Three Features That Set TeamMate Apart: Presence Sync, Presence Pause, and Pro Transfer
Updated April 7, 2025
When it comes to Microsoft Teams telephony integration, TeamMate offers unmatched features that allow you to get the most from your Teams investment. TeamMate’s Microsoft Teams telephony integration offers unique tools like Presence Sync, Presence Pause, and Pro Transfer to streamline communication.
There are numerous options for building direct routes to integrate your telephony system with Microsoft Teams. Most of them offer shortcuts to the tedious tasks necessitated by Microsoft’s direct routing architecture. Of course, TeamMate shines in this area with automation and orchestration at every step.
But TeamMate doesn’t stop there. Using our unique app deployment framework, TeamMate allows you to deploy custom branded apps into the Microsoft tenant that extend your telephony features right into the Teams client. Here are three of the most popular features, made possible by TeamMate’s app, that set us apart from all other telephony integration solutions:
Presence Sync
TeamMate’s presence sync feature mirrors the PBX line status to Microsoft Teams. When using this feature, if someone is busy on the PBX, their Teams status will also show as busy. This allows coworkers on Teams to be aware that the user is occupied on the external telephony platform.
Sample Use Case: Remote IT Support Team
Imagine an IT managed service provider (MSP) with a distributed support team handling client issues via a 3CX PBX system integrated with Microsoft Teams. Technician Sarah is on a call troubleshooting a server outage for a client. Without Presence Sync, her Teams status might show “Available,” prompting colleagues to ping her with unrelated messages, disrupting her focus. With TeamMate’s Presence Sync, her status automatically updates to “On a Call” across both systems as soon as she picks up via the PBX. Her teammate, John, sees this in Teams and decides to handle a new ticket instead, ensuring efficient workload distribution. Once Sarah hangs up, her status reverts to “Available,” signaling she’s ready for the next task. This real-time synchronization reduces communication delays and improves client response times—critical for MSPs competing in a fast-paced industry.
Presence Pause
Typically, when a Teams user is occupied in a Teams meeting or internal Teams call, there is no way for this status to be reflected in the external telephony platform. TeamMate’s Presence Pause feature prevents external calls from reaching Teams when the user is unavailable in Teams. That means inbound calls can be handled by the PBX routing rules instead of going unanswered by the Teams user.
This is especially helpful when the Teams user is part of a ring group or call center queue where unanswered calls negatively affect an agent’s performance metrics. When this feature is activated, incoming queue calls will not ring through to unavailable users to avoid the call being answered by the users’ Teams voicemail, and thereby allowing the call to reach other users in the queue or ring group. In this way, the user’s metrics (such as offer/answer ratio) are not adversely affected in reports.
When this feature is enabled in the TeamMate portal, there are three options to choose from:
- SIP 480: This option will cause the system to send a SIP 480 message for any call to a user that is unavailable on Teams. When the PBX receives the 480 it will be able to follow the next rule in its routing logic, such as ringing a different extension or sending the call to PBX voicemail.
- AS-Feature-Event: This option will set the PBX user’s status to “DND” when the user is unavailable in Teams and will remove the “DND” when the user is available in Teams. This method works on any PBX that is compatible with Presence Event package as defined in RFC 6665 (including Broadsoft Broadworks, Netsapiens/Crexendo, 3CX, Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Avaya Aura/IP Office, Unify, Mitel MiVoice)
- NS-Feature Event: This option, supported only by Netsapiens, will cause the Netsapiens system to see the TeamMate device as busy when the user is unavailable in Teams. This method is sometimes preferable to AS-Feature-Event because it affects the Teams “device” only – it will not affect the status of other devices, such as non-Teams SIP phones, belonging to the same user. Note that this feature is supported only on Netsapiens Core v44.1 and higher.
Sample Use Case: Help Desk Agent During a Complex Ticket
Consider Emily, a help desk agent at an IT service provider using Microsoft Teams integrated with a Mitel PBX. She’s on Teams video meeting troubleshooting a tricky network issue that requires her undivided attention for 20 minutes. Normally, when an inbound call occurs in this situation her Teams client will forward calls to voicemail or ring her mobile simultaneously, but this could still dispatch additional inbound PBX calls to her, piling on distractions. By activating Presence Pause, Emily stops the PBX from sending her any new calls during this session. When a second client calls her extension, the PBX—now in control—bypasses her Teams rules and routes the call to an available colleague, Alex, based on its hunt group settings, or sends it to a shared voicemail box if no one’s free. Once Emily wraps up, the Presence Pause automatically changes her status on the PBX, and the PBX resumes normal dispatching to her Teams client. This feature keeps Emily focused on critical tasks while ensuring calls are handled efficiently elsewhere, a win for both productivity and customer service.
Pro Transfer
With most Teams telephony solutions, transferred calls present a vexing dilemma. When a Teams user transfers an external call to another Teams user, the external telephony platform is not aware that the call has been transferred and the transferor’s call status remains busy for the duration of the transferred call. TeamMate solves this problem by syncing the Teams transfer status with the external telephony platform so that the transferor becomes available as soon as the call is transferred. This means that call queues and ring groups can wok optimally to route inbound calls to the intended recipient unhampered by the unreliable transfer handling exhibited by many Teams telephony integrations.
Importantly, TeamMate’s Pro Transfer solution works even in cases where the transferee is not a phone system licensed user.
Sample Use Case: Customer Support Call Center
Consider a mid-sized call center using an Asterisk PBX system alongside Microsoft Teams to manage customer inquiries. Agent Mike answers a call in Teams from a customer needing technical assistance beyond his expertise. Jeff, an engineer who has the skills to handle the inquiry, is not a Teams phone system user. Although Mike can transfer the call to Jeff using Teams internal transfer, doing so would cause Mike’s status to remain busy on the Asterisk PBX for the entire time that Jeff is on the call with the customer. With Pro Transfer, Mike can seamlessly transfers the call to Jeff while the customer stays on the line, hearing the hold music (or messaging) from the PBX while Jeff picks up with all context intact. This streamlined process boosts customer satisfaction, and lets the call center escalate support without adding complexity. For service providers, this feature simplifies workflows and enhances the end-user experience—a key selling point.
To learn more about these distinctive features and all the other ways that TeamMate simplifies Teams telephony integration contact your TeamMate account rep or sign up for a Free Trial today.
