Luware Nimbus supports the two deepest of Microsoft's integration models for bringing a Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solution to Teams Phone: Extend and Unify. The integration method has repercussions for how customer journeys are orchestrated, how AI capabilities can be applied, how reporting is generated, and how closely the platform aligns with the Microsoft ecosystem.
Alignment with the Microsoft integration models
Microsoft defines multiple integration models for customer engagement and contact center solutions in the Microsoft Teams ecosystem: Extend, Unify and Connect.
Luware Nimbus supports two Microsoft-aligned communication integration architectures1: Extend and Unify. This page summarizes both and compares them side by side so you can choose the model that fits your organization.
| Microsoft integration model | Foundation | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Extend - embed into Teams | Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Graph | For organizations pursuing a Teams-first strategy that want the contact center to live entirely inside Microsoft Teams. Luware Nimbus runs in the client your agents already use — rollout is fast because there's nothing new to learn. Licensing is cost-effective and predictable per-user, leveraging your existing Teams Phone investment. |
| Unify - built natively on Teams Phone | Microsoft Teams Phone Extensibility and Azure Communication Services | For organizations with high-volume interactions that need dedicated customer engagement experiences, CRM-centric workflows or advanced real-time AI. Unify processes calls and media directly in Azure Communication Services - recording, transcription and AI run on the media stream with no lag. Agents work in their client of choice - the optimized and highly adaptable unified agent desktop (Luware NimbusOne) or a CTI integration in their CRM - and dual persona keeps contact center traffic separate from personal Teams calls, meetings and collaboration. |
| Connect - integrate with Teams | Certified SBC and Direct Routing | For organisations that want to retain their existing contact centre platform while bringing Microsoft Teams telephony into their communications environment. Connect uses a certified SBC and Direct Routing to connect the existing contact centre with Teams, enabling organisations to preserve their current contact centre investment while adopting Teams for calling and collaboration. |
1 🔎 Also see: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftteams/teams-contact-center
Nimbus integration as shared foundation
Nimbus Extend and Nimbus Unify are two communication integration architectures on one Nimbus Customer Experience (CX) Orchestration Platform. Regardless of the selected integration model, all interactions run on the same Luware Nimbus platform architecture. They share the same service model, workflow architecture, routing logic, Unified Session Architecture, reporting model, security framework and governance approach.
Customers can therefore choose the model that best fits each service — without migrating between options — and benefit from:
- One Domain model
- One Governance model (Policies, Administration, Deployment)
- One Security Framework (Authentication, Roles, Access, Compliance)
- One Configuration and Administration model
- One Service architecture
- One Workflow architecture
- One Unified Session Architecture
- One Reporting model
- One API and extensibility architecture
Comparing Nimbus Extend and Unify
The following contents are taken from the Nimbus Extend and Nimbus Unify.
Nimbus Extend
Nimbus Extend
Nimbus Extend – in the following called just “Extend” – is one of the two Microsoft Teams contact center integrations of Luware Nimbus. It is built for organizations that follow a Microsoft Teams-first strategy: Microsoft Teams stays the primary workspace, and Nimbus adds customer engagement capabilities to it.
Extend does not replace the Microsoft Teams client and it does not introduce a separate agent application. It adds service routing, queueing, workflow orchestration, callback handling, reporting, dashboards, automation and AI-assisted capabilities to the Teams environment your users already work in.
How does it work?
How Extend works
Extend is the Microsoft Graph-based communication integration model of Nimbus. Microsoft Graph provides the integration foundation: through Graph-based communication and collaboration integration, Nimbus aligns customer engagement workflows with Microsoft Teams users, Teams context, presence information and related Microsoft 365 services.
The result is a single workspace experience. Collaboration communication (meetings, chats, internal calls) and customer engagement communication (queued interactions, transfers, service workflows) are both handled in Microsoft Teams, while Nimbus orchestrates the customer engagement side behind it.
| Architectural aspect | Extend |
|---|---|
| Microsoft foundation | Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Graph |
| Communication integration model | Microsoft Graph-based communication integration |
| Primary user experience | Microsoft Teams |
| Strategic positioning | Organizations with a Microsoft Teams-first strategy |
| Operational philosophy | Customer engagement as an extension of the Teams workspace |
| Nimbus responsibility | CX orchestration, service routing, workflow automation, reporting, automation and AI capabilities |
What are the benefits?
