Best way to handle users that travel between two offices

[qbitnetworking]

Hi there, I'm installing for a customer that has two locations and some of the users have offices at both. It will all be on one PBX hosted in the cloud with SBCs at each location. I'd like to know the best way to go about handling the users that have offices at both locations. Should I set them up with two different extensions or just one extension and assign it to both phones? What is the best way to make it so the phone that the user is not using does not ring if he/she is not there?

Thanks!
Jeremy

 

[leejor]

The simplest is to have the same extension appear at both locations. One number to reach the person, no matter where they are. Also one voice mailbox.You are still going to have both sets ring until it is answered, but it is no different than if a co-worker were not at their desk, the set rings until it goes to voicemail.

Perhaps turn the ringer down if it is going to disturb people, or remove power from the set it isn't being used for an extended period.

 

[SweetAction]

Another option is Hotdesking - have the user log out from the phone they are not using and it won't be assigned/ring.

 

[qbitnetworking]

I appreciate it. I was hoping there was a good way to change the users status on a per phone basis. Right now it seems that if they set themselves to away on one phone, it does it for the other one as well.

 

[VoIPTools]

All the options above are valid. Another option would be to use a soft phone rather than two physical phones.

However, when you have two phones assigned to the same extension, in two completely different locations, you have a challenge with emergency phone calls (911 in the USA). I assume in your case there is one PBX for both locations?

Maybe I'm a little tired this Monday morning, but you are going to need to think about how the user's location is identified when they dial and emergency number. How do you ensure the correct E911 location is sent to the PSAP?

I can not see how this could be accomplished via outbound rules. For example, you can not do it with the extension's Caller ID number. You can not do it by extension group membership. And I don't think it is feasible to require users to remember to prepend digits in an emergency when dialling 911. So what are the alternatives?

What is needed is a way to identify the user's CURRENT location. If they use a soft phone, we could look at the phone's registered IP address (assuming you have assigned different subnets or range of IP addresses to each location). But if they are using a physical phone, we need another way to identify the user's IP address. Once we know the user's IP address, we can determine their location. All you need is a map:

IP Address --> Location --> emergency group

So, how do we automate the process of updating the user's emergency group? We (VoIPTools) have a Windows client application that serves two purposes: (1) it monitors for anyone dialing an emergency number so it can popup a notification on the desktop, and (2) it detects the computer's IP address. When the client application detects an IP change, it looks up the location and changes the user's emergency group automatically.

When you have people moving between locations, identifying their current location is CRITICAL so the correct information is sent to the PSAP. This is true if the user has two phones with the same extension number, or if they are using a soft phone on their laptop. You need a way to tell 3CX where the user is currently located.

 

[qbitnetworking]

All the options above are valid. Another option would be to use a soft phone rather than two physical phones.

However, when you have two phones assigned to the same extension, in two completely different locations, you have a challenge with emergency phone calls (911 in the USA). I assume in your case there is one PBX for both locations?

Maybe I'm a little tired this Monday morning, but you are going to need to think about how the user's location is identified when they dial and emergency number. How do you ensure the correct E911 location is sent to the PSAP?

I can not see how this could be accomplished via outbound rules. For example, you can not do it with the extension's Caller ID number. You can not do it by extension group membership. And I don't think it is feasible to require users to remember to prepend digits in an emergency when dialing 911. So what are the alternatives?

What is needed is a way to identify the user's CURRENT location. If they use a soft phone, we could look at the phone's registered IP address (assuming you have assigned different subnets or range of IP addresses to each location). But if they are using a physical phone, we need another way to identify the user's IP address. Once we know the user's IP address, we can determine their location. All you need is a map:

IP Address --> Location --> emergency group

So, how do we automate the process of updating the user's emergency group? We (VoIPTools) have a Windows client application that serves two purposes: (1) it monitors for anyone dialing an emergency number so it can popup a notification on the desktop, and (2) it detects the computer's IP address. When the client application detects an IP change, it looks up the location and changes the user's emergency group automatically.

When you have people moving between locations, identifying their current location is CRITICAL so the correct information is sent to the PSAP. This is true if the user has two phones with the same extension number, or if they are using a soft phone on their laptop. You need a way to tell 3CX where the user is currently located.

Good morning! and thanks for the reply. You're correct, I would like to set this up with one PBX to handle both locations. Then both locations will connect to the PBX (hosted on AWS) through SBCs.

