There are many factors to consider when setting up employees to work from home. In some cases, minor changes to their phone system can be made to route calls to an individual’s cell phone or house phone. Other options may require the purchase of feature licenses, or going with Hosted or cloud-based solutions.
We’ve put together a list of ideas, tips, and suggestions that we hope will help.
NEC SL2100, SL1100, & DSX Premise-Based System Options
Auto Attendant Routing
Use the current voicemail systems Auto Attendant to route callers to remote worker’s cell or home phones. In the Auto Attendant list single digit options to reach an individual. Digits 0-9 + * + # will be available, which give you up to 12 digit dialing options. Ex. press 1 for sales, 2 for Bill Smith, the Auto Attendant will then make the call out to the remote worker.
Important Notes:
- Each call will use 2 CO lines for the duration of the call. (1 line for the incoming caller and 1 line for the call to the remote worker, so additional lines may be needed based on call volume
- With some systems an additional mode can be pre – set. The system can be placed in the “Work from home” mode, where a different Auto Attendant message will be played with different dialing options
- If the remote worker does not answer their phone the caller will go to their cell or home voice mail
Call Forward All Calls to an Outside Number
Use the current desk phone and set call forward all to a cell or home phone. All calls directed to that desk phone will re-route to the forwarded number.
Important Notes:
- Each call will use 2 CO lines for the duration of the call. (1 line for the incoming caller and 1 line for the call to the remote worker, so additional lines may be needed based on call volume
- If the remote worker does not answer their phone the caller will go to their cell or home voice mail
Message Notification Without a Voice Mail to E-Mail License
Callers can be directed to leave a message in a voice mail box for an individual. Set the voice mail box to call and notify the users cell or home phone of a new message. The user can answer the notification call and enter the mailbox to listen to the message right then or call in to retrieve the message later.
You also have the option to call back the caller that left the message. If the user chooses to use this, the phone system will grab a 2nd line and call back the caller. The customer will see the phone number of the line used by phone system, not the users cell or home number.
Important Notes:
- This uses only 1 CO line when retrieving the message
- The system uses 2 CO lines if the user uses the call back option
Message Notification With a Voice Mail to E-Mail License
Callers can be directed to leave a message in a user, general, sales, or customer service mailboxes and have the new messages e-mailed to a user’s e-mail address as a wav file.
Important Notes:
- This does not use any lines to listen to messages
- Caller ID and time and date stamp are in the subject and body of the e-mail
- The bonus is that the wav files messages can be archived the any folder (a big plus that you can’t do with messages left in a desk phones mailbox)
- This license also gives you cascading notification that can notify up to 5 users of a new message. This is great for general, sales, or customer service mailboxes, that are covered by multiple workers
- Requires a v-mail to e-mail license
Mobile Extension (SL2100 & SL1100 Only)
All inbound calls dual ring (twinning) to a user’s desk phone and cell simultaneously. Answer calls on a cell phone and easily place callers on hold, transfer them back to any system extension, intercom extensions, and page from a cell into the office. Also, outbound calls from the cell phone will show the company caller ID, not the personal phone’s caller ID.
Important Notes:
- This feature application was built based on SIP Trunks with DID’s or T1/PRI with DID’s
- System with analog CO lines will only give you the dual ringing (twinning) feature
- MTD and NEC do not recommend using this feature with analog CO lines
- Each call will use 2 lines for the duration of the call. (1 line for the incoming caller and 1 line for the call to the remote worker, so additional SIP Trunks may be needed based on call volume)
- One DID number for the system is required
- Requires mobile extension license for each user
- 4 mobile extension licenses come free on the SL2100 and SL1100
- No cell phone app to download or maintain
- This is a very easy setup for the Reseller and very easy to use for the user
Mobile Extension WiFi App (ST500) (SL2100 Only)
Turn a cell phone into a standalone IP phone. Download the ST500 app from an app store. Calls can ring the mobile app extension number directly or through dual ringing (twinning). Answer calls from the cell phone app and easily put callers on hold, transfer them to any system extension, intercom extensions, and page from a cell into the office. Also, outbound calls from the cell phone app will show the company caller ID, not the personal phone’s caller ID.
Important Notes:
- Only available on the SL2100
- App was designed for working over WiFi
- Each cell phone user must download the ST500 app from an app store
- Requires a 3rd party IP phone license for each user
- Each call requires only 1 line for the duration of the call
Hosted & Cloud-Based Options
Hosted Service & Phones
Some Customer may want to replace their entire premise phone system with a hosted solution.
We can have Hosted services up and running in 24 hours or less. We offer three Hosted seat levels and carry a full line of Hosted phones to meet your Customer’s needs. Hosted phones can be easily moved to any remote location that has internet access. Hosted provides many options like a mobile extension app, (IM) instant messaging, meeting rooms with screen sharing, v-mail to e-mail notification Auto Attendant, call queue/ring groups, and more.
Important Notes:
- NO Hard-to-Sell Long Term Contracts
- Always Month-to-Month means My Tel Pros has to Earn Your Business Every Day!
- Free Tech Support for the life of the account
- Earn high Monthly Reoccurring Commissions
SIP Trunks
If the system is equipped with SIP trunks, then calls can be redirected to specified telephone numbers. These can be cell phones or home phones. A central operator can take the calls, then distribute the call messages via phone, text, e-mail, or IM for the proper employees to return calls.
Important Notes:
- NO Hard-to-Sell Long Term Contracts
- Always Month-to-Month means My Tel Pros has to Earn Your Business Every Day!
- Free Tech Support for the life of the account
- Earn high Monthly Reoccurring Commissions
- Add a Cloud Auto Attendant or Voice Mailbox solution to turbo charge SIP Trunks
- If remote workers want to block their cell or home phone numbers dial *67 before returning calls and block their personal caller ID (*67 may not work with your SIP Trunks or T1/PRI, check availability first before telling your customer this option)
Cloud Auto Attendant (no phones)
We can provide a cloud Auto Attendant solution. In this case, you can forward the CO lines to a cloud Auto Attendant DID number. The Auto Attendant will play for callers with single digit dial options that route to a remote worker’s cell or home phones. Digits 0-9 + *# will be available. The remote worker’s cell or home phones can call back using their cell phone or house phone.
Important Notes:
- Always Month-to-Month means My Tel Pros has to Earn Your Business Every Day!
- Free Tech Support for the life of the account
- Add a cloud voicemail box with v-mail to e-mail for general, sales, or customer service mailboxes, that can be covered by multiple workers
- If remote workers want to block their cell or home phone numbers dial *67 before returning calls and block their personal caller ID (*67 may not work with your SIP Trunks or T1/PRI, check availability first before telling your customer this option)
Cloud Voice Mailbox (no phones)
We can provide a cloud Voice Mailbox solution. In this case, you can forward the CO lines to a cloud Voice Mailbox DID number. The cloud Voice Mailbox will play the greeting then takes a message and e-mail a wav file to an e-mail address. The remote workers can call back using their cell phone or house phone.
Important Notes:
- Always Month-to-Month means My Tel Pros has to Earn Your Business Every Day!
- Free Tech Support for the life of the account
- Add multiple cloud voicemail box with v-mail to e-mail for general, sales, or customer service mailboxes, that can be covered by multiple workers
- If remote workers want to block their cell or home phone numbers dial *67 before returning calls and block their personal caller ID (*67 may not work with your SIP Trunks or T1/PRI, check availability first before telling your customer this option)