Cloud PBX User Guide

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Cloud PBX User Guide

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Updated
BySim Solis

Introduction

Welcome to the Cloud PBX User Guide. Your Cloud PBX combines the best traditional phone system features with modern Internet Protocol (IP) capabilities. In this guide, you will learn how to perform many common tasks on your phone, as well as make full use of your web portal.

USING YOUR DESK PHONE

While there are many different models of desk phones, they largely all work the same way. This article will teach you how to use common functions of your phone.

Making Calls

Making a call with you phones does not require a leading 9. You can dial on-hook or off-hook.

To dial on-hook

  1. Dial the phone number
  2. Pick up the handset, headset, or speaker.

To dial off-hook

  1. Pick up the handset, headset, or speaker
  2. Dial the phone number

    Calls to the US and Canada are all dialed using 10 or 11 digits. Local calls can be dialed using 7 digits.

To dial an international call

  1. Dial the international call code 011
  2. Dial the country code.
  3. Dial the local number

    International calling is commonly disallowed to prevent toll fraud.

Extension Dialing
Extensions on your system can be dialed using their 3-to-4 digit extension or by pressing the button on your phone corresponding to the desired extension.

Intercom
VoIP phones provide an intercom feature that allows you to instantly connect to other phones within your office. Intercom functionality is ideal for announcing visitors or asking a quick question.

When one phone intercoms another extension, it does not ring the other phone. Instead, the phone will beep, and then its microphone and speaker turn on.

To Intercom

  1. Dial 08ext. For example, to intercom extension 100, dial 08100

Receiving Calls

When a call comes in, you can answer it via a headset, speakerphone, or handset.

To answer a call using a handset – lift the handset off-hook
To answer a call using a speakerphone – press the Speaker button
To answer a call using a headset – Usage depends on how the headset is connected, Often, you’ll press the button on the headset or press the headset button on the phone

Voicemail

Accessing Voicemail

  1. Press the Messages button on your phone to access your voicemail box, or dial 5001 if you cannot identify the voicemail button.
  2. If you subscribe to multiple mailboxes, a list of mailboxes may appear. Select the mailbox you want to access.
  3. When prompted, enter your voicemail pin, and the press #.

Accessing another user’s mailbox.

  1. Dial 5000.
  2. When prompted, enter the designated user’s extension number.
  3. Enter the voicemail PIN of the designated user’s mailbox, followed by #.

Setting up your mailbox

The first time you log in to your mailbox you are walked through recording your name for the directory and recording your personal greeting.

The name recording is for the dial-by-name directory, so when someone enters the first three letters of your name, it will play back your name recording.

The greeting plays when your mailbox is reached. It is very important to make a custom message, as many callers will not leave messages at mailboxes that have generic greetings.

Alternate Greetings

Your mailbox supports multiple greetings for different scenarios like business trips and holidays.

To record an alternate greeting:

  1. From your mailbox, press 6 for greetings, and then press 1 to record an alternate greeting.
  2. When prompted for the greeting number press 2 for your next alternate greeting. (Note: 1 is your default greeting)
  3. After your recording is completed, select the active greeting by selecting option 3 in the greetings menu.

Voicemail Tree

This diagram shows the voicemail tree and what to dial for each option in your mailbox.

Handling Call

Your cloud PBX features various ways to move calls around, including attended transfer, unattended (blind) transfer, voicemail transfer, park, and more. BLFs (Busy Lamp Fields) are the one touch buttons to extensions common at front-desk phones.

Attended Transfer

Attended transfer allows you to speak to the transfer recipient prior to completing the transfer while the caller is on hold.

To perform an attended transfer using Polycom and Yealink phones:

  1. Press the Transfer key/softkey on your phone.
  2. Dial the recipient’s extension or press their BLF.
  3. Speak to the recipient, and then either press Transfer again to complete or cancel if the recipient cannot take the call.

Blind Transfer

Blind transfer goes straight to the recipient.

To perform a blind transfer using Polycom phones with older firmware:

  1. Press Transfer.
  2. Press the Blind softkey. (if there is no Blind softkey see directions for new firmware)
  3. Enter the extension of the recipient or the recipient’s BLF.

