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ShoreTel Route Point Configuration

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:10:09 -0500

The ShoreTel IPBX "Route Points" are powerful configuration tool, generally used to enable third party applications. Using route points, an external application can gain complete call control. For example, when you configure a ShoreTel Enterprise Contact Center, you will use route points to control call flow, media and routing options. The interaction with the route point is generally through TAPI and TAPI wave, but route points can be used to create other options for call control including call deflection and the creation of voice message repositories. Playing with route points is an interesting experience as they seem to work differently depending on which version of ShoreTel you are running. In all versions, however you can create a route point and associate it with a voice mail box, or use it to deflect a call. Historically, we have used route points, along with schedules, to redirect call center traffic between different call centers based on the time of day or day of week. It is quite possible, however to set up a route point for no other purpose than to create a fully functional voice mailbox. Given that the route point does not require the definition of a user, no extension or mailbox license is required to achieve this result. Basically, you create an route point much the way you would create a Hunt Group, Automated Attendant or Workgroup. You define the route point with an extension that can be dialed, and you setup your Ring No Answer and Busy Destinations to be the voice mail port. We have come to realize that you have to use the Record function on the Route Point configuration page to set the recorded name and greeting. Thought we could enter the same VM box through an IP phone and were greeted with the normal new voice mail box setup routine, when we called the box we did not hear the name or greeting. Using the record option on the configuration page, however, enabled this functionality. After recording the greeting and name in the way, we experienced the expected behavior when we called the extension and were transferred to VM. Route points can also be used to deflect an incoming telephone call to an external telephone number. This is equivalent to setting your call handling mode to always call forward to an external number. We never encourage users to configure this option in their call manager, as it robs the host company of follow on call control, allowing messages to be taken by a cell phone for example. The fact remains, however, that you can setup a route point, with a DNIS or DID number to always send the call to a remote phone in the pubic switched telephone network. Route points that forward to traditional TDM connections will actually show up in the ShoreTel CDR when you run a User Detail or Summary Report. This is not the case if you try to run these reports against a route point that is actually used as designed and terminates in a third party call control application via TAPI. This is just one of the mysteries of route points. At the end of the day you could setup a ShoreTel server with no users or extensions, using route points to enable both voice mail and remote call forwarding. Route points are just way kool and worthy play things! Click this link for Video demonstration of this ShoreTel Option. Drvoip@drvoip.com

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Tags: ShoreTel Configuraton Options
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How to Create ShoreTel ECC and AA sound files!

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:59:50 -0500

You can hardly install a Automated Attendant with out creating the Audio files! If you have looked at any of our videos on setting up the ShoreTel Enterprise Contact Center, you know that we urge you to create all of your audio files before you start setting up your Contact Center Services! Making recordings should be easy enough, but ShoreTel wants to have the wav file in a specific format: CCITT-mulaw, 8Khz, 8bit Mono. This is easy enough to create with something as simple as the standard Microsoft Sound Recorder, but the default wav format is some other format and you will need to "save as" clicking on the format change option! There are actually three other strategies for recording voice prompts in the native ShoreTel format. Early versions of ShoreTel provided for a "preference" extension, used by the System administrator to indicate which phone would be used for making recordings. The System Administrator would set a specific phone phone for this purpose and when you pressed the Record button from within the Automated Attendant screen of the Shoreware Director, that phone would ring and you would then make your recording. The resulting wav file would be stored in the Shoreline Data folder, in the prompts sub folder and it would be in the correct ShoreTel format. With Version 7 of ShoreTel, the option existed to enable Automated Attendant recordings by logging into the voice mail system, using the Automated Attendant greeting number as the voice mail extension number. This was an exciting possibility as it allowed recordings to be made remotely and on the fly as required to meet specific emergency or holiday requirements. Unfortunately, the files that resulted from these two recording techniques had very unfriendly file names. When managing greetings through the automated attendant, it would be nice to have a wav file with a name that related to the greeting. As a result the best practice method of enabling ShoreTel recordings is to use your Personal Call Manager! By creating a recording using your Call Manager, you are able to name the wav file something useful and you are able to export the recording as in the appropriate format. Over 15K ShoreTel desktops later, people are still asking me how to make an automated attendant recording! I though I would generate a short tech tip video and demonstrate all three of these techniques! Enjoy!

