Overview - What is a Direct Call Handling Service?

Nimbus capabilities (Task Routing, Supervision, Reporting, Companion, Transcription) normally apply only to calls that reach a Nimbus service. A call dialed directly to a user's own Teams number skips all of that: it rings, connects, and ends without touching the platform.

Direct Call Handling closes this gap by representing a user's personal number as a Nimbus service of their own. A call to that number is handled, supervised, transcribed, and reported like any queue-based service call, and still reaches the person it was meant for.

Use Case Scenarios

• Direct-dial specialists: a claims handler, account manager, or field technician gives out a personal Teams number. When they're unavailable, callers still get a routing safety net (voicemail, a colleague, a service) instead of an unanswered ring.
• Compliance and quality assurance: an organization must record and transcribe every customer conversation, whether the customer reached a queue or dialed an individual directly. Direct Call Handling attaches Companion transcription and sentiment analysis to direct calls the same way it does to service calls.
• Presence- and time-aware personal availability: a user wants direct calls handled differently depending on presence or time of day, without IT building this per person. For example, forward to a PSTN number during business hours and to Teams voicemail overnight.
• Unified capacity and interaction analytics: leadership wants one reporting view of all customer-facing conversation time, queue calls and direct calls alike, filterable by category so direct calls don't skew queue-based KPIs.
• Click to Outbound Call, e.g. from a CRM: a sales or account team starts calls from the customer record in their CRM. Nimbus rings the user first, then dials the customer from the user's own direct number, with data from the CRM record passed into the call. → Also see Call on Behalf.

Preconditions

✅ PRECONDITIONS

💡 Direct Call Handling is enabled per user. Each user is individually licensed, provisioned, and associated with a dedicated Microsoft Teams Resource Account and phone number.

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💡 PSTN provider flexibility: Customers can use their existing Microsoft Teams PSTN connectivity, such as Microsoft Calling Plan, Operator Connect, or Direct Routing with their own PSTN carrier. The exact licensing and phone number preparation therefore depends on the customer's Microsoft Teams telephony setup.

Regardless of the PSTN connectivity option, Direct Call Handling requires:

• A Nimbus user with the Direct Call Handling add-on.
• One dedicated Microsoft Teams Resource Account per Direct Call Handling user.
• The user enabled for Direct Call Handling must have a phone number assigned in Teams. 
  💡As part of the Direct Call Handling enablement process, this phone number will be transferred to the resource account. The Teams Phone licenses enable the resource account to receive and make calls.
• 💡 A Microsoft Teams Phone licensing calling plan license is only needed, when you use Calling Plan as your telephony option AND if your users still want to make Teams-initiated outbound calls via a dedicated personal phone number (outside of Nimbus).
• Administrator access to configure the Microsoft Teams and Nimbus requirements.

The steps below will guide through this process.

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✅ Setup Steps - Quick overview (comprehensive steps below):

1. Start within Nimbus License Management:
   1.  Make sure the tenant's Direct Call Handling license quota is above 0. 
   2. If you require additional assistance, contact Luware Customer Success.
       
2. Assign the Direct Call Handling add-on to the user: 
   1. Either individually on the General User Settings page OR
   2. … in bulk from the License Management page.
      ⮑ The Direct Call tab becomes available.
       
3. Go to the Nimbus > ”Direct Call" User Settings tab:
   1. Click “Create and Update Service”.
      ⮑ This creates a Nimbus Service of Type “Direct Call Handling” in Service Administration.
      ⮑ The user is automatically associated with this service, using the User Assignment Type “Direct Call Handling”.
      💡 Note: This service now exists in Nimbus, but is not yet usable.
       
4. Download and run the Nimbus provisioning script:
   1. The script detects your service and creates a resource account automatically.
   2. If your users have a “Direct Routing” number assigned, the script will immediately move the phone number to the resource account.
      ☝️ This will not work automatically for Operator Connect  / Calling Plan.  The script will let your know in case a number needs to be moved manually. In this case, go to the next step.
      ⮑ In Service Administration, Nimbus should now show the service as “Running”.
       
