One Extension - Multiple users

[10Gauge]

Forty phones throughout the building
In one of the hallway offices, there are FOUR people alternating, coming and going often,
using a single desk with a single phone (Yealink T38G)

They all use it at times during the same shift as their extension.
They all would like to be listed in the directory.
It would be nice if they all had their own voicemail and MyPhone.
They do not need any unique settings on the T38G
Simply, what is the preferred way to go about setting this up ?
I can't quite get my head around how to do this.

TIA

 

[jpillow]

The T38G Supports 6 VoIP Accounts so simply configure the 4 accounts for each users extension.

 

[10Gauge]

More confused, and I was probably unclear, they want one phone, four users.
They all want their calls to ring on that one phone. If it is busy, then dump the call into their individual VM.

If I set up an extension for each user, how do I point the user extensions to all ring at the same physical extension (phone).
Must I use 'Send call to' under the 'Available' tab ?
or am I going about this the wrong way ?

Under Management Console>Extensions> Do I set up an extension for each user and then enter the same MAC address and phone under each extension in the provisioning tab and setup a rule exception or what ?

Please detail the essential steps for me, I am feeling like I am probably over complicating this, but I need some clarity.

 

[ATS-Support]

I'm going to have to double check that Yealinks have a public, or hotdesk mode. Basically the phone is provisioned with the PBX, but you essentially log your extension into the phone when you are using it.

If you mean that there are constantly 4 people there and they have 1 phone for all 4 of them to use at the same time, then you would do the steps outlined above provisioning each extension as an account. Call flow would depend on how that system is set up. If they have individual DID's, then you just assign DID's to an extension, and make sure the names are on the account buttons so that they would know who needs to pick up. This would also solve the individual voicemail issue.

 

[10Gauge]

No DIDs, Simply put, multiple users, with the same, single hard phone extension, but individual soft ones.

The IVR routes calls for each of the four people to the same hard phone extension (T38) but allows them to be selected in the directory or IVR by their individual names.

They want individual VMs and directory listings for each person. If there is someone at the desk, that person will answer the ring, if not, then the call goes to the voicemail of the individual called (their unique extension number).

Hotdesking will not work, because there is not a specific person at any one time. It is constantly changing. So they cannot take the time to log in and out. (Multiple nurses all in and out of patient rooms but one has to man the desk phone at all times, but that person may be called away and another has to step in to man it for a moment)

Also, a maintenance room with several workers but one phone. They are constantly in and out of the maintenance shed - cannot be bothered with hot desk switching, but want to pick up if the phone rings or if not, the call goes to the VM of each user.

It is kind of like a ring group in reverse - 'many in, to one out' instead of 'one in, to many out'

 

[leejor]

If you have a set with multiple line keys, then you would assign one extension per key.

Key 1 = Ext 201, Key 2= Ext 226, Key 3= Ext 255, Key4= Ext 261, and so on. Each person would only answer, or place outgoing calls on their line. If distinctive ringing, per key, was available, then each would know if a call were for them. Is that what you are looking for, or am I missing something?

 

[10Gauge]

Not sure how to do that.
If I have two extensions in 3CX, don't they both need different MACs in the provisioning tab ?
I cannot seem to have a blank provisioning tab.

I want 4 users to all land on the same phone, so how do I set that up under 'extensions>provisioning' ?
I have to put in a MAC and a phone model, and there is no apparent way to elect using the same hard phone

 

[lneblett]

Jpillow and leejor are correct and you don't set up the phone using the provisioning screen as provided in 3CX. That screen is a generic screen for one account and is used to provision (at a very rudimentary level) every phone that 3CX supports.

You use the phone's web interface and go into the phone and set-up each account separately. The MAC is simply used to allow for the system to autoprovision the phone, but in this case, we need to manually provision and then while in the phone turn off the auto provision function so that your settings do not get overwritten later on.

Go into 3CX and create the 5 or six extensions desired. When done use the web interface of the phone and copy the contents used to create the extension (name, password, server IP, 999, etc.) in 3CX into each account. Look in the blog for more specifics about manual provisioning. As you enable each account the account will then register the extension with 3CX and you are set.

Works like a charm.

 

[10Gauge]

That cleared it up for me - TYVM

one more trailing thought, though.
Sometimes people want to call the single phone in the maintenance shed and anyone who picks up is fine, (and no distinctive ringing is needed)

But sometimes they want to call the individual person and be directed to their voicemail if they are not there. (and distinctive ringing would be nice). I am still a bit confused on how to implement that, though.

 

[leejor]

Sometimes people want to call the single phone in the maintenance shed and anyone who picks up is fine, (and no distinctive ringing is needed)

But sometimes they want to call the individual person and be directed to their voicemail if they are not there. (and distinctive ringing would be nice). I am still a bit confused on how to implement that, though.

Now, you're just making things complicated

Obviously, any call, on a persons personal extension, that goes unanswered, will go off to that persons voicemail,after a time-out, which will work well if everyone only answers their own line, and ignores any other incoming call, knowing that it is not for them.

So, you have a choice.

Anyone answering someone else's line will have to forward the call to that persons voicemail, if they are not there.

Individuals will have to use call forwarding rules, so that if they are away, their line will not ring and the call will go directly to VM.

Set-up an additional extension number, for calls to that department where no one in particular has been requested, a line that everyone answers.

 

[jpillow]

In the web GUI of the phone, you can pick differrent ring tones usually in the accounts tab where you manually configure the phone.

 

[10Gauge]

That is what I needed to know!
thank you all for taking the time.

 

[cjtrevor]

Hi, sorry to bring up an old post but I'm facing this same issue.

In essence, part time staff sharing one telephone, but they want their own names and extension numbers and voicemail.

So far so good, by setting up the extensions in 3cx and then logging into the Yealink T46G interface and adding the accounts manually so that the phone supports more than one extension. As far as I can tell this works fine.

So the final link is 3cx Myphone.

This works for the first person, I assume because their account is provisioned via 3cx just in the way other extensions are where there is one extension per phone.

For the second person, myphone loads, but we can't make a call in CTI mode.

Is there a way of achieving this, or am I simply trying to do the impossible?

Should the first account holder forward their "welcome" email to the other users so that they all use myphone as if they are the first account holder on the phone? At least they could make outgoing calls under CTI mode then, albeit the call would appear to come from another user, but for outgoing calls this makes no difference.

The main reason is they want to copy/paste phone numbers into myphone to make outgoing calls without having to type the number into the phone.

 

[lneblett]

You also may want to search hot-desking on the blog and forum as this may provide some additional functionality relative to the t46.

You may have two options that might help:
(you did not indicate if the part timers are sharing simultaneously or sharing contiguously - one then the other like in shifts).

Create a separate user account on the Windows workstation and give each user their own account and log-in and 3CX for Windows phone install for their respective extension.

Send the windows email with the config settings for each extension and then save the setting for each extension on the desktop (assumes only one user account on the PC) and have each user simply drag and drop the setting for their extension into the application as needed. It will change the settings accordingly to the configuration needed at the time. Not very elegant, but will work. However, the phone will also need to be converted to the same extension as well for CTI to function.

I have not tried to get CTI to function on phones with multiple accounts for other than the account associated to account 1. Hot-desking may take care of this. You will have to try and see.