Automated restart of phones

[KMC1812]

Hi All

I'm trying to find a way to logout all (or preferably selected) phones overnight. PBX is CM 4, phones are 462x. I know I can force logout of Agents, but can I force logout of the station extension? Anything in the features, or the settings files for example? I want the phone to ask the user to enter an extension number at the start of the day. If left to users to do, I know they will fail/neglect/forget to do it

Thanks

 

[joe2938]

Why would you even want to do this, I do not believe it is possible.

 

[avayaguy23]

turn off poe power to the phone via the cli on the network switch

 

[KMC1812]

We are hot desking more and more, so it would help to have a a phone with no extension in it at start of day. Also, we would like to more efficiently use the station licenses we have rather than ordering more with every new staff intake, or having a phone on an unused desk using up an expensive license. Agents need a phone with an extension number so they can log in, but it doesn't matter what that extension number is so I want them using an extension from a pool at start of day. For that to work, the extension has to be released at the end of the day so it is back in the pool and available again. The efficiency is in having fewer stations than employed agents, but enough for concurrently logged-in agents.

We can look into cutting the PoE overnight, and whether we could selectively do it to phones used by Agents, but wouldn't the phone just log back in again with the last used extension number? Can it restart and wait at the extension number prompt?

 

[Wanebo]

CLEAR_EXTPSWD_ON_LOGOUT specifies whether extension and password are deleted as part of logout. Set it to 1 and then train your users to log off at the end of their shift. Remember though that shutting down the POE does not equal logout.

 

[DAVIDPAYNE]

assuming this is a call center, just assign basic phone extension, and then have everyone login an Agent ID to take or place calls.
In other words no one would have there own extension, if you have DID for user, have them match up to the Agent ID.

 

[gwebster]

CLEAR_EXTPSWD_ON_LOGOUT does not apply to 46xx which is what the OP is using.

 

[joe2938]

On the agent id form there is a field for force agent log out time, define a time on all agents and this may work for you.

 

[avayaguy23]

busyout station xxxx will do the trick....when you want it back in service you can enter: release station xxxx

 

[KMC1812]

Thanks for the replies guys. Busy and release the station does reboot the phone, but it comes back up with the same extension number. If CLEAR_EXTPSWD_ON_LOGOUT worked for 46** phones then I could have automated the busyout and release and this would have done the trick

The force agent log out does exactly that - logs out the agent. It doesn't log out the phone extension, which is what I want.

To be clear, I want the phone to ask the agent to input an extension number at start of day, before they even input their Agent ID. If all agents would logout their Agent ID AND the phone extension at the end of the day, I wouldn't have this issue. But I know they can't be relied on to do this manually

 

[avayaguy23]

The feature you are looking for is "Guest Login" using the 46xxsettings file it isn't supported on the 462x's.

 

[kyle555]

How are your station licenses allocated in CM4? Current releases do it based on stations in administration - the PBX doesn't care if they're online/analog/TDM/offline/etc. If that's the case with your CM4, then why not just have all the agent base stations at a COR with no privileges beyond logging in and out?

 

[KMC1812]

That's partly the point Kyle, CM doesn't care if a station is online/offline/analog/etc, nor what COR privileges the station has - it still uses up a license. I want more efficient use of our station licenses

The Guest Login feature sounds like exactly what I need, but the stations are 462x's!! I'll test this on a 4610 anyway

 

[avayaguy23]

Wouldn't a more efficient way be logging call logs to see how often an extension is getting used? If there aren't any calls being made say in 60 days then delete it? Even if you implement guest login you will still have an active extension created on CM which will eat up a license. Unless you plan on running reports based on "list registrations"