]]> Tags: ShoreTel Sound Files

Tags: ShoreTel ECC IPBX
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The ShoreTel "prefix" Option!

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 19:39:28 -0500

In this economy there are a growing number of mergers and acquisitions, or "marriage by shot gun". When companies combine they have the challenge of integrating their data and telecommunications systems. For example, we have witnessed an increased demand in companies seeking technical assistance in merging ShoreTel systems. There are two basic options for doing this and the choice often depends on resource requirements and "dial plan" conflicts. To illustrate these options let's assume Company A merges with Company B. Both companies desire the integration of their telephone systems if for no other reason than to enable extension to extension dialing.

The first option is the traditional single image option. Assume that Company A will become theHQ Server and the other Company B will become the DVM server. To accomplish this, the database of Company B will be manually imported to the HQ server and a new site is created.( Clearly, the WAN solution is in place and connectivity between the two companies exists).When you complete the database additions to the HQ server, adding all the new users, switches, workgroups, hunt groups and site details you are ready to convert the Company B HQ server to a DVM. You are going to have to reconfigure the site switches to point to the new Company A HQ server, but the process is manageable and you should achieve the desired result with limited down time.

The second option is less obvious and many ShoreTel field installation technicians will not be familiar with the option. Out of the box, ShoreTel supports site based Prefix Dialing. In our example, we would leave both Company A and Company B with a HQ server. They would appear to be two separate systems. The use of the Prefix dialing, however, makes it possible to enable extension to extension dialing between the systems. Through the ShorewareDirector web portal, you would select the Dialing Plan from System Parameters. The dialing plan would enable you to select a digit for extension dialing, with from 1-7 prefix digits.In our small example, we might make use of Digit 7 with a prefix of 2 digit, allowing us to create 99 sites. When you exercise this option, you will see a new field appear in the SITES definition in the ShorewareDirector portal. Entitled "Extension Prefix" the field enables you to assign a two digit SITE ID to each site you create. As you assign users to SITES, their extension numbers become the SITE ID + Extension number. Given that we have a WAN solution in place, we can then establish SIP Tie Trunks between Company A and Company B. The Trunk Group that defines the TIE LINE would have an OPX (off premise extension ) list that defines the extension range that "lives" at the other end of the TIE line. Company A might have a prefix of 77 and Company B might have a prefix of 78. Users in each system, even though they were previously defined with a three digit "dial plan" would now show 77-123 or 78-123 when you reviewed their individual USER configuration in ShorewareDirector. Assume further, that both companies had similar "dial plans" meaning that they had the same extensions assigned in both companies! The extension prefix option working as a site ID, enables both companies to keep their extension numbers.

(See blog.drvoip.com for graphic illustration)

Arguments can be for, or against either option. A single image solution has real advantages in that there is a single point of administration, and a single VM system. Others would argue that redundancy and increased resources favor the second option. Remember that currently, ShoreTel "Workgroups" are not a distributed service. The second option enables some workgroup survivability given an HQ server failure. Prefix dialing has a place in the integration of independent systems and can work to reduce HQ server work load while increasing resources and mitigating dial plan conflicts.

