Behind Omnichannel Native Voice

I’m so excited! Omnichannel Native Voice is so close to GA I can almost taste it – not literally. But seriously, this is an exciting leap for Omnichannel which means it’s now possible to have Microsoft be the provider for the entire contact centre solution instead of different providers for different channels!

The video below shows an updated demonstration of the features expected when voice is made generally available.

I’ve had several conversations with colleagues and community members wondering what this all means and the setup considerations for this new feature. Let me share my thoughts with you in this blog.

Azure Communication Services

One of the common questions I’m asked is, “Do you trust this? It’s so new…”.
The technology behind native voice is not new. Omnichannel native voice leverages Azure Communication Service which is a public web service that exposes some of Microsoft Teams’ functionality.

It is entirely possible to build your own voice application using Azure Communication Services taking advantage of features such as call recording, call transcriptions etc. This is exactly what the native omni channel voice channel does.

Interestingly, the voice integration used in D365 Sales accelerator leverages Microsoft Teams and requires a Teams calling plan.

Another question “Do I have to use Microsoft as my voice carrier?!” can sometimes crop up.
Microsoft Teams implementations can be deployed with different voice carriers which are certified to work with a Microsoft Teams. This functionality is being extended to Azure Communication Services as a feature called Direct Routing which is currently in public preview. Direct Routing will allow ACS to be configured to use a third party voice carrier. It should be noted, the initial launch of voice will only support North America and in my understanding will not support direct routing. For more information about direct routing please read here.

Setting up Voice in the Omnichannel user interface
It’s actually pretty simple to request and purchase a number for use within Omnichannel as seen in the video below.

The Microsoft team have put a lot of focus on making the user experience seamless and quick in order to reduce the time needed for set up.

Thoughts? What additional questions do you have about the new upcoming native voice?