[Asterisk-Users] Receptionist phones

[Colin Anderson]

The SNOM 320's with 12 buttons work fine and they are relatively
inexpensive, although the indications are not as fine grained as on the
Cisco. Basically light on=in use, light off=not in use. 
 
You get into diminishing returns on the value of a line indicator sidecar in
inverse proportion to the number of users. On our Mitel sets, we have a
double daisy-chained sidecar with 64 lights. It's stupid, confusing, and
messy as hell. My strategy has been to emphasize the use of DID's + IVR for
the staff so the bulk of calls never hit reception. One of the receptionists
balked when I took away her sidecar, and told her that if she wanted to
transfer a call, she would have to enter Transfer + 4 digit DID. I reasoned
with her and told her that every single call in the company can come through
her and she could transfer each one with a sidecar (300-400 calls a day) or
she could use this DID method, and I would guarantee that her call volume
would drop to ~80 calls a day, max. She saw the light, and she's been happy
ever since. 
 
Your company culture, however, will dictate your approach.
 
Reason I'm down on sidecars is that in a medium to large organization they
are not practical. Especially one, like the one I work in, where there is
high staff churn, we were constantly futzing with the sidecar. 
 
hth
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Gibbs [mailto:bgibbs at edurotech.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 9:52 AM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Receptionist phones
 
I've been playing with Asterisk for a few weeks and it's working great.
 
I have a question about getting multi-line receptionist phones working.
 
I was thinking about getting one of these expansion ports:
 
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/phones/ps379/products_data_sheet09186
a008008883d.html
<http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/phones/ps379/products_data_sheet0918
6a008008883d.html> 
 
What are people using for receptionist phones that show all the extensions
in use, etc?  Is that even possible with Asterisk right now?
 
Anyone play around with this thing yet?
 
Bill
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