UPDATE 7/24/2019: The new license model has been released. Please reference https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-add-on-licensing/virtual-user for guidance.

This might be one of those classic “Adam” moments. Maybe this has been this way and I’m only waking up to it now. That said, I have found in life, that if I have a question or a view, I’m usually not the only one who has it. So here goes.

Had someone bring this link up to me recently (HT to Randy, he’ll know who he is): https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/manage-resource-accounts

This link is all about Managing Resource Accounts in Microsoft Teams. No big deal right? We use Resource Accounts regularly for things like Rooms in Exchange, etc. In Skype for Business (On-prem or Online) or Teams, we create Resource Accounts for Room accounts as well. Guess what else needs a Resource Account now? Your Auto Attendants and Call Queues!

In the past, if you had purchased Phone System licenses, you were able to request and assign a certain number of Service Numbers within your tenant. Those could be assigned to Auto Attendants and Call Queues. This has changed (or is changing) to require each Auto Attendant or Call Queue to have a Resource Account created for them and then the kicker, if you want a phone number assigned, you have to assign an E1, E3, or E5, with the Phone System license and use either Direct Routing or assign a Calling Plan!

If you don’t need to assign a phone number, you simply need to create the Resource Account. You do not need to license the Auto Attendant or Call Queue if they will not have a phone number.

For some people this is not a big deal. If you have lots of Auto Attendants or Call Queues that have phone numbers assigned, this could have an impact on the Microsoft licensing that you need going forward.

It’s important to properly plan your deployment and this is a perfect example. Since we can nest Auto Attendants and Call Queues, not every one of them needs a phone number. Utilize this whenever possible.

The ultimate reason for this, I would guess, is that this is how an Auto Attendant or Call Queue will be enabled to dial out (i.e. when you want your afterhours Help Desk to forward to someone’s mobile device).

I really feel like I should have seen/known about this one but I’ll be honest, it snuck up on me. My MVP friends will all be like “don’t you remember hearing about this?” or something and give me a hard time, but it’s public now and hopefully, if you’ve read this far, you’ve found it useful information.