Curious, how would the PSAP handle a phone call sent from the 3CX app installed on an iPhone? Will the PSAP know to use the phone's IP address instead of the physical location assigned to the caller ID? If so, why would it be any different for a hardware phone?

 

[Evolute IT]

Good morning! and thanks for the reply. You're correct, I would like to set this up with one PBX to handle both locations. Then both locations will connect to the PBX (hosted on AWS) through SBCs.

Curious, how would the PSAP handle a phone call sent from the 3CX app installed on an iPhone? Will the PSAP know to use the phone's IP address instead of the physical location assigned to the caller ID? If so, why would it be any different for a hardware phone?

If someone calls 911 from their 3CX app on their iPhone, they're an idiot.

The iPhone has a cellular network which is WAY more precise for location. They should dial using the phone's dialer, not 3CX in that case.

What @VoIPTools explains is only for Deskphones and 3CX apps on Windows.

 

[VoIPTools]

There was some talk about changes to the iPhone/Android client so that if the user dials 911 it automatically goes out the cellular network. Did that never happen? I have to agree with @ConceptsWeb, users should NEVER dial 911 using the 3CX client on their cell phone.

 

[Evolute IT]

There was some talk about changes to the iPhone/Android client so that if the user dials 911 it automatically goes out the cellular network. Did that never happen?

Yes it did. But that can be disabled.

 

[qbitnetworking]

There was some talk about changes to the iPhone/Android client so that if the user dials 911 it automatically goes out the cellular network. Did that never happen? I have to agree with @ConceptsWeb, users should NEVER dial 911 using the 3CX client on their cell phone.

While I'm sure we all agree that users shouldn't do it, that doesn't mean they won't.

 

[VoIPTools]

I was trying to fathom why anyone would need the ability to disable forcing emergency calls out the cellular network, when I realized the phone may have wifi access but not cellular service. This is also a challenge for warehouse users who use tablets or scanners running the 3CX client.

These clients still need to register with the PBX. We can get the IP address, and perhaps even better -- the location of the wifi access point. We are working with an international company with huge warehouses who needs to know where in the warehouse the phone / tablet / scanner is located, but that feature has not made it into our product yet.

When we first developed the IP address location feature, we got the IP address when the phone registered. Unfortunately, we discovered if the employee is using one of the web clients, it does not register with a unique IP, rather, all the web clients share the IP address of the 3CX server (localhost). Bummer. This forced us to use a client application to identify the client's IP address. As a result, I see a need to create an android / iPhone version of our client since 3CX does not provide an API for any of their clients.

Yes, this is a can-of-worms.

 

[leejor]

Something else I had considered, was using two extension numbers, one at each location, then put them into a ring group. That gives one number (the ring group) to reach the person.

However, when calling others, it is still going to show one of the "real" extension numbers, which could be confusing . While the ring group no answer can go to one Voice mailbox, you'd still have to deal with callers calling back to the extension numbers directly, to avoid having to check more than one VM

It is unfortunate that there is no option to replace an extensions caller ID, on internal calls, so that a ring group, or a dummy extension, forwarded to the ring group, would show, in place of the real extension number. There have been a number of scenarios where that would come in handy.

 

[VoIPTools]

I like the idea of using a Ring Group (or Queue) for inbound calls. Using a Queue (with "ringing" for hold music) would enable one of the phones to be logged out so it is not pestering people nearby with ringing. Unfortunately, logging in/out of a queue is a manual process (at least out-of-the-box).

Using a Ring Group solves this very specific emergency phone call issue. However, like you, I can not think of a way to address the extension number presented on internal extension-to-extension phone calls.

 

[N_G]

These users should use 3cx app when in another office. Re 911 the user can not disable it, only the admin.

 

[Oliver Broad]

Given that in a multi-SBC setup an "extension" is capable of roaming between locations it seems as if the emergency call location needs to be bound to the location of the physical phone, not a property of the extension.

I don't know if it would satisfy regulations but the ability to set a location for each SBC and then using that as a default when not overridden by configuration should satisfy many head-office/branch office scenarios. Overrides could be used for edge cases where a phone is remote from the SBC.

Obviously this isn't going to deal with situations where a single LAN spans a significant area but still it should cover a lot of use cases.

 

[Jeremy Nelson]

Did anyone at 3CX ever address this? I thought this functionality was required in the US by legislation over the last couple of years.