To perform a blind transfer using Polycom phones with newer firmware:

  1. Press and hold the Transfer button.
  2. Select Blind from the on screen menu.
  3. Enter the extension of the recipient or the recipient’s BLF.

To perform a blind transfer using Yealink phones:

  1. Press Transfer.
  2. Dial the extension of the recipient.
  3. Press Transfer.

Transfers to External Numbers

A transfer can also go to an external number such as a cell phone. Follow the transfer directions above but instead of dialing an extension, dial a 10 digit phone number.

Voicemail Transfer

Voicemail transfer goes straight to the recipient’s voicemail box without ringing the recipient’s phone.

To perform a voicemail transfer:

  1. Perform a blind transfer with a 03 prefix before the extension. For extension 111’s voicemail for example, blind transfer to 03111.

Park and Hold

On you phone system, hold is a local function. This means a call held on your phone cannot be picked up at another station. Park is a system-wide function. This means a call parked at one phone may be picked up by any phone.

To park a call:

  1. Dial *** in an active call from any phone. The system says, “The call is parked at 7**.”
  2. Hang up.

    To retrieve the parked call, dial 7xx where xx is the number stated by the system.

Directed Call Pickup

Directed call pickup (DCP) allows you to answer a call ringing at another station.

To perform a directed call pickup

  1. Dial 07ext. If 111 is ringing for example, dial 07111 to pick up that call.

    Phones with BLFs to the ringing station can also press the corresponding BLF.

3-Way Conference

To make a 3-way conference:

  1. Call or be called by the first participant in the conference.
  2. Press the Conference key/softkey, and then dial the second participant.
  3. After the second participant picks up, press Conference again to connect everyone.

USING THE USER WEB PORTAL

Each extension of your Cloud PBX system has access to a powerful web portal for managing voicemail, call routing, and more.

Accessing the Portal

To access the web portal:

  1. Start a web browser.
  2. Go to https://voice.cloudservicenetworks.com/
  3. At the login page
    • – Click in the Login name field and type ext@customerdomain, where customerdomain typically is the same as your email address domain.
    • – Click in the Password field and enter your user password

Desktop Call Control

Desktop call controls appear when making or receiving a call. These controls allow you to see who is calling and managing a current call.

Income Calls

Incoming calls appear in a window in the portal similar to the image below. This window shows the caller ID name and number, along with Reject and Answer buttons.

  • Selecting Reject sends the call to the voicemail if available. The Answer button may not be available, depending upon your handset model.

Active Calls

The figure below shows an active call window that displays the caller ID and call time. THe three controls at the bottom of the window let you hold, hand up, or transfer the call. If you selec transfer, a field appears for entering the extension of the recipient. If you prefix the recipient’s extension number with 03, the call goes straight to voicemail.

Home

The Home page of your portal provides an at-a-glance view of everything going on with your extension. The image below describes the areas on the Home page.

Messages

You configure voicemail using the Messages page. This page has two tabs for handling voicemail:

  • Messages – see “Messages” below.
  • Settings – see “Voicemail Settings below.

The Messages tab allows you to manage your new, saved, and deleted voicemail, as well as greetings and other settings.

Like the Home page, you can play messages, click a number to call it back, and download, save, forward, and delete messages. To see all the controls available, hover the mouse pointer over a message.

The New drop-down list allows you to review New, Saved, and Trash (recently deleted) messages.

Voicemail Settings

Clicking the Settings tab displays options for controlling your voicemail order, timestamps, greetings, and voicemail to email.

Recording a Greeting

To record a greeting:

  1. From the Settings tab of the Messages page, click the speaker icon.

A Manage Greetings page similar to the one on the image below appears.

  1. Next to New Greeting, click Record.
    The Browse button changes to a Call me at field.
  1. In the Call me at field, enter a number to call. This can be an extension or a telephone number such as your cell phone.
  2. In the Greeting name field, enter a name for this greeting.
  3. Click the Call button.
  4. At the prompt, record the new greeting. When you finish the greeting, press #.
  5. Click Add Greeting at the bottom of the Manage Greetings page, and then click Done to close the page.

