Openstage 60 Manager / Directory Dial-out Issues

[donb01]

Hi all, I'm wondering if any of you have any experience with the phone directory in the Openstage 60 HFA, and/or the Manager app that allows you to send stuff to your phone from your computer? The Manager app allows you to sync your Outlook contact list into the phone directory, and a few other cool things. The problem that I am having is that I have to dial 9 for an outside line, and 1 if the call is long distance. When you sync your outlook contacts to the phone it puts in the 10-digit number you have in outlook, which is REALLY cool, because if someone in your directory calls you it will tell you they are calling, and also display any image you have associated with that person in Outlook (like a headshot or whatever). For incoming calls it's the cat's .... meow..., but for outgoing calls I have a problem because the phone number needs to start with 9 or 9-1 in most cases in order to dial it. First problem is I am not going to ask the CEO to go in and edit 450 phone numbers so they have 9-1 at the beginning, and the second problem is that as soon as you fix that so you can dial the number, then it breaks the cool functionality for the incoming calls because the incoming 10-digits no longer match the number in the directory.

So is there a way to get the directory (or phone) to insert the 9-1 automatically when dialing the number? That would fix this whole mess. Otherwise I don't quite comprehend what usefulness this would have to a corporate enterprise that has to dial out using 9, unless they tell all their staff that's the way they are supposed to put the numbers in Outlook to begin with?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[TIgerV]

Rarely do I get to help, but this is something I have done to alleviate this problem.
I'm not familiar with the 60, but the 4000v6. I placed a second entry in the phonebook with 9-1-xxx.xxx.xxxx. (We pay the same for LD and local calling).
Then, told the system that is the default number. However, for display, the main number is the number only, without 9-1.

--TIger

 

[donb01]

So if I understand you correctly, I would import the contact list, and then for each entry I would add the second number with the 9-1 and then use that as the primary to dial out?

Way out of forum topic question here, but do you think it would be possible to run some kind of script on Outlook that takes the number presently in there, copies it to a new slot and then prepends the 9-1 BEFORE we import the contact list?? I'll pose that question to some of our IT folks who mess with that stuff more than I do...

THANKS!

 

[TIgerV]

I export my list from outlook as CSV, then do "Concatenate" to add the "9-1" (actually mine are 99-xxx-xxxx and 98-1-xxx.xxx.xxxx).
if the phone number is in cell D1, I do Concatenate("99-", D1) and copy that on down the page. Then I tell the import command that is "2nd phone number" and then tell the directory to use 2nd phone as default. It displays "Smith, John 356-1234" but when selected, it dials 99-356-1234.



--TIger

 

[TIgerV]

Again, the 60 is probably quite different than the 4000v6, but it's a start.

--TIger

 

[donb01]

The 60 is a phone, by the way, I'm running them on V7, but it's pretty close to V6 until you try to run outside applications like PhoneGuideLive and we suddenly find out they renamed the database form "Hicom" to "Openscape" and the software doesn't work right. There are also some differences in the way the operating systems work - I think. I don't know V6 because I skipped that generation, but V7 hase a SUSE11 base with a SUSE10 VM running on it and the actual 4000 call processing system runs on the VM. I may have the versions wrong, but that's the gist of it. Really makes a person have to think what layer has what responsibilities so you use the right tool for the job!

When you refer to the import command, are you referring to import in the phone Manager tool, or in Outlook or something?

I will play with the process you outlined and see if I'm intellectual enough to make it work! )

 

[TIgerV]

DOH! Just saw that we were discussing Openstage phones.
Yes, it's in Openstage manager that I put a default number and then cell, business, etc.

--TIger

 

[donb01]

OK, I did this by hand, just for giggles, and it works on my test number, BUT... It seems there is no automated way to designate something like Business2 as the default number for the entire phone book at once. It looks like you have to go into the PHONE and make the setting one contact at a time - not something I can ask the CEO or any of the Sr. VPs to do. I have not yet figured out a way in the actual manager app to designate which number is primary, but it is an option on the phone.

It's not looking too good for a way to automate this process

I have a guy who is helping me with this process and here are some comments from what he tried this morning:

Several issues,

1. Directions to export attached. (at least it gets you started)

2. I did a Excel command to add the 91, but it would not work if the number was listed as (920) with the brackets. If no brackets, no problem.

3. I imported the updated spreadsheet using the import command. It did not ask or allow me to indicate second number.

4. It did not seem to do anything after the import.

5. I do have some numbers in the directory with 91 before them, however I can view the name and have the dial option, it just will not let me select dial. Hence, nothing happens.