MS Ignite BRK3142 - Call via Work for PBX Users

As promised in my Microsoft Ignite 2015 - Sessions, Venue, Expo post, here comes another summary / review of one of the Ignite Skype for business sessions.

Presented by Brian Ricks, consultant and Microsoft MVP.

Started with a brief history on Enterprise voice in LCS / OCS / Lync. Lync 2010 introduced Call-via-work for mobile clients, the ones without VoIP support. Enterprise voice did not change dramatically in Skype for business compared to Lync 2013. Remote Call Control (RCC) is still available in Skype for business.

Call-via-work gives click-to-call integration with an existing PBX, without CSTA (RCC), and presence for that call.

How it works

1. The user initiates an outbound call.
2. The Skype FE server initiates a call to a phone controlled by the user (using UCWA).
3. The user answers the incoming call.
4. The Skype FE server initiates a call to the callee (B party.)
5. When answered on the remote side Skype connects the two calls and updates the presence of the user.

Call-via-work initiates 2 call "legs"

The not so good

Call-via-work does nothing for incoming calls.
The user can click to call, have a voicemail server answer and then "voicemail" will be calling the B party.

Call-via-work cannot be combined with the following Skype call features:
E911 and MCT
Boss/Admin delegation
Team Call
Response Groups
Hold/Transfer/Call Park/Mute/Unmute via Skype 4B
Access to PBX voicemail via Skype 4B
Call escalation (like adding desktop sharing)
Conferencing (adding callers) via Skype 4B
Desk Phone pairing
VDI

Commands to configure the feature

Set-CsRoutingConfiguration -CallViaWorkCallerId +<PhoneNumber>
To set a global number to be used when calling call-via-work users back.

Or you could use...

New-CsCallViaWorkPolicy [-Identity] -Enabled $true -UseAdminCallbackNumber $true -AdminCallbackNumber +<PhoneNumber>
To set an individual number to be used when calling a specific call-via-work user back.
Setting the Callback Number administratively is optional and requires one policy per user.

Grant-CsCallViaWorkPolicy  
Finally grant the policy to the user.

When done the "Call Forwarding" setting in the users configuration will change to "Call handling" and a predefined number or field to enter a number will be visible.

All set for Call-via-work