]]> Tags: How to integrate multiple PBX systems with SIP trunking

Tags: SIP. TIE LINE,
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SG50V/SG90V Flash Backup to FTP

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:03:03 -0500

Both models of the ShoreTel VG90 and VG50 are availabe in V switch configurations. The V switch configuration enables you to provide local voice mail and autoamted attendant functionality to a smalll site economically. Compared to the cost of adding a distributed voice mail server, the SG50V and SG90V are economically viable alaternatives that should be considered as you plan for resilency and site continuity during a WAN outage. Due to the CF card capacity, daily backup of voice mail and automated-attendnat is advised. When automatic backup is enabled in the ShoreWare Director, it begins immediately after the server completes its daily house-keeping operations. Automatic Backup Stores Voicemail, Auot Attendant Data and switch log fiels to an FTP server. After completion of the daily file-system cleanup taks, the switch begings automatic backup. A time stamp is appended to the name of the files copied to the target server. Automatic backup provides a source for the most recent days voice mail and the other data in the event of a system failue. It is not intended to be an archive of voice messages or a sourc fo retrieving deleted voice mail. The following silent film clip walks you through the process of setting up an FTP site and properly configuring the ShoreWare Director for V switch backup!]]>Continue reading SG50V/SG90V Flash Backup to FTP...

]]> Tags: ShoreTel SG50V and ShoreTel90V Switch Flash Configuration

Tags: ShoreTel SG50V and ShoreTel90V Switch Flash Configuration
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How to Telnet into a ShoreTel IP PhoneSh

Fri, 21 Aug 2009 19:09:51 -0500

A typical trouble ticket might sound like "when another extension calls me, I can hear them, but they can not hear me"! Actually, one of my personal faviroites. Over the years I have come to learn that this is usually the result of one of two issues: someone has the wrong default gateway; or port 5004 is being blocked by some firewall in one direction. As we move more and more toward SIP and media streams move away from a dedicated port, this issue is almost always a network configuration error.

So which device has the wrong default gateway? That takes some dedective work. Generally you will telnet into the ShoreTel SG media gateways and check the configurations. Media stream between phones generally do not need an SG switch beyound call setup. The media stream, once the call is setup, is between the two phones. For this reason, you will want to tenet into the phone and "see" the network from the phone's percepective! To do this, you will need to know the ShoreTel methodology and process.

Security on the SG switches and phone, requires that you start the process from the ShoreTel HQ server. There is a specific subdirectory that you need to be in to launch the various utilities. This silent viedo walks you through the process of using one utility, phoneCTL, to telenet into a phone and look around.

]]> Tags: ShoreTel IP Phones

Tags: ShoreTel IP Phones
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V Switch Schedule does not Change Automated Attendant?

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 12:54:54 -0500

This is one of those trouble tickets that keeps an engineer awake at night. A V switch was installed at a remote site to provide Automated Attendant and Voice Mail services for that site. The V switch was one of three switches at that site and each switch had analog CO lines connected. For reasons that nobody could explain, the observed behavior was that the AA would not change from On Hours to Off Hours as scheduled. An observed behavior, does not really state the problem! (read: lesson learned) What we learned is that the AA did in fact actually change per the schedule, but only the lines connected to the two other non V switches received the correct prompt per the schedule. The CO lines connected to the V switch, (which included the main number and next three lines in hunt, but of course) , did not get the correct AA greeting. Now, as nightmares go, this was about as difficult as they get when you are attempting to distill a problem statement. As everyone called the main line, everyone thought the AA was not changing per schedule. Only by calling lines not terminated on the V switch did the real problem statement emerge.

ShoreTel has now assigned a known defect number to this behavior. "The issue you are experiencing has been addressed in defect 1-34192469. The defect has been corrected and is pending a patch release. Once the patch release hits our QA group for testing and validation, we will be able to provide a rough estimate on a release date".

I could have listened to my mother and finished law school, but no. I wanted to be a telecom entrepreneur ......

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Hack ShoreTel to Make Yourself the System Administrator?

Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:50:22 -0500

I don't know how many times I have had a client tell me that there IT guy quit and they do not know the password to the ShoreWare Director. Passwords are encrypted to it is way to much effort to read the database, find the user and then run some funny program to recover the password. Why bother? If you have a "plain vanillia" user who has a password you know, you are done! By now I assume you have followed the DrVoIP recurring recommendation to get SQLyog installed on your ShoreTel server?

Here is what you need to do. First, connect to the ShoreTel MySQL database with a utility like SQLyog. Find the TABLE for USERS. This contains all of the attributes that define a user, including one name ROLE ID. This will be a column within the USER TABLE similar to any othe column like name and extension number. Find a user that you know the password for. Scroll through the database on the row for that user and find the column for "ROLE ID, change it from NULL (e.g. plan vanillia user) to the integer number 1, and you have just made that user a System Administrator with God Level previledges! Save the change log out of the ShoreTel MySQL database. Bring up ShoreWare Director and log in as the user who's password you know. You will find that you are now a full System Administrator and you can add yourself as a System Administrator and change the other user back to plain vanillia.

This is a great strategy, simple and easy to accomplish. The video clip demonstrates just how to do it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBD9G3qWWDY br />]]>

Tags: Hack, ShoreTel, System Administration
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Where is the ShoreTel Query File?

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:04:29 -0500

The ShoreTel Enterprise Contact Center has two sources of generating both historical and real time data. With the release of 5.X, ShoreTel created the C2G ("cradle to grave") or Interaction Reporting functionality. This MySQL database is clearly visible in the default location of D:\ShoreTel\Contact Center Server\DbProvider\Data\c2g though you may have installed it somewhere else. For this database to be active, you have to create an OBDC connector to the MySQL database on the local host. Then database connector in the System tab of the ShoreTel Contact Center Director has to be selected to enable the database write. The C2G database is something like the CDR database on the PBX. It captures real time events about ONLY incoming phone calls and enables you to create custom reports not previously available. For example, Wrap-Code by Agent!

Prior to 5.x, the only report database is actually more of a statistical peg counter and has not detail behind it. You might track the number of phone calls received by an agent, but not have any detail about the nature of the events that make up those phone calls. Average talk time, for example, is arithmetically derived and is not the result of actual detail as captured in the C2G database. One of the more interesting learning experiences you can have with the ECC is to examine the actual SQL query that is generated when you run a report! Very instructive. Each time you run a report, a SQL query is created. Where does this query live? If you look in the default path D:\ShoreTel\Contact Center Server\Log you will find a SUSQL.TXT file. This file contains the actual query that was generated when you ran one of the canned reports on the ECC. This file will be overwritten each time you generate a new file, but it does contain the most recent report query. It is a great source of educational information on how to write query's! The attached video is a quick visual summary of this blog!/p>

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760 area code

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:23:58 -0500

760 Area Code Change to 442

Who Will be Affected? All customers with a 760 number will have to change the way they dial. The new 442 area code will serve new customers in the same geographic region as the current 760 area code, which extends from Bridgeport in the north, south to the Mexican border, Camp Pendleton on the west, and east to the state line.

Read the full article here: 760 Area Code
]]> Tags: 760 area code, change 760 to 442, San Diego 760 area code

Tags: 760 area code, change 760 to 442, San Diego 760 area code
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ShoreTel Contact Center Abandoned Call handling

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:52:41 -0500

Every call center has peaks and valleys. Normal businesses operate with very predictable calling patterns. Traffic over the normal business day, starts out slow and peaks between 10AM and 2 PM in the afternoon, then trickles down. The old Bell Curve distribution pattern! Call centers on the other hand, have very different call characteristics depending on the nature of the business. One characteristic that we can be confident in, is the fact that there are more callers than "agents" to service the calls. Thus the need for some kind of qeueing capability.

"We are sorry, but all available agents are working with other clients. Please hold the line and the next available agent will be right with you. Unfortunately, callers might tire of the music on hold and predictable care messages, and ultimately give up and then hang up! This is generally an "abandoned call" in most contact center environments and reports. The ShoreTel Contact Center has a facility for capturing this information and doing something producitive with it.

