All existing Chorus desk phones will be removed and the project will not supply personal handsets or headsets.
Personal users can use Teams Phone through:
- their computer’s inbuilt microphone and speaker
- a headset (that they might already be using for Teams meetings)
- Teams Phone compatible handset (if paid for by their department or college)
- the Teams Phone app on their personal mobile phone or tablet
The table below shows the Teams Phone equivalent for selected activities that might be in use in Chorus:
| Chorus |
Teams Phone |
| Hunt Group |
Call Queue |
| Pickup Group |
Call Group |
| EA Group |
Call Delegation |
People in dual roles
People in dual roles may have a personal line and a ‘role-based’ line. Only one telephone number can be associated with an SSO, so colleges or departments who want to provide a ‘role-based’ line will need to request a Common Area Phone for this purpose. They will also need to pay for a Shared Area Device licence if they want to use a handset, and they will need to pay for the handset itself. Alternatively, the ‘role-based’ line can be associated with a Call Queue, which when dialled could deliver the call to the user's ‘personal’ line. This could remove the requirement for a handset, and the associated costs. In this scenario voicemails for the personal line would be delivered to the user’s email address, and voicemails for the Call Queue would be left in the mailbox associated with the Queue. We can set rules on this mailbox to deliver the voicemails to specified Oxford email addresses.
Transitioning personal lines to Teams Phone
Telephone coordinators can already move personal lines to Teams Phone using Phoneman, and will be responsible for undertaking this at the appropriate time.
There are more than 10,000 common area devices in use currently across the collegiate University. These are handsets located in communal or shared areas allowing more than one person to make or receive calls (for example, receptions areas, porters’ lodges). The introduction of Teams Phone could result in some of these common areas no longer requiring a physical handset and the table below outlines the options for moving these lines. If you are unsure about the best solution to use or need further advice, please contact the project team.
Each common area phones (CAP) requires a Shared Area Device licence which is charged annually.
| Current Chorus configuration |
Suggested alternative |
How to achieve this |
Associated cost |
|
| Common area phone, e.g. lodge/library/lab etc where a phone is required |
Teams Desk phone using a Shared Area Device licence |
Inform the project via the survey spreadsheet (supplied to Telephone Coordinators at the appropriate time). The project will fund 1 reception or lodge phone per building and up to 10% of remaining common area devices (based on current numbers of Chorus shared area phones). It will not fund future phone purchases or replacements
Your network will require configuration, a device will need to be ordered/configured/deployed, and a Shared Area Device account created for you. Contact the project team
|
Up front hardware cost, future hardware refresh cost
Ongoing Shared Area Device licence fee and line charge under new cost model
|
|
| Common area phone, eg lodge/library/lab etc where a phone is no longer required |
Move the extension to a Teams Call Queue/Autoattendant. Provide Teams Phone to the users who need to answer these calls. This will facilitate hybrid working |
- Assign the users who will handle calls Teams in Phoneman
- Complete the Call Queues and AutoAttendants Service Request
|
Ongoing annual line charge under new cost model |
|
| Intercoms |
Reconfigure these devices to talk to a user on Teams |
Contact the project team, which will handle these on a case-by-case basis |
To be determined individually |
|
Transitioning common area line to Teams Phone
Telephone coordinators will be able to move non-people lines to Teams common area lines when new functionality is available in Phoneman, which is likely to be in Michaelmas term.
Call Queues
A Call Queue is similar to a Hunt Group in Chorus. It allows calls to a single number to be distributed to a group of colleagues. This is managed through the Teams client of the named individual. To activate, complete the Call Queue/AutoAttendant section of the college/department survey (which will made available to Telephone Coordinators at the appropriate time).
AutoAttendant
AutoAttendant provides additional functionality such as welcome messages, time-of-day-routing, and configurable opening hours. This can be managed in the Teams client of the named individual. To activate, complete the Call Queue/AutoAttendant section of the college/department survey (which will made available to Telephone Coordinators at the appropriate time).
Network configuration: pilot users
Guidance on how to ensure your network is configured for Teams Phone is available at Telephony network preparation | IT Help.
Handset acquisition process: pilot users
- Complete the survey or form that you have been sent by the project, specifying the number of devices you require
- For devices included in the allowance provided by the project, the project team will coordinate delivery of these to your location
- If you require more devices than the project can support, contact damen.hughes@avoira.com, account manager with the University's telephony hardware suppliers. Damen will provide you with a quote and purchase process for these additional devices which will be delivered directly to your location
Account creation: pilot users
- Personal lines: activate this through Phoneman. For completeness, please record the information in the Survey spreadsheet or form.
- Common Area lines: the functionality allowing you to make this change yourself in Phoneman is now available but you will need your handsets in situ before you can activate this (but please still complete the survey/form)
See guidance at Chorus Phoneman User Guide | IT Help
Handset deployment process: pilot users
- Deploy handsets to their required location. The device should pick up an address in the Teams network subnet associated with your building’s Frodo. You can check what is in Huginn (available to ITSS via https://www.networks.it.ox.ac.uk/itss/huginn/frodos/)
-
You then need to:
- plug in the device and set the admin password (the default is 789)
- accept the Terms & Conditions
- set the language
- set the time zone
- confirm the settings, and the phone will reboot
- The handset will boot up and display a URL and a code on the screen. Note: the handset will log in to the account associated with the browser you’re using
- personal phones: browse to the URL and log in with their SSO credentials. If they are already logged in on the browser, you will not need to perform this step. Next, enter the code on screen and the user should be logged into the phone. Note: the code on the phone’s screen only lasts for a few minutes. If login fails, try refreshing the code on the phone and entering this on the browser you’re using.
- common area phones: use the browser on your laptop or PC to navigate to the URL using a private or incognito window. Enter the code on the phone’s screen. When prompted, enter the Common Area Phone username and password supplied. Details of the username and default password can be found on this document. On first login, you will need to change the password. There is no need to retain this password in your records, nor tell the support team what it is
-
Unplug any Chorus handsets and store ready for collection, otherwise your users will be able to make outbound calls using the same number on two systems which would cause confusion
Telephone PC pass through process
In some cases, where there is a lack of available network ports, the telephone is used to give network access to PCs and laptops. It is easy to check for this. If the Chorus phone has 2 network cables plugged into it then it is indeed supplying network access to a laptop or PC.
When it is time to swap the Chorus phone for the new Poly Teams phone, you can ensure both phone and PC continue to work by following the following steps:
- Turn the Chorus phone upside down and identify the port marked 'Network'
- Unplug and retain the cable from that port
- Then remove the other cable from the port labelled 'PC'
- Remove the Chorus phone from the desk and replace it with the new Poly phone
- Plug the cable that was in the port marked 'Network' on the Chorus phone into the left-hand port on the Poly phone (it is embossed with a picture of 3 devices linked together)
- Plug the cable which was in the port labelled 'PC' on the Chorus phone into the right-hand port on the Poly phone (it is embossed with a picture of a PC screen)
The phone will boot up and PC connectivity to the network will be restored.
Handset collection process: pilot users
Please gather all Chorus devices in a central location. The project will collect these from pilot sites.
