We're currently using the Teams integration with 3CX and it's really great.
The thing I'm trying to get sorted out now is a good way to manage the contact information, so whenever someone calls to appropriate name is shown. There seems to be quite a bit of conflicting information out there on how this works.
There is the option to use an Exchange sync with 3CX, which would be okay as I can manage all public contacts in Office 365 under User > Contacts (even though I would also need an e-mail for all contacts then, which is not always the case). However, it explicitly stated in the documentation this does not work if the Teams integration is enabled (see: https://www.3cx.com/docs/how-to-create-impersonated-user/) - so that's a no-go.
Then there is the option to use the Microsoft 356 integration and sync contacts there instead, but for some silly reason that's limited to either personal phonebook (tied to a specific user) or to a shared mailbox. As such it lacks what would have made the Exchange sync great, I can have a central phonebook, not tied to a user/shared mailbox and maintain that accordingly.
Last there is the option to hookup a CRM, which is the closest to an API to perform these sort of things as I can make a lookup based on phone number. However, this is also where things get vague. Apparantly, CRM to 3CX is a once-in-a-lifetime one-way traffic kind of a deal. Meaning: If we turn on the CRM kind of way, and do a successful lookup for a phonenumber, 3CX will always make a contact with that number inside the PBX phonebook, which it doesn't when CRM is disabled (also see: https://www.3cx.com/docs/crm-integration/) - which is said to be vital function for the intregation. The option to enable/disable "contact creation" is only for 3CX -> CRM communication.
What happens once such a contact is created in 3CX? Will 3CX from then on never query the CRM anymore when a call comes in? Or will it always keep doing a lookup and keep the existing 3CX contact in sync? While I cannot find the piece of documentation at this time, I read some conflicting information regarding this somewhere among the lines of "if the contact does not exist in 3CX, the CRM is queried". Which is backwards to what I want to achieve: I want my CRM (read: my external phonebook) to be the absolute truth at any time, regardless of what 3CX needs to do the actual integration.
So all in all, this leaves the CRM option as the most viable, IF it always does a CRM query and not only if the contact does not exist in 3CX yet. So, what does it actually do?
The thing I'm trying to get sorted out now is a good way to manage the contact information, so whenever someone calls to appropriate name is shown. There seems to be quite a bit of conflicting information out there on how this works.
There is the option to use an Exchange sync with 3CX, which would be okay as I can manage all public contacts in Office 365 under User > Contacts (even though I would also need an e-mail for all contacts then, which is not always the case). However, it explicitly stated in the documentation this does not work if the Teams integration is enabled (see: https://www.3cx.com/docs/how-to-create-impersonated-user/) - so that's a no-go.
Then there is the option to use the Microsoft 356 integration and sync contacts there instead, but for some silly reason that's limited to either personal phonebook (tied to a specific user) or to a shared mailbox. As such it lacks what would have made the Exchange sync great, I can have a central phonebook, not tied to a user/shared mailbox and maintain that accordingly.
Last there is the option to hookup a CRM, which is the closest to an API to perform these sort of things as I can make a lookup based on phone number. However, this is also where things get vague. Apparantly, CRM to 3CX is a once-in-a-lifetime one-way traffic kind of a deal. Meaning: If we turn on the CRM kind of way, and do a successful lookup for a phonenumber, 3CX will always make a contact with that number inside the PBX phonebook, which it doesn't when CRM is disabled (also see: https://www.3cx.com/docs/crm-integration/) - which is said to be vital function for the intregation. The option to enable/disable "contact creation" is only for 3CX -> CRM communication.
What happens once such a contact is created in 3CX? Will 3CX from then on never query the CRM anymore when a call comes in? Or will it always keep doing a lookup and keep the existing 3CX contact in sync? While I cannot find the piece of documentation at this time, I read some conflicting information regarding this somewhere among the lines of "if the contact does not exist in 3CX, the CRM is queried". Which is backwards to what I want to achieve: I want my CRM (read: my external phonebook) to be the absolute truth at any time, regardless of what 3CX needs to do the actual integration.
So all in all, this leaves the CRM option as the most viable, IF it always does a CRM query and not only if the contact does not exist in 3CX yet. So, what does it actually do?