Back to the concept of "Peaks and Valleys". What if we could take the "abandoned calls", capture the caller id and feed them to our agents during valleys in the calling periods? After all the staff is sitting there, logged in and idle! Lets just put them to work. In a ShoreTel system this is very easy to setup and is a powerful productivity tool. First, the system "reserves and agent". The agent gets a little pop up window that informs them that they are being reserved for a call back. They have to accept it, or they are put in "release" as if they turned down an incoming phone call (time for management tutoring). When the agent accepts the reservation, the ShoreTel places the outbound phone call and then connects the call to the agent. With the exception that they acknowledged the reservation request, the agent experiences the call as if it were any other in bound call to the contact center.

Optionally, you can play a file to the callED party before you send the call to the agent. I have found however, that it is better to send the call to the agent immediately after it is dialed. This is because the agent is better able to deal with "positive answer supervision" using the human ear, then the machine is able to tell the difference between a fax machine, answering machine or someother non-human answer.

Making use of the abandoned call feature is something that every Contact Center can do to increase agent productivity and customer satisfaction. You can even setup a group that specializes in abandonded call backs, and route all calls to that "win back" group. The following video describes how to set this up in your ShoreTel Contact Center (or you can just call us, and we can do it for you)!

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Tags: ShoreTel Contact Center
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Hack ShoreTel to kill the Dial 9 requirement for Fax Machines!

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:09:13 -0500

Fax Machines on ShoreTel? It is not uncommon for system administrators to create a user named FAX SEVER, then define it as EXTENSION ONLY. Though I personally have been trying to eliminate all the forest eating fax machines and printers on the planet, it would appear that Fax machines are going to be with us for quite some time. Even with a fax server, people want to stick a piece of paper into the machine and watch it "go through" after dialing the distant end. This is an example of "Experiential compatibility" as the marketing folks like to say. We are more comfortable with a technology that is compatible with our experience.

Often, there are other analog devices that survive the move to IP telephony. For example, the credit card machine! Many company's will have another ShoreTel user named CREDIT CARD and it also is defined as EXTENSION ONLY. These devices share one common trait that many clients find very annoying. If you connect a fax machine or credit card machine to a ShoreTel analog port, the device will now need to know how to "dial 9" to get an outside line, to complete a call. So these means that you have to reprogram the fax machine and the speed dial lists that most companies have accumulated over the years. Not an exciting thought and a great waste of human resourcess.

Is there a way to "hack" l the ShoreTel configuration database to just connectthe fax machine to an outside line without the need to "dial 9"? The answer is yes, there is a way. I hope that you have watched enough of my stuff to have loaded a copy of SQLyog on your ShoreTel Server by now? In the MySQL configuration database for the ShoreWare sever, there is a data table named "USERS". In the USERS database, look for the column labeled EXTERNAL DIAL TONE. Find the USER of interest, in this example FAX MACHINE, and locate this column. You will find that the existing default value is 0, requiring the user to "dial 9". By changing this value to -1, the user is directly connected to an outside line and is able to dial without using an access code. Be careful changing this configuration database! If you do not know MySQL or SQLyog, you should probably find someone who does. The film clip accompanying this blog will walk you throught the configuration change. Enjoy!

]]> Tags: ShoreTel Fax Hack MySQL

Microsoft OCS +ShoreTel = IM

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 15:59:15 -0500

Microsoft Office Communications is a powerful collaboration tool. The MOCS provides web conferencing, IM, audio conferencing, desktop sharing and also provided SIP. For purposes of this brief discussion, we will stay focused on the Internet Messaging component of MOCS. With the Release of ShoreTel 8+, the Professional Call Manager provides both desktop to desktop video conferencing and Internet Messaging. The Internet Messaging component makes use of a Microsoft OCS server and the ShoreTel solution integrates the solution as an application server defined within the ShorewareDirector portal.

