Max Number of BLF/DSS keys on a Mitel 3300

[TrentGreenawalt]

Hello,

My name is Trent Greenawalt, and I am the IT manager for my company. We just purchased and installed a new Mitel 3300 phone system. Two controllers, two branches, and 50 phones. We are running 5340, 5320, 5320's across the board.

One difficulty that we are currently faced with right now is that too many people want to see the busy lamp lights on their phones. When this was initially pitched to us we were under the premise that each user could see who they wanted with the only restriction being the buttons on the phone.

Well we later are asked to cut this number down to 16 instances of one user. This posess a huge problem, in that we have a lot of Directors/Managers that want to see each everyone, the 3-4 receptionists need to see everyone, and our call centers in both locations also need to see each other. So as you can imagine, this really strains the 16 button limit.

Are their ways around this, or a new license we can purchase to extend this limit? Your help is greatly appreciated.

Trent Greenawalt
Milwaukee, WI

Best Regards,

Trent Greenawalt
IT Manager
Milwaukee, WI

 

[kwbMitel]

Busy lamps are not designed for your purpose. 16 appearances per DN per system is the limit.

You can add applications for presence management. Mitel's product Unified Communicator is designed to meet this need.

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What's most important is that you realise ... There is no spoon.

 

[TrentGreenawalt]

HI kwbMitel, Thanks for the quick response.

Sorry to be naive but what does DN stand for? Directory Number? What exachly is that?

We are going to be installing the UC express product, is that what will provide additional presense for us?

What is sad is that we bought all of these 5340 phones just for this purpose since realistically you could put a button for almost everone on each of those phones (50 phones/48 buttons). This has been a large let down for us.

Any other advice for this situation, the owner already doesn't want to spend anymore money on this. If there is another level to UC Express.

Thanks,
Trent Greenawalt
Milwaukee, WI

Best Regards,

Trent Greenawalt
IT Manager
Milwaukee, WI

 

[kwbMitel]

UC express will do the job for you. Much better than the phones in fact. There might be some lag time on the updates but it is usually minimal.

Yes DN stands for Directory Number - i.e. A number that can be dialed on the system. (Extension number)

Regarding the keys on the 5340's. What purpose were you using the DSS/BLF key for? It can do any of the following:

1- BLF to tell if someone one on the phone
2- DSS to call or transfer to the destination phone
3- To pickup a ringing call from the destination phone
4- To cause ringing on a secondary phone

My gut says that it is unlikely that an executive needs to know who is on the phone or wants to pick up someone elses call or would be transfering calls. That leaves calling the station. A simple speedcall button would suffice to serve this purpose. You could then use UC for the presence indication.

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What's most important is that you realise ... There is no spoon.

 

[TrentGreenawalt]

UC express is the free offering from Mitel correct? I wasn't aware that it did presence. I will have to check it out. We don't have it installed yet.

We mainly need the BLF to see if someone is on the phone/transfer/direct call people. Most executives only wish to have the other executives on their phone and a few others. We don't wish to have the phone ring when a BLF is on a phone, just for "presence".

So is the 16 limit on DSS or on BLF. You called it DN, are DSS and BLF irrelevant in this case then? I have a large spreadsheet and I am trying to break this down, but it is tough to stay under the 16 appearance limit.

Thanks again,
Trent Greenawalt
Milwaukee, WI
Thanks again for the help,

Best Regards,

Trent Greenawalt
IT Manager
Milwaukee, WI

 

[nytalkin]

If you just want to see if an extension (DN) is busy make them NO RING KEYSET appearances on each phone requiring the feature.

NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED!

 

[TrentGreenawalt]

What is the advantage/disadvantage of doing it that way over the DSS/BLF buttons? I assume there is no limitation of 16?

What else do we benefit? If I hit the button will it still call them direct/transfer?

Thanks,
Trent Greenawalt

Best Regards,

Trent Greenawalt
IT Manager
Milwaukee, WI

 

[kwbMitel]

Keyline appearances have a very specific application that would NOT serve your purpose. They cannot be used to call the destination or transfer. They will light when the user is on the phone and the limit is 32 appearances when I last checked. If the key is pressed however, it will be as if you have lifted the handset of the remote phone and that user will have difficulty using their phone. I would not recommend this option.

I'm not sure if UC express has all of the full features of the advanced application. Maybe someone else on this forum can answer that one.

**********************************************
What's most important is that you realise ... There is no spoon.

 

[VanillaJ]

In reply to the last post.

UC Express does not offer the presence feature. Only UC Advanced does.

 

[TrentGreenawalt]

Yeah, I have started installing UC Express and though it is full of some nice features, it does not include presence.

Thanks for getting back to me,
Trent Greenawalt

Best Regards,

Trent Greenawalt
IT Manager
Milwaukee, WI

 

[Mitelmatt]

Total amount of BLF appearances is going up to 64 in 4.2 / 5

 

[TrentGreenawalt]

Is there a potential release date on 4.2? We are currently on 4.1 and would love to have 64 BLF/DSS buttons. We have managed with what we have but their are a lot of users looking for more. Especially for our operations manager that everyone needs to talk to and he is always on the phone. With only 16 of us seeing him on the phone it makes it tough to get a hold of.

Does Mitel provide a release schedule?

Also, we were looking for a feature summary of builds. We really don't know what our system does except for what our vendor tells us.

Thanks,
Trent Greenawalt

Best Regards,

Trent Greenawalt
IT Manager
Milwaukee, WI

 

[kwbMitel]

64 appearances not delivered in 4.2.

**********************************************
What's most important is that you realise ... There is no spoon.

 

[TrentGreenawalt]

I guess I won't hold my breath then. Keep us posted!

Thanks,
Trent Greenawalt

Best Regards,

Trent Greenawalt
IT Manager
Milwaukee, WI

 

[Mitelmatt]

i did say 4.2 / 5, but it is for sure going up to 64 in Version 5 which is may ish next year

UC Advanced is a great option you should look at, or other 3rd party offerings such as IQnet Solutions