Benefits of Extend
Extend keeps the customer engagement capabilities that users already know.
➕ Maximum alignment with Microsoft Teams. Teams adoption, governance models and user familiarity are preserved end to end.
➕ Low adoption barrier. Users keep working in the client they already use every day — there is no second application to learn, roll out or support.
➕ Collaboration and customer engagement stay connected. An agent can escalate to a colleague, start a chat or pull in an expert without leaving the workspace the interaction lives in.
➕ One workspace to manage. Device management, client deployment and endpoint policies remain a Microsoft Teams concern.
➕ Microsoft 365 context out of the box. Teams users, Teams context, presence and related Microsoft 365 services are available to customer engagement workflows through Microsoft Graph.
➕ Full Nimbus CX orchestration. Services, routing, queueing, workflows, callbacks, dashboards, automation and AI-assisted capabilities all apply.
➕ No platform trade-off. Extend uses the same reporting model, administration model and governance framework as Nimbus Unify.
Who is Extend for?
When to choose Extend
Extend is the choice for if Microsoft Teams remains the primary workspace.
✔️ Microsoft Teams is your employee workspace and should stay that way for customer-facing users too.
✔️ Customer engagement and internal collaboration are closely intertwined — service teams, expert lines, back-office and hybrid roles that both collaborate and take customer interactions.
✔️ Teams governance, compliance and device management models are already established and should also cover customer engagement.
✔️ Rolling out and supporting a second client would add more friction than adjusting your existing MS Teams workspace.
Nimbus Unify
Nimbus Unify
Nimbus Unify – in the following called just “Unify” – is one of the two Microsoft contact center integration models of Luware Nimbus. It separates the communications foundation from the user experience layer: Microsoft Teams Phone remains the communications foundation, while customer engagement users work in the workspace best suited to their job.
Unify does not introduce a separate telephony platform. It extends Microsoft Teams Phone through Microsoft Teams Phone Extensibility (TPE) and Azure Communication Services (ACS), so that dedicated customer engagement workspaces, CRM-embedded communication and real-time AI scenarios become possible on the same Microsoft communications foundation.
How does it work?
How Unify works
In the Unify model, Teams Phone Extensibility and Azure Communication Services provide the communication extensibility layer. Nimbus provides service routing, workflow orchestration, reporting, dashboards, automation and AI-assisted capabilities on top.
| Architectural aspect | Unify |
|---|---|
| Microsoft foundation | Microsoft Teams Phone Extensibility and Azure Communication Services |
| Communication platform | Microsoft Teams Phone |
| Communication integration model | Teams Phone Extensibility with Azure Communication Services |
| Primary user experience | NimbusOne, CRM CTI, dedicated engagement workspaces, and Microsoft Teams in selected scenarios |
| Strategic positioning | Organizations requiring dedicated customer engagement workspaces, high-volume interaction handling, CRM-centric workflows or real-time AI scenarios |
| Operational philosophy | Customer engagement as a dedicated operational discipline |
| Nimbus responsibility | CX orchestration, service routing, workflow automation, reporting, AI, Client-of-Choice experiences and governance |
Teams Phone Extensibility
Teams Phone Extensibility is a Microsoft architecture foundation which allows customer engagement application to integrate with Teams Phone through Azure Communication Services.
| Capability enabled by Teams Phone Extensibility | What it means for Nimbus |
|---|---|
| Dedicated customer engagement clients | Enables NimbusOne and further specialized customer engagement experiences |
| Media access through Azure Communication Services | Supports transcription, speech processing and AI scenarios1. |
| Separation of communications foundation and client experience | Enables the Client-of-Choice architecture |
| Microsoft Teams Phone alignment | Keeps the communications foundation Microsoft-native |
| Advanced contact center scenarios | Supports professional contact center operations, CRM-centric workflows and high volumes |
Because Azure Communication Services is part of the communication architecture, AI can operate close to the communication stream instead of as delayed post-processing. This is what makes real-time transcription, speech-to-text, text-to-speech, live AI assistance, AI voice agents and conversation intelligence possible.
