Q: Sanity check - use case for "Contacts" in 3cx pbx

[fortech]

Hi, this is maybe a 'can't see forest for the trees' kind of question.

I've got a client (small office, 4 active users / 4 handsets, will be having a few more soon) with 3cx free edition for now. Cloud/OVH 3cx VM with an SBC at their office, and Grandstream GXP2170 or GXP2135 phones.

They asked me about setting up a 'contacts' list that they can use from their physical phone handsets, ie, the top 100 people / clients they make outbound calls to for example.

I drilled into phone provision config and can't see anything there. But in the 3cx core admin area / under 'advanced' I see a section for 'contacts'. and an import.export feature / and then some searches tell me about how to get in up to 1000 contacts via CSV File import, and designate some users with certain admin rights to have ability to manage company-wide contacts etc.

But I think my use case is "more simple/trivial". So hoping someone can tell me?
-- if I manually punch in 10,20,100 contacts to the 3cx admin panel > advanced>Contacts area
-- will these be pushed to the handsets when they next get a config refresh, so that users of physical handset can access the handset-based (browse contacts) feature and see a list of names/people in the contacts list?
-- OR is there no such integration, the physical handsets will never get this? And rather the intended use case is more like
(a) person has web-client open on their PC
(b) from here they have ability to see the 'contacts directory list' of 100/500/ however many people are in the centrally managed contact list
(c) they can choose a contact, initiate a call / tell the 3cx web client "make the call with my handset"
(d) then they pick up their handset once call is initiated. ie, thou shalt not touch the buttons on your phone handset, silly old fashioned person, you do that stuff via mouse and web-UI on the webclient?!

any general hints are greatly appreciated.

( I am reluctant to manually enter contact info to phones directly, which I think Grandstream phone allows, because it is kind of painful/klunky / and also seems prone to getting clobbered the next time the phone pulls config refresh from the 3cx server?)


Thank you!

Tim

 

[Alphabetic]

But I think my use case is "more simple/trivial". So hoping someone can tell me?
-- if I manually punch in 10,20,100 contacts to the 3cx admin panel > advanced>Contacts area
-- will these be pushed to the handsets when they next get a config refresh, so that users of physical handset can access the handset-based (browse contacts) feature and see a list of names/people in the contacts list?
Yes, you can push the provision faster by choosing to reprovision under the phones tab
-- OR is there no such integration, the physical handsets will never get this? And rather the intended use case is more like
(a) person has web-client open on their PC
Company Contacts AKA Public contacts are visible for everyone from phones, web client and mobile app.
(b) from here they have ability to see the 'contacts directory list' of 100/500/ however many people are in the centrally managed contact list
(c) they can choose a contact, initiate a call / tell the 3cx web client "make the call with my handset"
Yes providing the phone supports CTI and you've got your client set to use IP Phone (Check under phone provisioning/3cx client)
(d) then they pick up their handset once call is initiated. ie, thou shalt not touch the buttons on your phone handset, silly old fashioned person, you do that stuff via mouse and web-UI on the webclient?!
Cannot use DTMF from the softphone whilst using the handset. Only possible if you use the softphone to make the call.

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Grandstream phones provisioned by 3CX will contain everything in the 3CX Company Phonebook + All the local extensions.

(all devices have a maximum limit of contacts they can handle, this can be found in the datasheets from the manufacturer)

As to how often they update, this depends on the brand as not all are the same. But many phones allow you to "Download / Refresh" the phonebook manually if you quickly want to check for new contacts added recently. This is easily done from the phone screen menus. If I'm not mistaken the GXP series will automatically download the phonebook every 5 mins.

 

[fortech]

Thanks very much for the replies / information- greatly appreciated. I have punched in a half-dozen records into the 3cx 'company phone book' via the 'admin' > advanced > "contacts" admin webUI section / and then I pushed 'reprovision phone' button for a test user. I will be at the client office thisafternoon to do a bit of hands-on demo-training with them for other 3cx topics (ie, how to transfer a call, etc.) - super exciting stuff - so I will review the status of the contacts as seen from the phone handset and then followup to this thread after that.

thanks again for the assistance!

Tim