Using your VOIP Phone

Transcription

1 Introduction Using your VOIP Phone Congratulations on installing the VOIP system provided by DigitalFire Inc. You now have access to one of the most sophisticated telephone systems on the planet. The phone system has a very large number of features, and certainly too many to list. This guide is intended to be a tutorial of the basic features of your phone system. If you have any questions please contact DigitalFire Inc. at or support@digitalfireinc.com. Global Line Assignment One of the key differences between this system and a traditional PBX system, is global line assignment or pooling. In many traditional systems, line 1 is line 1 on every phone attached to the system. If line 1 is in use, no other telephone in the system can use line 1 because it s busy. A second simultaneous conversation would need to use line 2 because the lines are the same on each phone in the system. That is NOT the case here. Each individual phone has its own lines. Line 1 and line 2 and so on are distinct on each phone and do not depend on each other. User A can be on the phone on line 1 on their phone and user B can also be on line 1 on their phone and they will not interfere. The line indicators are not global, they are simply a way to manage multiple simultaneous calls on each phone. It s important to understand this concept as it forms the basis of why all of the functions listed below are important. A common real life scenario in a traditional PBX system is the following. A call comes in on line 1 and is answered by extension Jim at extension 201. He realized that the call if for Peter at extension 202, but Jim sits very close to Peter so Jim puts the call on hold and tells Peter there is a call for him on Line 1 and Peter is able to pickup the call on line 1 from his phone. This is possible only because line 1 is line 1 across the entire system and Jim and Peter share a line 1. In your new phone system this is not the case. Each individual phone has its own independent set of lines. In the above scenario with your new system, Jim would need to transfer the call to Peter, then Peter s phone would ring and only then can Peter pick it up. Although at first this may seem more cumbersome, it allows for much more flexibility and a richer feature set in the system overall. The functions listed below and how to perform them are therefore that much more important. How to Pickup a Call When your phone is ringing there are a number of ways to pickup the call. 1) Pickup the handset. You can always pick up the handset to answer a call. 2) Press the speakerphone button (bottom right, usually green). Depending on the phone model and

2 headset setup, the green speaker phone button at the bottom right can sometimes engage the headset prior to the speakerphone. Simply press again to toggle the headset and the speakerphone in this case. 3) Press the corresponding Line button that is flashing (ex. L1, L2 etc.) How to Mute a Call You can mute the sound that the caller hears by toggling the mute button at the bottom right. (a picture of a microphone with a line through it) How to Place a Call on Hold You can place a call on hold by pushing the hold button on the left hand side. The hold button is a telephone with musical notes beside it. When you put a call on hold the caller will hear the hold music that you have setup. If you have not setup any hold music the system will play generic hold music. Custom hold messages and music is available, contact us for more details. To retrieve a call on hold, simply push the corresponding flashing line button (L1 or L2 etc.) Note that calls on hold are only on hold on that phone. Placing a call on hold does not allow any other user to access this call. The call is on hold on that phone and the call will remain on that phone until you as the user chooses to take action on that call. There is a global version of hold called Call Park, see below for more details. How to Transfer a Call Transferring a call is important when the call needs to be connected to another extension. The procedure for transferring the call starts by having the call live so that you are able to talk to the caller (ie. the call is NOT on hold). The transfer command is as follows: Transfer button, extension of the destination of the call and the transfer button again. For example, if Jim has a caller on the phone and is speaking to him he might say Please hold on while I transfer you to Peter. Then Jim would push the transfer button followed by Peter s extension and then the transfer button once more. Jim would then see call transferred on his display and Peter s phone would begin to ring with the call that was just transferred. The actual transfer button you use is dependent on the model of phone you have. Some phones have the transfer button as a soft programmable button at the bottom left of the screen called Xfer. Note that this option is only available when a caller is on the phone. Xfer is not available when the phone is idle. Other model phone have a physical transfer button which looks like a phone with an arrow pointing to the right. In any case, the actual procedure to transfer a call is the same, only the physical transfer button is different.