1🔎 Also see: Transcription and Summarization feature pages as well as Nimbus Virtual Users and related Best Practices - Virtual Users in Nimbus.
Which client do users work in?
Client-of-Choice
With Nimbus Extend the communication architecture and user experience architecture were tightly coupled: if the communication platform was Microsoft Teams, the user experience had to be in Teams as well.
Unify breaks that coupling: Client choice changes the interaction surface, not the platform model. Different user groups can work in the environment that suits their daily responsibilities, because all clients operate on the same platform — the same services, workflows, users, Responsibility Profiles, tasks, Unified Sessions, reporting projections, integrations and security controls.
| Client experience | Typical role | Value |
|---|---|---|
| NimbusOne | Contact center agents and supervisors | For users that want a optimized and customizable unified agent desktop for their customer communication — See Luware NimbusOne.1 |
| Salesforce CTI | Sales and account teams | For users and services whose primary use cases are handled in a third-party CRM or ERP |
| Dynamics CTI | Service and customer operations teams | Embeds communication into Dynamics-based business processes |
| Microsoft Teams | Teams-first users and collaboration-centric service teams | For users and services whose primary use cases are handled in a third-party CRM or ERP — see the Nimbus Teams Tab |
| Further clients | Specialized customer engagement scenarios | Extends the platform without changing routing, reporting or governance |
1💡 NimbusOne as a Nimbus Unify client
Luware NimbusOne is a customizable customer engagement workspace for Nimbus. It is not a separate platform and it does not replace Nimbus — but can replace Microsoft Teams as one of the possible clients that access the Nimbus platform through the Unify architecture. Because it is purpose-built for customer engagement rather than collaboration, it can prioritize call handling efficiency, customer context, queue awareness, AI assistance, transfer workflows and supervisor visibility.
How are collaboration and customer engagement separated?
The Microsoft Dual Persona operating model
Most users participate in two fundamentally different communication contexts:
- Internal collaboration communication — meetings, chats, peer-to-peer calls, ad-hoc teamwork — is optimized for flexibility.
- Customer engagement communication — queued interactions, service-level objectives, customer context, transfers, escalation workflows, CRM updates and high call volumes — is optimized for speed, service quality, routing efficiency and operational control.
Unify lets these two personas be separated: personal and internal collaboration communication continues through Microsoft Teams, while customer engagement communication is handled in a dedicated experience. Contact center interactions and personal Teams calls no longer disrupt each other.
| Persona | Primary communication context | Typical workspace | Objective |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collaboration persona | Internal meetings, calls, chat and teamwork | Microsoft Teams | Preserve the Microsoft collaboration experience |
| Customer engagement persona | Queued customer interactions, routing, transfers, customer context and service workflows | NimbusOne, CRM CTI or another dedicated client | Optimize customer engagement efficiency and operational focus |
A user handling several hundred customer interactions per day does not have the same workspace requirements as a user who mainly works in meetings and chats. In high-volume environments every additional click, context switch or workspace interruption affects handling speed, customer experience and operational efficiency.
What are the benefits?
Benefits of Unify
Unify gives customer engagement users a workspace built for their job, without leaving the Microsoft communications foundation.
➕ Communications foundation and user experience are decoupled. Microsoft Teams Phone stays the communication platform, and you still choose the best workspace per role.
➕ Client-of-Choice. Agents in Luware NimbusOne, sales users in Salesforce, service users in Dynamics 365, knowledge workers in Microsoft Teams — all on one routing and one reporting model.
➕ Optimized for high volume. A dedicated workspace removes the clicks, context switches and interruptions that cost handling time when users take hundreds of interactions per day.
➕ Dual Persona separation. Contact center interactions stay separate from personal Teams calls, so neither context disrupts the other.
➕ Native real-time media access. Azure Communication Services makes the media stream available for real-time transcription, speech-to-text, text-to-speech and conversation intelligence — AI acts during the conversation, not after it.
