Centrex - Dialing 9 or 911 1

[oc192trunking]

Hi there.. My client reluctantly gave in to converting to centrex lines, in order to do an outside transfer to a remote office. However now they are not happy about having to select an outside line AND dial 9 - especially after previously being able to just pick up the receiver and dial.

First, I know I can autoselect a CO line sequence, but the employees refuse to pay attention when calling within the office, so they would pick up CO line and transfer a dialtone to the other ext, and would end up having several CO lines on hold for no reason. Makes it very confusing when picking up an actual call on hold.

So my question is: has anyone found a good workaround for automatically dialing a "centrex 9"? Right now I don't have a free button to do it, but I'm going to try an outside auto-dial button for "9" and label it "Dial Out", then they'd just press that to get an outside line. Any thoughts from the pros before I rearrange the buttons and print new labels?

(My initial plan was to forward an unused ext...40...to a speed dial programmed for "9", then set all the other ext. as a hotline to ext. 40. But I'm pretty sure that would eliminate the ability to dial around in the office..haha)

 

[oc192trunking]

And apparently I forgot to edit the post's title. I answered my own dialing 911 question before posting (centrex issue).

 

[TouchToneTommy]

If you make the ALS be Intercom, Line 1, Line 2, etc., make a button be outside auto dial just the digit 9, and label it "outside". They will touch that button and dial their number, the Partner will automatically chain their digits after the speed dialed 9.

 

[oc192trunking]

Works great! Now the task of printing new labels for everyone's phone!! Thanks TTT!