Integration of phone switch and HR application?

[Trabey]

Hi,

I'm an application programmer tasked with creating a process that will determine a new employee's phone number (from a pool of available numbers). Is there any standard terminology/acronyms for something like this that will point me to best practices or how other companies integrate HR data with their phone switches? I'm not getting anywhere with Google! Thanks!

 

[JcBWF]

What kind of PBX are you using?


Perfection is expected, Excellence is Tolerated

 

[Trabey]

My requirements are extremely vague (they're in the middle of an RFP for a new vendor) - I'm supposed to come up with something pretty generic, assuming whatever PBX we end up with will be able to handle application integration. I finally found a reference to DEM (directory enabled management) for an Avaya switch, but that doesn't seem to be an industry standard term, just the name of their API.

 

[JcBWF]

Nortel has a product called OTM or TM or MAT, just depends on what version your on. Are they looking to assign a random number toa new person or just to have the corp directory available? Do they want the operators to be able to transfer form a PC? All sorts of questions to be able to answer your question.

Perfection is expected, Excellence is Tolerated

 

[Trabey]

At this point, I'm supposed to generate the primary extension for a new hire, which would go into the HR system, which would feed a directory. Sys admins will still set up the extension and other rules manually in the PBX. Eventually, the goal would be automated integration for all extension/voice mail maintenance related to new and terminated employees.

From what you've said, it sounds like most of my questions are going to depend on what vendor we end up with. I was just hoping to find some industry standard information or terms that might help me see how other companies are doing this type of integration.

 

[JcBWF]

Take a look at a company called veramark. they make a 3rd party gui that will work with almost all of the big PBX Vendors and it does a pretty good job (at least with Nortel).

Perfection is expected, Excellence is Tolerated

 

[donb01]

This is just a dumb question/suggestion, as I assign all the extension numbers manually based on a work order generated for the phone (because not all employees have their own phone - some are listed under the department's main number). I keep all of my extension data in a corporate "master dial plan" spreadsheet so I have it for immediate lookup.

Why can't you insert all of the available numbers in your current dial plan into an Excel spreadsheet or Access database and have a small application that assigns the number to the new hire? That same application would then print out the job ticket for your staff to create that extension, or, in the case of a termination, return the number back to the pool of open numbers and print the job ticket to remove the extension.

As long as your staff only adds or deletes extensions based on tickets from that system, or has the ability to update the database if they pull out an extension for a meeting room or something you should be OK.

Problem I would have with automatic extension maintenance is that the automated system does not know whether the number in question was published somewhere (esp. in a public phone book) or belonged to a major player like in HR, Sales or PR. When I delete such numbers I flag them for non-use and keep them vacant for at least a year - and even then, some little old lady that refuses to give up her old phone book because it has notes in it calls looking for the previous user.... If I do reuse a number early I make it into a fax or something else annoying so people get the hint real fast...

 

[Trabey]

I'm planning a series of tables in a SQL Server database to keep track of business rules and available numbers. You're totally right about people with no phone - I had forgotten that some of our admin departments have employees like that. For our administrative staff, I've been told that we can reuse the number 1 month after termination - but we have legal staff (attorneys) whose numbers will have a longer expiration period. But you bring up points about the reuse that I'll definitely incorporate. I'm definitely going to have to come up with something that can handle many different types of exceptions! Thanks for your thoughts.

 

[EddieDuece]

I would reccomend a Nortel Option 11 with CalL Pilot voicemail. The voicemail has the abilities to build applications through a GUI, and allows you to use all the rules you would need.