Internet Messaging, or IM as it is popularly referred to, seems to fall into two corporate philosophy camps: companies who absolutely abhorrer its use; and companies who find it to be an essential business tool. Those companies who do not allow IM of any kind typically have very tightly controlled employee desktops, enable website filtering and block IM ports for Yahoo, AOL, Google and others. Sometimes the excuse is HIPA/Sarbanes Oxley compliance or a general concern that employees might communicate private company information out this internet portal. Companies that find IM to be essential can be broken down into two additional categories: those that allow IM clients on an ad hoc basis and those who want total control of the IM client.

Microsoft OCS provides a solution for that last group of customers; those that need IM but want to control and monitor its utilization. MOCS enables you to "record" all IM conversations to an achieve server to meet those HIPA and Sarbanes Oxley compliance requirements and to assure the content of IM does not violate Corporate use policy. MOCS also enables you to set up "federations" so that inside IM participants across the Company can communicate with Yahoo, AOL or Other corporate MOCS users outside the domain. All in all, MOCS is the great unsung hero of the Microsoft Servers!

The integration of ShoreTel Professional Call Manager and the MOCS is not that complex, but falls under that summary statement "well know, to those who know it well". Microsoft clearly has a VOIP strategy in which the MOCS plays a key role. Working with a ShoreTel IPBX and a Professional call manager, it becomes a viable solution for adding IM to and existing ShoreTel voip installation. The video is just a quick overview of how you actually deploy the integration.

]]>Continue reading Microsoft OCS +ShoreTel = IM...

]]> Tags: shoretel, shoretel systems, voip installation

Related Entries

How to Backup Shoretel IPBX - Jun 03, 2009
ShoreTel SG voice enabled switches! - May 29, 2009
ShoreTel ECC Abandoned Call - Call Back and Dial List applications! - May 15, 2009
ShoreTel Contact Center C2G Interaction Reports - May 14, 2009
iPhone on ShoreTel IPBX - May 13, 2009

VoIP Network Monitoring

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:01:09 -0500

We have been actively working with VoIP since 1999! Since 2001 we have installed well over 10,000 ShoreTel desktops and one characteristic of these VoIP environments has surfaced into high relief on the radar screen here in technical support: A VoIP solution is only as good as the computer Network it runs on! Network Monitoring - a Necessary Evil? When someone mentions network monitoring, most network administrators immediately start thinking: overpriced, large server requirements, difficult to install, time-consuming to configure. If those hurdles are overcome, then there's a potential rainbow at the end of the road: Immediate notification of problems, faster problem resolution, less downtime of services. That equates to happier & more productive users, and a more profitable organization. What's interesting to realize is that the vast majority of companies all want to know the same things with their network:

When do problems happen?
Where are the problems?
Why do these problems exist?

We have decided to create a product that eliminates all of the hurdles and answer these same questions no matter how large or complex a network was deployed.

We can now:

Deploy and auto-discovers your entire network in just a few minutes
Continuously monitors the health of every device and interface on your network

This allows for some proactive analysis that includes:

Quickly learn which interfaces in your entire network are discarding packets
Perform a call path mapping of the health of every interface used in a VoIP call
Run a call simulation from any computer to any IP endpoint (including router interfaces)
Know what your current Internet utilization is - live (updated every 2.5 seconds)
Learn the switch and port where your VoIP phones are connected

Contact us today and we will send you a FREE completely operating network monitoring system for your evaluation. Send a return email that lists:

Company Name
User Name
User email address
User phone number

And we will email you the download link and evaluation license code! Our only requirement is that you be a ShoreTel system user.! DrVoIP@DrVoIP.com]]> Tags: ShoreTel Network Monitoring

Tags: ShoreTel
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How to Backup Shoretel IPBX

