Help with Numbering Plan

[chadmiller]

I have been given the task of coming up with a new numbering plan for our new phone system project that is currently under way. My question is does anyone out there have and advice or tips in coming up with the plan?

I have already contacted the phone company and have a block of about 1000 phone numbers being ordered(500 for voice, 500 for fax).

I have access to building prints and have also started to locate where phones are going to be going.

Does anyone also have any templates that would help in the layout of data.

 

[paterson]

There are lots of things to consider when making up a plan. These are the items that immediately come to my mind, I'm sure some others with post their ideas.

1) Old numbering plan - many people truly detest having to change their number. Or if you currently have 3 digit extensions and are going to 4, then they may want the old ext worked in such as x345 now becomes x8345.

2) Applications or systems needing a number such as voicemail, ACD, and dialup modems for external users (not so common now, but some companies still employ this).

3) 2nd or 3rd locations (or more) that would have their own dialing plan. With VoIP systems more and more common, VoIP trunks or SIP trunks between sites will allow for 4 digit dialing. Make sure there are no conflicts.

4) You say that half the numbers are for faxing. Will most employees be given their own personal fax machine? Might be an idea to either give two sequential numbers to each employee or split the block in half and make them 500 away from each other.

i.e. - 2345 & 2346 or 2345 & 2845

5) With a company your size, I would assume lots of different departments. I would strongly suggest NOT breaking the numbers up between departments. Like all numbers starting with 54 are management, all numbers starting with 55 are admin staff, etc. This goes back to number 1 where people don't want to change their number. So as soon as there are promotions or transfers, your numbering plan is gone.

6) Nice, easy to remember numbers like 2000 or 3333 or 7500 should be kept in reserve for appications needing outside access, published or advertised numbers, department ACDs.

Good Luck!

**************************************
Insert Witty Signature Here.

 

[JcBWF]

I agree with alot of what paterson said.
1. if you can get away with it have someone HIGH UP tell people their # is changing and there is nothing they can do about it.
2.Segment at least twice the #s you think you will need for apps....someone always forgets the oh crap we have to have it apps.
4.I would favor splitting them into groups of 500.
5.AGREED...don't let a dept say 'this is our # range and no one else can have it'....You'll get screwed in the end.
6. yep

Perfection is expected, Excellence is Tolerated

 

[pbxn]

Here is something else to consider to save your DID range.
Say your extensions are 4 digit, make all of your rollover lines 5 digits, so for ext 2001, their rollover is 32001. Also something to consider make all of your pos id's for acd sets 5 digits, as well as all of your route acods.
What this will do is free up other ranges for future use.

Your org may think a 1000 lines is enough, growth happens and sometimes quick. Better to have a set template for everything ahead of time, makes troubleshooting a no brainer later.

 

[jerryreeve]

I will disagree with pbxn on one thing and that is having both 4 and 5 digit numbers, this confuses customers since now they have to THINK about the extensions and wether or not they have the right extension or are missing/have too many digits.

Patterson item 3 If you can it is nice for branch offices to either have their own range of numbers (8XXX is LA, 7XXX is Dallas) or a range of numbers for smaller branches such as 6XXX being branches and 61XX for dallas, 62XX for Denver.

item 6 Along with the really obvious (2000, 3000 etc) numbers being held out look at simple nemonics for your company that might be useful (5628/JOBS for HR, 426X/IBM_ for calling dept's at IBM, etc)


----------------------------
JerryReeve
Communications Systems Int'l
com-sys.com

 

[pbxn]

I dont physically label the key with the rollovers 5 digit #. I simply put line 2 or rollover. No need for the user to know the rollover # if your programming has hunting and forwarding set up correctly. I also do this which forces their rollover key to ref key 0 as the sending clid
key 0 scr xxxx
key 1 scr 39xxx D

 

[chadmiller]

So far there are a lot of great ideas I hadn't thought about. We're already locked into our block of numbers with our telco and currently only have about 330 employees split up between our main campus and 5 remote school buildings. The existing systems that are being replaced were never interconnected and were all using 3 digit extensions so I have been given the go ahead by my boss to convert everyone to a 4 digit ext. At the same time we are also changing our email domain and the format of our user id's so everyone is going to be needing new business cards anyways so were not too worried about people wanting to keep there old ext. Since were also adding DID and did not have any of it before it is not like our customers are going to know the difference. We also are not planning on completely going to DID and will still have a main attendant to live answer calls.

From what I understand of the Mitel phone system there is really no nead for the 2nd rollover number so we are not going to be using up precious DID's in that since.

Our block of phone numbers starts with 4001 and ends with 4999 so I need to really come up with a way of making sure I have extra growth for each building and dept now rather than latter as I don't want to have to purchase numbers in yet another range if we can avoid it.

The other intersting delema that my boss just told me were doing is that another school district that shares are same fiber and data network wants to join on board and replace there pbx sharing resources such as PRI's, servers, and VMail with our new VOIP pbx.

 

[pbxn]

for easier organization, break off a block of numbers for each site.
Site A currently has 10 employees so allowing for growth, fax etc they get a block of 25 (4026 to 4050).

Breaking it in blocks on paper also gives you an idea of the spare blocks of #'s you will have available for future sites, and mark them as such in your documentation.

It doesn't hurt now to talk to each site/business unit to get a feel of their needs and expectations etc. This may help in your planning process.