Tips:
Getting more from your phone
 
ESI phone operation

• Key system vs. PBX operation
• Outside dial-tone preference
• Hold and page
• Call waiting
• Background announce
• Private line
• ESI phone/cordless phone combination
• Call forward
• Service observing
• Call screening (message monitor)

Key system vs. PBX operation

• A key system has a line key assigned for each outside line. To make an outside call, you must manually select an available line.
• A PBX has no line key appearances but has the lines pooled into line groups. To make an outside call, you select a line group by dialing 9 (or 8 or 71–76) and the system automatically assigns a line from that line group.
• Traditionally, key systems have been small systems, and PBXs have been used as larger systems. Generally, companies are required to change to a PBX when they have too many lines for a key system.
• Key systems show lines in use by how many line keys are lit, while PBXs don’t give users any visual indication of lines in use. Managers use the number of lines available/busy to gauge how busy things are. Additionally, employees learn to delay making (or cut short) unimportant calls when they notice that most of the lines are in use.
• Key systems also make hold-and-page very easy. For example, a user will put Line 3 on hold and either page (or yell over the cubicle wall) “John, you’ve got a call on line 3.” John can then simply press the appropriate line key and get the call.
• Conversely, PBXs usually require calls to be put on hold and retrieved using awkward key combinations such as ##87 to hold, **87 to retrieve a call placed in hold orbit 7, etc.
• ESI overcomes the major disadvantages of a PBX by adding the visual line status to the bottom line of the phone display (except for the legacy 12-Key Feature Phone). The small blocks or vertical lines indicate the relative amount of lines available and busy.
• Your ESI system also has a visual HOLD key that allows calls to be parked and retrieved without the use of cumbersome codes. A unique combination of the display and the voice prompts provide all information needed to hold and retrieve calls.
• Although most systems require you to operate as they were designed, your ESI system allows you to choose to use your station as either a key system or a PBX. Using your station as a key system will provide the advantages described above — just remember that, as your system grows, you will find yourself with fewer programmable keys, which can be used for many other very valuable features. Which is best? If you have under five or six lines, try key system mode. If above five or six lines, you may find it more valuable to operate the system as a PBX and have the programmable keys available for station keys or other feature keys.

Outside dial-tone preference

• If you make mostly outside calls, you can set your station to give you outside dial tone whenever you lift your handset. This will eliminate the need to dial 9 each time. When this is enabled, you’ll find that you will also want to assign station keys for those internal people that you often call. To call another station without an assigned station key, just press TRANSFER (to get internal dial tone) and then dial the extension number.

Hold and page

• Visual hold allows the system to have many calls held and retrieved with users able to see what’s going on. To put a call on hold, press HOLD when connected to an outside call. Then simply page or notify the intended party that he/she has a call on “Line (whatever the number).” Your display will show you the calls that you have held, so that you can monitor that the calls have been retrieved. Additionally, calls not retrieved after an extended period will recall to your station.
• To retrieve a held call, press HOLD and dial the line number associated with the held call. As example, when you hear: “[your name], you have a call on Line 6,” simply press HOLD 6. You’ll hear the double connect tone when the other person has been connected. To help you verify the held call’s line number, the display will momentarily show a list of all calls on-hold when you press HOLD.

Call waiting

• Call waiting works just like at home, but with many additional features. In conjunction with Caller ID, your display will not only show the Caller ID and duration of the current call, but it will also show the Caller ID of the call that’s waiting. Press FLASH to toggle between the calls, or press RELEASE to drop the current call and be automatically connected to the other call. If you ignore the waiting call, it will be transferred to your mailbox.
• If you need to transfer a call to someone who is already on a call, simply press his/her red-glowing station key and hang up. Or, you can press his/her red-glowing station key and wait for him/her to flash over, announce who is to be transferred, and then hang up to transfer. If the user declines the call, press FLASH/RDL (or FLASH on certain legacy ESI phones) to return to the caller in order to transfer him/her elsewhere.
• You can call-wait to a busy station if you want to announce that a meeting is starting or that someone is in the lobby waiting. The user can decide to toggle over to you, or if on a very important call, can choose to stay on the current call.