5. Conditional: Manual Number assignment (when using Operator Connect / Calling Plan):
   1. Go to your Microsoft Teams admin center
   2. Manually remove the number form the user
   3. Convert the number to a service number (user-assigned number normally has a usage type of User. Convert it to Voice App). 
      🔎 You can find details in “Microsoft Teams Admin Notes” below.
   4. Within Nimbus Service Administration, assign the number to the Direct Call Handling service. Once the number has been assigned to the service, the script can be executed.
   5. Rerun the provisioning script to apply the required Microsoft Teams configuration, including number assignment and call forwarding.
      ⮑ In Service Administration, Nimbus should now show the service as “Running”.
      

      

6. Continue with the regular Nimbus Settings and Configuration chapter.

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🔎 Microsoft Teams Admin Notes

Microsoft Teams Admin Prerequisites

Direct Call Handling uses Microsoft Teams Phone capabilities but does not prescribe which PSTN provider the customer must use. Before provisioning the service, prepare the Resource Account, phone number, PSTN connectivity, and calling configuration described below.

Requirement	Direct Call Handling requirement	Customer choice / dependency
Resource Account	✔️ One dedicated Resource Account per enabled user	Must meet Microsoft's applicable licensing requirements
Phone number	✔️ Initially assigned to the user, the number will be migrated to the Resource Account, as part of the DCH configuration.	Number source and preparation depend on the PSTN connectivity model
PSTN connectivity	✔️ Required for external PSTN calls	Microsoft Calling Plan, Operator Connect, or Direct Routing / own PSTN carrier
Calling Plan	✖️ Not specifically required by Nimbus	A Calling plan license is only needed, when Calling Plan is your current telephony option  AND  … after the migration the users still want to make Teams-initiated outbound calls via a dedicated personal phone number (outside of Nimbus)
Teams Calling Policy	✔️ Must support the required call forwarding	Configured by the Microsoft Teams administrator

Resource Account

• Each Direct Call Handling user requires a dedicated Resource Account (automatically created by the Provisioning Script).
• The Resource Account is associated one-to-one with the Direct Call Handling user and service.
• The Resource Account ultimately holds the phone number associated with the Direct Call Handling service.

🔎 See: Manage Resource Accounts | Microsoft Learn

Teams Phone Number

• These are optional and are only needed if:
  • … the user needs to have a dedicated phone number assigned to place outbound calls initiated from Teams (not tracked by Nimbus)
    OR
  • … the user wants to use shared calling (meaning that the call is initiated from within the Teams client by using the same phone number that was transferred to the resource account)
    OR
  • … internal Teams Calls need to be forwarded to the Nimbus service's resource account.
• If any of the cases apply, the the user must have the required Microsoft Teams Phone capability, for example through Teams Phone Standard or a Microsoft 365 plan that includes the required Teams Phone entitlement. A regular Teams license alone is not sufficient for the required Teams Phone configuration.
• The dedicated Resource Account must also meet Microsoft's licensing requirements for a voice-enabled Resource Account.

🔎 See: Microsoft Teams Add-on Licensing | Microsoft Learn
🔎 See: Resource Account Licensing | Microsoft Learn

PSTN Connectivity

Direct Call Handling is independent of the customer's PSTN provider. Customers can retain the Microsoft Teams PSTN connectivity model that fits their telephony environment.

• Microsoft Calling Plan uses Microsoft as the PSTN provider.
• Operator Connect uses a participating third-party telecommunications operator integrated with Microsoft Teams.
• Direct Routing allows customers to connect their own supported SBC and PSTN carrier or telephony infrastructure.

💡 Important: What matters to Direct Call Handling is that the Resource Account has the required phone number and that the customer's chosen Microsoft Teams PSTN connectivity is correctly configured.

Microsoft PSTN Connectivity Options

🔎 See: PSTN Connectivity Options | Microsoft Learn

Nimbus User Account	Direct Call Handling Ressource Account (RA)	Nimbus handling internal UPN calls	Nimbus handling external (PSTN) calls	When to use
Regular Teams License	None - will not work without RA and Calling Plan.	✖️No	✖️No	N/A for this feature.
Option 1:  Regular Teams License	Teams Phone RA License  + Calling Plan	✖️No	✔️ Yes - Service Shared Number  (tracked1)	Handling of external calls in Nimbus
Option 2:  Teams Phone Standard2	Teams Phone RA License  + Calling Plan	✔️ Yes (tracked1)	✔️ Yes - Service Shared Number  (tracked1)	Handling of internal & external calls in Nimbus
Option 3: Teams Phone Standard  + Calling Plan3	Teams Phone RA License  + Calling Plan	✔️ Yes (tracked1)	✔️ Yes - User Specific Number (tracked1)	Handling of internal & external calls in Nimbus, per user and with separate phone numbers reflected in Reporting.

