"People" key on 5360 handsets

[VinceWhirlwind]

We've upgraded some phone users to use 5360 phones. They've discovered a key called "People" on their new handsets and discovered it has nothing in it.
We read the manual and told them it says they have to manually go into the key and add people if they want this button to do something useful.
 
They were a bit taken aback and told us they had already populated extensive Contacts lists in the corporate telephone directory on the MCD, via AD, as well as additional personal contacts in the MiCollab application, and are we seriously telling them to manually create a list that already exists in MiCollab?
 
Is there any way the "People" button can draw its information from information that already exists?

[dg]

Hi there.
I brought up a similar question about the "People" application on our 5340e sets. Lengthy discussion (and some investigation) with my VAR leads me to the conclusion that this is storage that is -only- in the phoneset. We couldn't find any way to back it up, move/copy to another set, or even easily delete the data in the People app, from or to MiVoice/Collab. The only saving grace here is that our 5340's also have the regular Phone Book, but with no way for users to modify it. It doesn't help things that it's so easy to add callers from history "to People."

From a security perspective, this scares me a bit as well - let's say a user stores some secure/private stuff in People, and then perhaps the user leaves or the phoneset gets assigned to another user... I would have assumed that provisioning the set as new would delete all the data on any set, but it doesn't. The People entries must be removed one by one on the set itself. I have yet to find any way to -completely- wipe a whole phoneset.

I hope I am wrong, and there is some other solution, but this is the best I could come up with.

Cheers,
-dg

[acejavelin]

You can completely wipe the set through the setup menu, accessed either at power up by pressing and holding either volume key and waiting for the "Configure?" prompt, or when the phone is fully operational by pressing both volume keys, then releasing one and pressing 2-3-4 and releasing the volume key, then go to the Tools and Features menu and scroll through to "Factory defaults" and select it and confirm, this will wipe ALL data in the phone.

[dg]

Oh cool!
That's really good to know that the set can truly be cleared. That's also a heck of a key combo... Sounds like I need to chew tin foil and touch the antenna at the same time! heh

It is still strangely disturbing that the People data isn't managed by the controller (and can't be moved between sets)... it's just odd.

Is there a reference somewhere that describes what all those things do? I don't have MOL access, so forgive me if it's obvious.

Thanks,
-dg

[acejavelin]

I think the People key can, or rather used to, be controlled by the PC... such as in the case of the Navigator phone. There is/was an option called PC IP Address in the Features menu that you would put the IP address of the PC that had the Navigator software, and it could control the phone that way. It is quite antiquated but still around here and there.

I also find it odd that ANY information other than network information and operational configuration can be stored in the phone, it is kind of counter-intuitive compared to other stuff Mitel does.

[lundah]

There is/was an option called PC IP Address in the Features menu that you would put the IP address of the PC that had the Navigator software, and it could control the phone that way. It is quite antiquated but still around here and there.

Last version of that I worked with was called "Integrated Office Companion". No idea if it's still actively supported or available on MOL.

[VinceWhirlwind]

I brought up a similar question about the "People" application on our 5340e sets. Lengthy discussion (and some investigation) with my VAR leads me to the conclusion that this is storage that is -only- in the phoneset. We couldn't find any way to back it up, move/copy to another set, or even easily delete the data in the People app, from or to MiVoice/Collab.

Wow, I thought the People button was just annoying. In reality is much worse than that.