.  

Point of clarification - if the company does not have Office 365 can the end user ( my contact ) install and use Teams for free?  And if so, do I need to do anything with Federation or such to make this work?

@Andrew Hodges when you refer to channel that is under one common TEAM (grouping)

If I create a TEAM per client that would most likely work.

Thanks.

@Bill CampbellYes you’re right, for PSTN (calling landlines) you’ll need the phone and calling plan.

You can add guests to Teams and then communicate with them via VoIP for free.

You can also setup Teams meetings with external people and again VoIP is free.

External users do not need to be running Teams, if the email you invite as a guest is not tied to a Microsoft Account or already using Office 365 then a Microsoft account will be created as part of the process.

Guests are created as an EXT account in your AAD, it should be noted however that each licensed user allows you to create 5 guest users, so if you only pay for one Office 365 license you can only create 5 guest accounts. External meeting participants are not created as guests.

Hope that helps.

@Dan Robson thanks for the assistance.   I think I can make that work.  I think also I can have some of the client companies that are using TEAMS internally add me as a user / guest with my Microsoft email and then I can be on their group, rather than on mine - but still accomplish the same goal.

 

Thanks

Bill