🔎 Footnotes

Please be aware of the following Microsoft dependencies:

• ¹ After MS Teams Call forwarding: Nimbus call tracking is possible when “MS Teams Call forwarding” is configured towards the Ressource Account of the Direct Call Handling Nimbus service. These calls will then be tracked, handled and associated within Nimbus Reporting as individual service and user sessions.
• ² Teams Phone Standard is the minimum for PSTN telephony option via MS Teams, unless the user already has E5.
• ³ Calling Plans are “pay-as-you-go”. Note that pricing is determined by Microsoft and varies per region.

☝️ Microsoft licensing, product naming, availability, and PSTN options can vary by region and contract. Refer to Microsoft's Resource Account licensing, PSTN connectivity options, and phone number usage documentation for the applicable requirements.

 

 

Phone Number Preparation

The phone number used for Direct Call Handling must be assignable to the user's dedicated Resource Account. The required preparation depends on the customer's PSTN connectivity option.

• Calling Plan or Operator Connect
  • A user-assigned number normally has a usage type of User.
  • Before assigning a suitable number to the Resource Account, prepare it for Voice App usage according to Microsoft's phone number management requirements.
• Direct Routing
  • Direct Routing uses the customer's own PSTN connectivity through the configured Teams Direct Routing infrastructure.
  • No Calling Plan from Microsoft is required for this PSTN connection.
  • Ensure the number and voice routing configuration allow the number to be assigned to the Direct Call Handling Resource Account.
  • 🔎 See: Plan Direct Routing | Microsoft Learn

🔎 See: Manage the Usage of a Phone Number | Microsoft Learn

Calling Policy: Supports Forwarding

• The user's Teams Calling Policy must allow forwarding to another user.
• AllowCallForwardingToUser must be enabled.
• Unanswered calls should not be routed directly to voicemail.
• Voicemail settings may interfere with Direct Call Handling and cannot be validated by Nimbus.

🔎 See: Teams Calling Policy | Microsoft Learn

 

 

 

Nimbus Settings and Configuration

✅ Before you start: Ensure that the Precondition Setup Steps above have been performed (Licenses applied, Ressource Account and PSTN Number assigned to the user). Once provisioned, a Direct Call Handling Service it is visible in the Service Administration and can be configured same as any service. 

Basic Setup

1. Under the User's Direct Call Tab, you can:
   1. … Verify to confirm that the license and resource account binding is healthy.
   2. … Transfer or Remove the resource account and phone number binding.
   3. … Set optional Call Forwarding rules: Configure the call forwarding behavior for the newly generated Direct Call Handling service.
      💡 Users can also adjust their forwarding rules in User Preferences (Portal). Initial setup remains administrator-exclusive.

