A person with a headset at a desk in a site office at dusk, while a colleague stands in the doorway

Multi-site materials supplier · Field and office staff

Staff take calls in Teams while the old numbers still ring.

The company already ran Microsoft 365. Calls still lived on a separate cloud phone system, and new people were still being added there. Leadership wanted calls in Teams without a weekend where the published numbers went quiet.

Materials supplier · Teams Phone In production

People on Teams 80 Temporary numbers

Forwards confirmed 64 Old number still rings

Ready to port 64 Held until confirmed

Not moved yet 30 Old system

Representative profile. Figures are illustrative.

The work

What we did, and why

The company already ran Microsoft 365. Calls still lived on a separate cloud phone system, and new people were still being added there. Leadership wanted the calls in Teams. They also wanted the published numbers to keep ringing while the move was underway.

A cutover weekend was the wrong plan. The number port cannot be filed until each person can be reached, and a forward is what keeps the old number ringing. So the move runs in production, one group at a time. A person gets a Teams phone and a temporary number first. The old system forwards the published number to that temporary number. The person works in Teams. The old system stays until the forwards are confirmed and the port is filed.

Day-to-day phone support stays with the company's team. This work is the move: the inventory, the temporary numbers, the forwards, and the port paperwork. The old system closes only after the published numbers have moved.

What we did

Inventory of numbers, extensions, and the sites that still depend on the old system
People moved onto Teams with a temporary number so they can work before the port
A forward from the old system so the published number still reaches the person
Port paperwork prepared and held until the forwards are confirmed
The old system stays in place until the published numbers have moved

The call we made

Move people onto Teams first. Leave the published numbers on the old system until each forward is confirmed, and file the port only then. Closing the old system first would drop calls.

Where they are now

Migration underway · Microsoft 365 migration

Services used

Where they stand

The outcome

The move is in production. People answer in Teams. Published numbers still arrive through the old system, and the port is the step that lets that system close.

For leadership

What changed

A new person can be put on Teams without waiting for the carrier. The list shows who still depends on a forward and who is ready for the port.

This is a representative profile, drawn from the kinds of companies we work with. Figures are illustrative. We publish named results only with a client's written permission.

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Your turn next

The same method, applied to your systems.

Every engagement on this site started with a written assessment of what the company already ran. Yours starts the same way, and the assessment is yours to keep either way.

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