Background announce

• Many times in a supervisor/secretary relationship or for close work groups, you may want to announce something to another user on a call without them having to toggle from their current call. Background announce allows this.
• For this feature to work, the user must have allowed both call waiting and background announce at his/her station (PROG/HELP 3 1). The announcing party must also have programmed an announce key as one of his/her programmable keys.
• To use background announce, you must first call-wait on the station as described above and then, if your announce key is green, you can press and hold it to make a short announcement to the user — for example, “Bill, your appointment is in the lobby.”. The outside caller can’t hear your background announcement.
• The user can still choose to toggle over to you, since you are in call waiting until you hang up.

Private line

• The installer can set an outside line to serve as a private line for a particular station. Calls to that number will ring directly to your phone, bypassing the operator or auto attendant. If you have a private line, you must program a line key on your phone so that you can access it to place outside calls.
• A private line gives senior management the assurance that they can be called directly even if all regular lines are busy. It assures that a line is always available for an important outside call even if all regular lines are busy. Calls to your private line, if unanswered, will be forwarded to your mailbox, just like other calls.

ESI phone/cordless phone combination

• If you need to take phone calls even when roaming around your building, arrange to have two phones assigned to you. Use the ESI desktop phone for inside your office, and carry a cordless phone (such as an ESI Cordless Handset) as you roam about your building. Each of these phones will require a different extension number. Give others only your office extension number for all calls.
• Create a call-forward key on your ESI desktop phone to easily forward your calls to your cordless phone when you’re going to be roaming. When in your office (with forwarding turned off), you will receive calls in the normal fashion through your ESI Feature Phone. When roaming, just enable call forwarding: calls will be forwarded to the cordless phone.
• A second call forwarded will be handled as call-waiting at the cordless phone. Forwarded calls not answered at the cordless phone will be returned to your office mailbox. It might be a good idea to create a Virtual Mailbox key for the cordless phone’s mailbox, just in case someone calls that station directly and leaves a message there.
  

  Note:

  Standard cordless phones have limitations as to range and interference from building structure and other cordless phones.

Call forward

• Your phone has been set by the Installer to forward calls (when your station is busy or doesn’t answer) to your mailbox or another location. You can temporarily forward by pressing CFWD (or a programmable feature key to which you’ve programmed 5 6 5) and an extension number.
• When you forward your phone to another extension and that phone is busy or doesn’t answer, the forwarded call will be returned to your mailbox.
• You can also forward your phone directly to a mailbox (or any special mailbox: group, guest, cascade, etc.) by pressing CFWD (or a programmable feature key to which you’ve programmed 5 6 5) and then pressing VOICE MAIL before entering the corresponding extension.
• If you frequently call-forward your phone, program one of the programmable feature keys to serve as a call-forward key (program the key with 5 6 5). Then press it and either press a station key or enter an extension number. The key will glow green, indicating that call forwarding is enabled. Press it again to disable call forwarding.
• If you always call forward to the same location, program both 5 6 5 and the extension number. When you press the call-forward key, it will forward to that station; pressing it again will turn off forwarding.

Service observing

(IP Server 900 and ESI Communications Servers only.)

• Service observing allows managers to silently observe other conversations in the system. This feature must be activated by the Installer or Administrator for your station. Additionally, they must list the stations that you are allowed to observe. To observe, use a programmable key that you have programmed with 5 6 1 and press the desired station key (lit red). Your display will show the details of the call being observed. Neither party will be aware of your monitoring.
• Generally, U.S. federal law allows for service observing to improve the quality of your phone-provided service. However, by law, you must stop observing immediately upon realizing that you’re monitoring a personal call. Check local and state laws before using this feature.
• During service observing, you can record the conversation for later use in critiquing the employee. You can also use service observing to allow new employees in training to observe other employees with similar job functions.

Call screening (message monitor)

• This feature lets you listen to messages as they are being left. You have the option to intercept the call by lifting your handset, or ignoring the call and allowing it to be completed into your mailbox — just as on your home answering machine. For privacy, if someone is in your office and monitoring begins, you can stop the voice output to your phone (for this call) by pressing MUTE/DND.
• You may not want to enable message monitor mode if your desk is not in a private area, or if you don’t want to risk that others may hear messages being left in your mailbox while you are out of the office.