Settings and notable differences

Tab	Setting / Property	Description
General	Service UPN	A single user's Direct Call Resource Account UPN. ✅ Admins can transfer a Resource Account and its number to a different user directly, without rerunning the provisioning script, when someone leaves or changes role. This is done via the Direct Call User Settings.
	PSTN Phone number	The Resource Account's assigned PSTN number. 💡 Note: Assigning a separate PSTN Number on the user (outside the resource account) allows them to make MS Teams calls outside of Nimbus (and not tracked in the Direct Call Handling service).
	➕Opening Hours Calendar	Allows to configure regular Opening Hours calendars, but they will only apply when the Direct Call User Settings forwarding rules point to a workflow with the “Check Opening Hours” activity inside. 💡 Note: In the forwarding rules users can set their own “opening hours” individually, so the use of a pre-configured calendar is optional.
Modalities	Supported Modalities	Audio and video modality only.  On-Hold wait music is supported with Playlists.
	Outbound	Outbound Calls Outbound Call toggle, allows the user to make Calls on Behalf. Started via external Systems (e.g. a CRM): Immediate outbound “Call on Behalf” for the user, e.g. by using the Nimbus API, or the Power Automate Flow Action "Start a call on behalf".  💡 Another way is to embed nimbus-call: protocol links, as described under Click to Call. Scheduled outbound Call via the Nimbus API or the Power Automate Flow Action "Schedule a new outbound call": At the due time the owning user is offered the call. Once they accept, the customer is dialed and sees the user's direct number.
	➕ Workflow	One default workflow, assigned automatically at provisioning. Upon creation, each Direct Call Handling service automatically gets a “Direct Call Handling” workflow (Audio/Video Only) assigned by Nimbus. 💡 Note:    The workflow is hard-bound to the Distribution Service Settings and cannot be deleted. It acts as a fallback when no Forwarding Rules are defined by the Direct Call Handling user. You can reference it within Direct Call User Settings “Forwarding Rules”, e.g. only apply it under certain conditions, e.g. for specific announcements or routing. You can configure it freely, e.g. to set up Announcements, IVR, Virtual Users, queues, or Workflow Activities. 💡 Hint: A dynamic “Myself” transfer target can be used so the workflow remains reusable if the service is reassigned to another user.
Distribution	User Assignment type	There is no MS Teams team and no Contact Center manual membership sync, unlike a regular service. Direct Call Handling services are their own Service Type with specific User Assignment Type.  No distribution policy, since there's only one member.
	Members / MS Teams relation	Exactly one.  The owning user is both the service's owner and its only agent. No Teams team, no Microsoft 365 group, no bot.
Extensions	➕ Direct Call Preferences	✅ Admin-specific Toggle:  “Allow user to edit their own Direct Call preferences” controls if users can configure the behavior in their User Preferences. When enabled: Each Direct Call enabled user can configure call Forwarding Rules in their User Preferences (Portal), an ordered rule list that Nimbus evaluates it top to bottom; the first match, by presence, time window, or unconditionally, decides the outcome. No match means the call reaches the user. When disabled: If you as Admin want to prevent a user from configuring those rules (e.g. standardize the handling), disable this toggle, then adjust Direct Call Settings on the User account itself.
	Apps and Addons	Reduced options compared to a regular service: Nimbus Assistant or Attendant Console support, but no Context Tabs. Customizable My Sessions. Codes and Tags as part of After-Call Work (ACW).
AI	Companion	Direct Call Handling services can also leverage advanced AI Features (separately licensed): Nimbus Companion Features (Transcription, Summarization).  ✅ Requires a separate Companion license on the owning user.  Virtual Users for AI-driven customer interactions.  ✅ Requires a separate Virtual User License which can enables the “Add Virtual User” workflow activity.

Direct Call Handling Tracking and Reporting

Direct calls handled by Nimbus travel the same reporting pipeline as any other interaction (Nimbus Reporting, Nimbus Reporting Model). Both a Service Session and a User Session are created, exactly as for a queue-based service call. 

• UI Feature parity: since a direct call is treated like a regular service call underneath, it will show up Sessions List, Attendant Console  and Customer Insights.
• Session Generation: every external direct call, inbound or outbound via Call on Behalf Of, generates a Service and User Session against the Direct Call service, filterable as its own category, and excluded from tenant-wide KPI and SLA aggregates.
• KPIs / Data Aggregation: Direct Call Handling services do have their own KPIs and do not count against overall Tenant / Team KPIs.
• Facts and Dimensions: Facts - Columns and Data Types follow the existing model: Static Dimensions (task direction, outcome) and Slowly Changing Dimensions Dimensions (user, org unit at call time) all apply.
• Data Access Channels: available through the same channels as the rest of Nimbus reporting: Personal Dashboards, the OData Feed, and the Nimbus Power BI Template, governed by the same Reporting Roles.
• Supervision: Real-time supervisor monitoring via Dashboards cover both inbound and outbound (Call on Behalf Of) direct calls.

Comparison to “MS Teams Direct Call Reporting”

Nimbus also supports MS Teams Direct Call Reporting, a separate, unrelated feature enabled on a user. Despite the similar name these features are not related

MS Teams Direct Call Reporting exists because a direct Teams call is otherwise invisible to Nimbus, but they close that gap in different ways.

Notes and Limitations