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 06:26:10 -0500

Prior to version 7 of ShoreTel, backing up your ShoreTel system was very straight forward. There was a single folder in the root directory named d:\ Shoreline data. This folder contained all the information that was required to completely restore your ShoreTel system from a bare metal server in the event of a major disaster. The folder contained the configuration database, which at the time was kept in Microsoft Access. It also contained all of your recorded prompts for Automated Attendant, your voice mail messages, all of your Call Detail Records and softswitch related information. You could easily identify this one folder and make it a part of your normal system backup process for your company. With the introduction of Version 7 of ShoreTel the company began to migrate away from the Microsoft Access database and move toward the MySQL database. First they moved the Call Detail Records and with Version 8, the entire configuration database had migrated to MySQL. For this reason the database backup process for a ShoreTel system has changed. The process must now include the backup of two MySQL databases and the aforementioned Shoreline data folder. ShoreTel does provide a few BAT file examples of how you might do this, but if you want to automate the process complete with a schedule you will want to consider using some other tools. We recommend the use of SQLyog and include a copy on every server that we support or install (just another reason to have DrVoIP do your ShoreTel maintenance). Send an email request to drvoip@drvoip.com and we will send you a tech note that details this process or you can watch this silent video .

]]> Tags: backup ipbx, backup shoretel, backup shoretel ipbx, shoretel systems

Related Entries

Microsoft OCS +ShoreTel = IM - Jun 17, 2009

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Tags: backup shoretel, backup shoretel ipbx, backup ipbx, shoretel systems
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ShoreTel ECC Standard Tool Bar Options

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:36:59 -0500

As noted in a previous post, there are reasons that you might want to consider using the standard Agent tool bar. The Standard Agent tool bar enables the manipulation of an call center contacts (voice, email and chat) with an unobtrusive GUI. The toolbar can be standardized for each agent or a supervisor can allow agents to create there own tool bars. There is a setup icon that enables the ability to add or remove icons associated with different contact center functions. Again, the system administrator can "lock" this function and push out a standard Agent tool bar to assure system uniformity. In a "shift" based contact center in which different people sit at the same desk and extension at different times (e.g. Day, Night, Weekend) you can create an Agent tool bar icon that will prompt the Agent to enter their Agent ID and Extension number. In this way, the ShoreTel PBX can be setup with non-specific users, as the ShoreTel Contact Center can track usage by Agent ID.

Signing into the Agent tool bar prompts you to enter three items of information: Agent ID, Agent Extension and Email Address. The Agent Email address is only used when your ShoreTel Enteprise Contact Center is setup to route incoming email messages to the next available Agent, in a manner similar voice calls. Once logged in, there is an icon for Agent tool bar setup. There are four basic areas of tool bar setup: Telephony, ACD, Window and Other. The Telephony setup enables you to add icons for common phone features like transfer, hang-up, conference and Divert incoming call! The ACD setup enables wrap up, release and other common functions including the ability to request Supervisor Intervention. There is a Call Window, Queue monitor, Telephone manager and Desktop Wall Board in the Window setup section and currently the "other" option enable you to create an icon for launching an external application. There are also tabs for setting Preferences, Contact Information, Ring and Queue Alerts.

At the bottom of the tool bar there is a "status" line that displays information. Idle, Ringing, Connected and Held are common staus indicators, but you can also "write" to the status line. This is another advantage of this tool bar over the integrated tool bar. Similarly you can change the information that is displayed on the Queue Monitor or Agent Wall Board which are pushed out or available to the Agents. Some of this information is contained in the system defined Call Profiles, while other information is contained in the user defined Call Profiles. (Call profiles are described in detail on the www.drvoip.com instant online video training library). These options work together to create a very powerful desktop call management center, in a compact GUI. The silent video demonstrates the various configuration options and shows the easy with a customized tool bar can be created. The actual tool bar in this example, is a Supervisor tool bar in ECC 5.0 but it looks the same as an Agent tool bar!