➕ CRM-embedded communication as a first-class pattern. Users work where their business process already lives.
➕ No platform trade-off. Unify uses the same reporting model, administration model and governance framework as Nimbus Extend, and new client experiences can be added without changing routing, reporting or governance.
Who is Unify for?
When to choose Unify
Unify is the choice for organizations with high-volume interactions that need dedicated customer engagement experiences, CRM-centric workflows or advanced real-time AI. while Microsoft Teams Phone stays the communications foundation.
✔️ Customer engagement work is high-volume, time-sensitive or strongly process-driven.
✔️ Microsoft Teams should remain the strategic collaboration platform, but is not the most efficient primary workspace for your customer-facing users.
✔️ Sales or service users need communication embedded in Salesforce or Dynamics 365 rather than in a separate client.
✔️ Real-time AI, live transcription or conversation intelligence are core requirements rather than nice-to-haves.
✔️ Different user groups have genuinely different workspace needs and should not be forced into one interface.
Side by side comparison
The decision between Extend and Unify is not a feature count and not a distinction between small and large use cases. The useful question is how your organization wants to balance Microsoft Teams as the primary workspace against the need for dedicated customer engagement experiences.
Legend: 🟩 native or optimized · 🟨 supported, with limits · 🟦 identical in both architectures
| Decision dimension | Extend | Unify |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Microsoft foundation | Microsoft Graph | Microsoft Teams Phone Extensibility |
| Communication platform | Microsoft Teams | Microsoft Teams Phone |
| Communication integration | Graph-based integration | Azure Communication Services with Teams Phone Extensibility |
| Workspace strategy | Microsoft Teams-first | Client-of-Choice |
| Operating model | Single workspace experience | Microsoft Dual Persona operating model |
| Customer engagement vs. personal communication | Shared Teams experience | Separated customer engagement and personal collaboration communication |
| Dedicated customer engagement workspace | 🟨 Limited - focus on chats, meetings, Nimbus runs as App or Tab within MS Teams. | 🟩 Native - focus on queues, cases and interactions. Nimbus runs as integrated or dedicated app. |
| High-volume contact center work | 🟨 Supported - calls in Teams, other modalities, session control in Nimbus. | 🟩 Optimized - full call control inside Nimbus. |
| CRM-embedded communication | 🟨 Possible, depending on the integration pattern. | 🟩 Strategic architectural pattern |
| Real-time media access | 🟨 Limited | 🟩 Native, through Azure Communication Services |
| Real-time AI and voice scenarios | 🟨 Limited | 🟩 Optimized |
| Microsoft Teams adoption and familiarity | 🟩 Maximum — Teams stays the workspace | 🟨 Teams remains available as one client of several |
| Reporting architecture | Unified Session Architecture |
|
| OData and Power BI reporting | Same reporting foundation |
|
| Administrative model | Nimbus administration |
|
| Governance model | Nimbus governance framework |
|
Feature Parity
Transfers
INC Unify Extend Transfer Interoperability Matrix
As NimbusOne and the Nimbus Unify integration currently in active development, feature parity with Nimbus Extend is the goal. The table below shows which transfers are possible from a source (rows) to a destination (columns), for calls between Nimbus Unify, Nimbus Extend, Microsoft Teams and the phone network.
Legend: ✔️: Supported, available | 🔜: Planned, in development | 🟣Teams feature, not provided by Nimbus. |❌ Not possible | -: not applicable.