3 If you are unable to find the transfer button please contact DigitalFire Inc. at or and we would be happy to help you. How to Park a Call (not available by default - contact us to enable this if desired) Call parking can be thought of as a global hold. Park if not enabled on the system by default and buttons are not programmed by default on each phone for this feature. If it is desirable to use call park, please contact us and we will gladly enable this feature for you. Call parking starts with a caller live on the phone. In order to park the call simply push the park button on your phone. (Again, contact us for the specific call park button for your phone.) Once the call park button is pushed, remain on the line and listen. After a few moments the system will give you a 3 digit number starting with 7. Ex. the system might say 727. After the system reads out the extension, you may safely hang up the phone. The caller is parked on extension 727. That call can now be picked up from any phone in the system by simply dialling the number that was read out by the system. For example, once a call is parked on 727, a user can dial 727 from any telephone in the system and retrieve that call. Call Park if often useful for scenarios where the recipient of the call is in an unknown location in a building. One could use the paging system to announce that a particular person should pickup 727, which can be done for any phone, no matter the extension. Ex. Peter, there s a call for you, please pickup 727. This differs from a call transfer because the recipient is required to retrieve the call by dialling 727, rather than simply waiting for the incoming call, as is the case with a call transfer. How to Check Voic 1) My voic button - You may have a button programmed on your phone entitled my voic . Pushing this button will allow you to log directly into your voic box. The system will ask you for your password. The default password is ) Dial *98 - You can also check voic from any phone in the system or even from an outside line. From any phone simply dial *98 or from an outside line wait until an auto attendant answers (ex. Welcome to Acme Company) and you may press *98 at that time. The system will say Comedian Mail, Mailbox? and at this time you should enter the extension of the voic you are wanting to check and then the system will say password? at which point you can enter the password. The default password is ) Dial into your own voic and press * during the greeting. At this point the system will ask you for your password. A few things to note about voic - generally the unavailable greeting is used, this is considered the primary greeting - you should record your name in the voic as well and some companies like to include the extension as well. Ex. for your name you might say Jim Adams extension 225. The recording of your name is used in the company directory which can be accessed by incoming callers if you so choose.

4 How to Conference 2 callers In order to conference two callers, first start with a single call that is live and push the conference button while on the call. The conference button is labelled conf on some phones and on other phones it s a button with a group of people on it. Pushing that button during a live call will put the first call on hold and start a second call on a second line with a dial tone. Simply dial the party that you would like to conference. Once the call is live press the same conference button again. The calls should now be connected to each other. Note that any phone on the system can conference you and two calls together. Conferencing more users requires a conference bridge. Conference bridges are readily available at a nominal fee. Please contact DigitalFire Inc. at or support@digitalfireinc.com for more details. How to Page (this feature is off by default) Paging is a live loudspeaker on every phone in the system. (To enable this feature, simply contact us.) Simply press the page button that was assigned to you and you will hear a beep. At that point, that call is broadcast across the speakerphones of every phone in the organization. Speak into the handset and hand up when finished. How to See Who s on the Phone Somewhere on the screen of the phone, typically at the bottom, there will be a set of names of the members of your organization. Phones will smaller screens will have limited information and the screen size is a limiting factor here, especially with large organizations. Each person s name in the organization will have a light beside it. The light will flash red when their phone is ringing and glow solid red when they are on the phone. In this way, users are able to see at a glance who in their organization is on the phone. This is particularly useful when transferring calls. Tips 1. No need to wait for the timeout: When entering any value into the phone system, the phone system doesn't know how many digits you intend to enter so there is a long timeout before the command is executed to allow the user time to enter more numbers. Ex. if you pick up the telephone and dial extension 222, the system will wait a short period before actually dialling 222 because it is waiting for additional numbers to be entered. To end the command at any point dial the # sign. In the above example simply dial 222# and the system will dial the extension right away, instead of waiting for the timeout period. This applied to most commands given to the phone system (ex. when transferring calls) 2. Transfer directly to voic In some cases you may want to send a call directly to someone's voic and not ring their phone before going to voic . This can be accomplished by transferring the call to 98 followed by their extension. So transferring directly to the voic for extension 222 is accomplished by transferring the call to

5 Quick Reference Key Combination Guide: Pickup a call - pickup the handset OR press the L1 button or press the speakerphone button Mute a call - press the mute button at the bottom right (microphone with a line through it) Place a call on hold - press the button with the telephone and the musical notes Transfer a call - transfer button, extension (of destination), transfer button Park a call - press the call park button and listen to hear where the call is parked Check voic - push the my voic button OR push *98 OR * during the voic greeting Conference - during the live call push the conference button, dial the second caller and push the conference button Page - push the page button If you have any questions please contact DigitalFire Inc. at or support@digitalfireinc.com.