In June of 2020, the Calling feature was added to Microsoft Teams for UWM faculty and staff. This was the first step in a major telephony project for UWM – uniting all communication tools under one platform (Office 365) and migrating our telephone lines to Microsoft Teams.

In August 2020 we began migrating individual phone numbers from our current landline phone system (Centrex) to Microsoft Teams. An individual phone number refers to a direct number assigned to an employee at UWM. This number would be the phone number someone would call to speak to a specific employee directly or leave a voicemail. Phone line migrations for the College of General Studies will occur during a later project phase.

Phase 1 of the Teams Calling Project will be completed at the end of February 2021. Almost all UWM faculty and staff members who had individual UWM campus telephone numbers have now either had their 229 numbers moved from the Centrex system to Microsoft Teams, or they have been given new telephone numbers in Teams. If you are interested in retaining your individual UWM (229) phone number that is not in Teams (this means it is not your current phone number listed in Teams), please contact the UWM Help Desk with that request. We will be performing the final migration of individual phone lines and phone number requests by February 26, 2021. Please note: This is for individual phone numbers only – those assigned directly to a UWM employee, not an area/department/central reception phone line. This is a request regarding phone number retention – your phone service will still be maintained through Microsoft Teams.