| Source / transfer type | NimbusOne user | Teams user | Unify service | Extend service | PSTN | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NimbusOne User (Unify-enabled user) | Add participant | ✔️ | ✔️ | - | - | ✔️ |
| Blind transfer | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | |
| Safe transfer | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | |
| Consultative transfer | ✔️ | ✔️ | 🔜 | 🔜 | ✔️ | |
|
Nimbus User (Extend-enabled user)2 |
Add participant | ❌ | 🟣 | - | - | 🟣 |
| Blind transfer | ❌ | 🟣 | 🔜 | 🟣 | 🟣 | |
| Safe transfer | ❌ | 🟣 | 🔜 | 🟣 | 🟣 | |
| Consultative transfer | ❌ | 🟣 | ❌3 | 🟣 | 🟣 | |
| Unify Service Workflow | Custom Parameter | ❌ | 🔜 | 🔜 | 🔜 | 🔜 |
| PSTN | - | - | - | - | 🔜 | |
| Service | - | - | ✔️ | ✔️ | - | |
| User | ❌ | ✔️ | - | - | - | |
| Extend Service Workflow | Custom Parameter | ❌ | 🟣 | 🔜 | 🟣 | 🟣 |
| External | - | - | ✔️1 | 🟣 | 🟣 | |
| Service | - | - | 🔜 | 🟣 | - | |
| User | ❌ | 🟣 | - | - | - | |
1 Supported with a workaround: use the PSTN number of the Unify service as External target and enable Leave Nimbus. This may result in double call charges.
2 Users which handle calls in Attendant Console or Nimbus Assistant.
3 Currently hard-limited by Microsoft-imposed limitations. Luware are continuing to monitor for further solutions and workarounds.
Workflows
Extend and Unify workflows share the same structure and setup for Administrators. However there are are differences to how calls are handled, due to the underlying communication platform.
The following matrix shows the currently supported list of Nimbus Workflow Activities supported by either integration. The design goal is to reach parity in both design and functionality, while leveraging strengths and outlining features of the respective integration.
INC Workflow Activity License Matrix
| Service License | Service Integrations | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
 |
Supported by Nimbus |
||
|
|
Advanced Routing |
Direct Call Handling |
Enterprise Routing |
Contact Center |
Extend | Unify |
| Accept | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Add Virtual User1 | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 🔜 | |
| Announcement | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Availability-based Routing | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Cancel Task | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | |
| Check Opening Hours | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Check Parameter (parameter-based routing) | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | |
| Check Task | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | |
| Collect Information | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | |
| Delay | ✔️ | ✔️ | 🔜 | |||
| Disconnect | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | |
| Disconnect as Handled (Email) | ✔️ | ✔️ | 🔜 | |||
| Distribution Priority (set Task Priority) | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ||
| Get Available Users | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | |
| Get Queue Position | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | |
| Initiate Callback | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ||
| Input Customer (IVR) | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Input Customer Advanced | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | |
| Mark as Handled | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ||
| Message | ✔️ | ✔️ | ||||
| Origin Routing | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 🔜 |
| Play Music | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Queue | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Queue Task | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | |
| Record Consent | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 🔜 |
| Reply | ✔️ | ✔️ | 🔜 | |||
| Save to Parameter | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | |
| Standby Duty | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 🔜 | |
| Transfer | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 🔎4 |
| Voicemails | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | 🔜 |
| Wait for (external) Parameter | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | |
| Web Request | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | |
| Call Distribution modes within "Queue / Queue Task" activity | ||||||
| Broadcast | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Pickup2 | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | |
| Direct | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Features related to Workflows | ||||||
| Basic Call Templates | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| IVR Transfer Templates | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Configurable Opening Hours | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ | ✔️ |
1 Requires an extra license to be applied. Refer to Virtual Users configuration or your License Management.
2 The Pickup button is available for both MS Teams-based and Skill-based routing services, however with behavioral differences in the Nimbus UI. Refer to Distribution Types for more details on how Pickup modes operate in comparison.
3 Luware Nimbus supports the two Microsoft integration models for bringing a Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) solution to Teams Phone: Extend and Unify. Compared to Extend, the new Unify model requires separate Workflows. Luware development aims to reach feature party, supporting most workflow activities with identical behavior wherever possible.
4 This activity is supported, but certain limitations. Refer to Conversation Handling Activities > Transfer documentation for details.
5 Direct Call Handling is not a distinct service license. The license is held by the user (base Direct Call Handling Nimbus license add-on); the Direct Call service is automatically provisioned with Enterprise Routing Features, created specifically for that user. No separate MS Teams Team is required. This service not consume a regular Nimbus service license. Workflow activities listed can be executed for direct calls.