Microsoft Teams | Settings – Emergency

Many admins like to put this topic on the back burner. But if your company uses Microsoft Teams as a full-fledged phone system (Teams Phone), you have a legal and moral obligation to ensure that emergency calls (110/112) work. And not only that: the ambulance must also know where to go.

In the new Admin Center, this area is divided into two main sub-items:

1. Emergency Calling Policies
2. Emergency Call Routing Policies

1. Emergency call (What happens when dialing?)

Under the menu item “Settings for emergency calls” you define the behavior of the Teams client when an employee dials the emergency number in panic.

Define the emergency numbers

Even if “112” is logical for us – Teams needs to know that this is a special number.

• Emergency Number String: Here you store the numbers (e.g112. , 110, , 911999, ) that are to be treated as emergency calls.
• Important: The system must know that when these digits are entered, no normal dialing rules apply, but the emergency mode takes effect.

Notification groups (the security service should know!)

Imagine: An employee on the 3rd floor suffers a heart attack and dials 112 via Teams. The ambulance arrives – but is in front of a closed door because no one at the reception knows about it.

• The solution: This is where you configure notification groups.
• Function: As soon as an emergency call is made, Teams can automatically notify security, reception, or first responders via chat or call. So someone can open the door for the rescue workers and instruct them.

Disclaimer & Location

• Disclaimer for emergency services: Locating is particularly difficult in the home office. Teams can display a banner here that reminds the user that they must manually maintain their current location (address) so that the control center can find them.
• Remote Location Lookup Mode: This often involves technical interfaces to external databases in order to better determine the location of nomadic users.

2. Forwarding of emergency calls (Where does the call go?)

While the first point regulates behavior (notification), “Forwarding in case of emergency calls” controls the technical path the call takes to the rescue coordination center.

Dynamic emergency call function

This is the supreme discipline in modern networks.

• The problem: One employee is based in Berlin today, in Munich tomorrow – but uses the same laptop and the same Teams account. If he dials 112, he is not allowed to end up in the Berlin control center when he is in Munich.
• The solution: If you activate the Dynamic Emergency Call function and have your network topology (IP subnets, Wi-Fi access points, switches) neatly stored in Teams, the client will recognize: “I’m in the subnet 192.168.10.x, which belongs to the Munich location”.
• The result: The call is routed to the locally responsible control center (PSAP) with the correct location address.

Emergency Numbers & Routing

Here you link the numbers defined above to specific routes.

• You determine: When someone 112 dials, use PSTN gateway X or Calling Plan Y to place the call with the highest priority.

Conclusion: Testing is mandatory!

The “Emergency” section is not a “set-and-forget” setting.

1. Maintain your network data: For dynamic location to work, your locations’ IP ranges must be up-to-date in the admin center.
2. Inform the reception: Make sure that the notification groups are correctly staffed.
3. Test call (with caution): You can test emergency calls , but you must discuss this with the local police station in advance (e.g. via the trunk line) so as not to trigger a false alarm!

Take your time for this area. In an emergency, correct configuration saves lives here.

This post is also available in: Deutsch English