Uploading a Greeting

To upload a greeting:

  1. From the Settings tab of the Messages page, click the speaker icon.

A Manage Greetings page similar to the one on the image below appears.

  1. Hover over a greeting. Options appear for editing, deleting, or renaming the greeting.
  2. Next to New Greeting, click Upload.
  3. Click the Browse button.
  4. In the Choose File to Upload dialog box, select a WAV or MP3 recording from your PC, and then click Open.
  5. Click Upload.
  6. Click Add Greeting at the bottom of the Manage Greetings page, and then click Done to close the page.

Recorded Name

If your company has a dial-by-name directory, you must record your name for the directory to be found. You can click the play button to listen to your current name recording on y our PC, or click the speaker button to record or upload a new name recording.

Answering Rules and Time Frames

Through Answering Rules and Time Frames are separate tabs, they are so interconnected that describing them together makes sense.

Time Frames

Time frames allow you to control the scheduling of the system. You configure time frames using the Time Frames page. To display this page, click the Time Frames icon at the top of the page.

Three common time frames are:

  • – Open Hours (Ex. M-F 9am-5pm)
  • – Holidays (Independence Day, Thanksgiving, New Year’s, and so on)
  • – Closed Hours (all other times)

Time frames can be both shared (system-wide and set by the administrator) or personal to your extension. You can add a time frame to your extension by clicking the Add Time Frame.

To add time frames:

  1. From the Time Frames page, click Add Time Frame.
    The Add a Timeframe page appears.
  1. In the Name field, enter a name for this time frame.
  2. Next to When, select the time period when the time frame will be applied:

  • – Always : select this option if the time frame will always be applied. Click Save to complete the procedure.
  • – Days of the week and times : select this option to select days and time when the time frame will be applied.

  • – Specific dates or Ranges : select this option to specify a specific date or range of dates.

Answering Rules

After you set up your times frames, you can create different answering rules for your time frames. You configure answering rules using the Answering Rules page. To display this page, click the Answering Rules icon at the top of the page:

The left side of the Answering page has a Rings for n seconds drop-down list that allows you to specify the maximum ring time (one ring is generally 5 seconds). When that time expires, the caller will be forwarded to the Call Forward When Unanswered rule if defined; otherwise, the caller will be forwarded to voicemail if enabled. The right side of the Answering Rules page has buttons for adding answering rules, and specifying allowed and blocked numbers.

  • – The extension has a rule to simultaneously ring many desk phones during Open Hours.
  • – Cell Forward rings many desk phones and a cell phone simultaneously.
  • Holiday and closed hour rules go straight to voicemail.

The active rules is the topmost rule that matches the conditions in the corresponding time frame. In the figure shown, for example, this time is around 1pm on Friday, so both Open Hours and Cell Forward rule match the time/day condition, but Open Hours is active because it is the topmost rule. You can change the order by using the arrows at left of each rule to drag the rules.

To add an answering rule:

  1. From the Answering Rules page, click Add Rule.
    The Add an Answering Rule page appears. From this page, you can create riles to screen callers, forward calls, and ring multiple numbers simultaneously.

  1. Complete the fields in the Add an Answering Rule page.
  2. Click Save

Fields in the Add an Answering Rule Page

Call Forward Drop-down Options

When entering an extension as a call forward option, a drop-down list allows you to forward the call to specific resources associated with that extension. The table below describes the options. Same options may not appear, depending on the features associated with the extension.

Ring Timeout

At the top of the page is the ring timeout selection. This option specifies the number of seconds that your phones will ring or forwarding rule before going to voicemail (when available).

Allowing or Blocking Callers

The Answering RUles page has an Allow/Block button that allows you to permit or block calls from certain numbers. Using this feature, you can block unwanted calls to your phone, as well as calls from anonymous and unwanted numbers. Allowed numbers bypass user Do Not Disturb and Call Screening rules to ring through immediately.

  1. From the Answering Rules page, click Allow/Block.
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