Dial by name setup

[dan231]

I am trying to understand the process for setting up dial by name.

We have 4 locations with controllers at each location and users w/mailboxes at each location.
By default, it only appears that the main branch controller mailboxes are listed in the dial by name directory.

Is there a way to link all controllers to the dial by name directory or what steps am I supposed to be completing?

[Tech Electronics]

dan231,

There are different ways to handle this situation so it is kind of up to you on how you want to go moving forward.

It sounds as though the people calling in are on the "Main Branch Controller" and you don't have mailboxes or extension IDs for all employees on that controller; not a centralized VM.

The fastest thing you can do is setup a Directory Menu that allows callers to select another Site [MiVO-250] and use that Dial-by-Name Directory.

OR

You could Centralize your VM to the Main Branch and have all of your mailboxes there.

There are other ways but they are not really the best way of doing things.

Thanks,

TE

[dan231]

It sounds as though the people calling in are on the "Main Branch Controller" and you don't have mailboxes or extension IDs for all employees on that controller; not a centralized VM.

Correct.

The fastest thing you can do is setup a Directory Menu that allows callers to select another Site [MiVO-250] and use that Dial-by-Name Directory.
OR
You could Centralize your VM to the Main Branch and have all of your mailboxes there.

People calling in will have no idea what branch staff is at, so I think that option is not the best idea.  So.....is there an easy way to move all mailboxes to one controller?  Do I need to move all users to the main controller as well or just the mailboxes?   This is sounding like I shouldn't have been sold 4 separate controllers...

[Tech Electronics]

dan231,

I am not going to comment on what you were sold as I do not know the circumstances of your entire company, but did you have this discussion with your vendor prior to it being installed?

As for the mailbox issue it would depend on how many users you have on whether or not moving the entire company to one VM system is going to work for you. It would also depend on whether it is a good idea on how often your network experiences connectivity issues and how your call flows at the other sites are setup. Do people normally call the "Main Branch Office" to talk to someone at another location or are there no direct numbers associated with those sites; how is the trunking setup? As you can probably imagine there are a few things to think about when setting up a networked system; I assume they are networked that is.

There is another option, that requires the systems to be networked, but you could create some phantoms that forward to one of the users on another node and then create an extension ID for those phantom extensions; did I mention I hate this idea.

This may be something you want to contact your vendor about and have discussions with them as they would have a better idea of what they installed and why.

Thanks,

TE

[dan231]

The system was installed before I was hired and I subsequently received little to no training from the existing IT staff.  That was more of a "UG" statement than anything else.

I do have a ticket open, but the tech is stating that dial by name is programmed to work off the phones and devices section and goes by user name in the user description field.  I am not convinced that this is accurate, as I have other phones listed that are not in the dial by name directory and most of the other branches are not listed either.  It is possible our controllers are networked as that sounds familiar, but we have no branch phantoms setup that I have found or know about.