Getting Started

Stay connected with your customers using voice and SMS in Microsoft Teams. Bring your existing phone number or activate a new one in seconds.
Clerk integrates natively into Microsoft Teams for a seamless phone experience. Once installed you are able to both make and receive audio calls and send and receive text messages all inside of Microsoft Teams.
The SMS and calling activations are somewhat different due to Microsoft Teams limitations. Use this guide to walk you through this process or schedule a call with Clerk support team to help with the onboarding.

Microsoft Teams SMS

Installation

Installation can be done either from our website or directly in the Microsoft AppSource.
Login to your Teams Account. And Click on the three dots from the left panel. Search for Clerk Chat or SMS, the Clerk SMS integration app will appear. Click on the App.
Microsoft App Source
A new Page will pop up. Just click on "Add" button.
Microsoft Teams SMS
Immediately the Clerk App will get integrated with your Teams Account on the left panel. Right-click on the Clerk Chat icon from the left panel to pin it.
Clerk SMS
Note: When you install Clerk you get a new phone number, this number can be changed at any time. To enable your existing phone number please refer to the section below.

Enable Existing Phone Numbers

If you already have a phone number assigned by Microsoft via the Microsoft Calling Plan you will need to move over your phone number to Clerk. The process is instantaneous as Clerk and Microsoft use the same Tier-1 carrier for calling and there is no downtime. Moving over the phone number to Clerk would make Clerk your default carrier for both Voice and SMS.
Note: To enable both calling and SMS via your existing Teams Calling Plan phone numbers, Clerk becomes the primary carrier. **NOTE: Your existing Microsoft Teams setup and user phone number assignment are unaffected and enabled via Direct Routing. Meaning, there is no lengthy porting process or disruption to your services. As a result, Clerk Chat Inc becomes the primary holder of your number.
The process is simple:

Generate a PIN for your Microsoft Account:

Navigate to the Microsoft Teams Admin Portal and under Actions click on Manage Porting Pin
Microsoft Teams Admin Portal
Add a 10 digit pin (this can be any combination of numbers) and please provide it to the Clerk Customer Support Team.
Manage Porting PIN
Note: Due to Microsoft limitations, to enable SMS on your existing Teams phone number, Clerk needs to become the carrier for both the SMS and Voice portion of your phone number.

Microsoft Teams Calling

This section assumes that you already have one or multiple phone numbers provided by Clerk or if you are activating an existing phone number and have supplied the PIN to the Clerk team. Refer to the section above.

Microsoft License

To use Clerk for calling in Microsoft Teams you will need to have Teams Phone Standard License. Teams Phone Standard licenses give you all Teams Phone System capabilities like cloud voicemail, caller ID, call park, call forwarding, auto attendants, call queues, call transfer, and caller ID powered by Clerk.
Note: To enable calling via Clerk in Microsoft Teams every active user must have a Teams Phone Standard License add-on enabled or have one of the following license types:
  • Microsoft and Office 365 Enterprise E5
  • Microsoft 365 and Office 365 Education A5
  • Microsoft 365 and Office 365 Government G5
  • Microsoft 365 and Office 365 Nonprofit E5.
For a full breakdown of the difference between licenses please refer to Microsoft Documentation.
To purchase the license navigate to your Organization Portal and click on Marketplace.
Microsoft Marketplace
Search for Microsoft Teams Phone Standard and click on Details
Microsoft Teams Phone Standard
Manage Licenses
Microsoft Organization Portal
Select Your Count:
Buy licenses
Assign Licenses
Assign Licenses
Assign Microsoft Teams Phone Standard Licenses to your users
Assign Licenses
Activate Domain on a Microsoft Teams User

Add Voice Routing Policy

Navigate to the Voice routing policies page in your Microsoft Teams admin center.
Voice routing policies
Click on + Add
Add PSTN usage
PSTN usage records
Add Dial plans
Navigate to Dial plans in your Microsoft Teams admin center.

Apply Policies

Navigate to the Manage users page in your Microsoft Teams admin center.
Manage users
Select all users that you are activating Voice + SMS on and click on Edit Settings.
Select Clerk for Dial Plan and Voice routing policy you have created in the previous step and click Apply.

Assign Phone Numbers

Navigate to the Microsoft Teams admin center and click on Manage users.
Manage Users
Select the user you are looking to assign a phone number to and click on Edit.
Assign phone number
Add the phone number assigned by Clerk.