Telecommunication systems in the workplace

Telecommunications Systems

The telephone system used at my workplace is a Cisco Unity Express. It is a telephone system that integrates messaging, voicemail, fax, automated-attendant, interactive voice response (IVR), and time-card management all in one. The system was specifically designed for small-to-medium size offices and branch offices.

The professional automated attendant allows all calls to be handled 24 hours a day without the need for a dedicated operator. Calls can be directed either by the extension or by dial-by-name when the specific extension is not known. The voicemail system lets employees access messages at any time from any telephone. The system immediately alerts employees to calls by the message -- waiting indicator on their Cisco Unified IP Phones or analog phones connected to a Cisco Voice Gateway. Applications such as VoiceView Express let you use the display on the Cisco Unified IP Phone to visually navigate through voice messages and manipulate mailbox options more intuitively.

With the appropriate software release, Cisco Unity Express Release 7.0 or later, the TimeCardView application lets you enter and manage timecard data from three different user profiles. The first profile, the Employee View, lets you enter, review, and send time-card hours using a Cisco Unified IP Phone. With another profile, the Supervisor View, you can monitor, review, and approve time cards using a Cisco Unified IP Phone or a web-based interface. The third profile, the Specialist View, lets administrators use a web-based interface to import and export data, customize reports, and perform other administrative tasks. An optional QuickBooks integration lets users move data between applications.

The Cisco Unity Express supports an extensive set of languages and dialects across all applications that use system prompts, including voicemail, automated attendant, and optional IVR. Up to two languages can be installed concurrently, allowing for a bilingual system. Supported languages include Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English (British and U.S.), French (Canadian and European), German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Spanish (European, Latin American and Mexican), Swedish, and Turkish.

The voicemail system allows up to 300 hours of storage that is configurable on a per-mailbox basis. The system allows such commonly used features as replying, forwarding, and saving messages; message tagging for privacy or urgency or future delivery; alternative greetings; pause, fast forward, rewind; and envelope information. Inbound fax integration lets users receive faxes using a single or separate direct-inward-dialing (DID) number, and users can store messages in their mailbox or have them sent to the email client as a TIFF file attachment. Live record allows a user to spontaneously record a call. Live reply allows a user to automatically call back the internal or external sender of a voicemail message.

The voicemail system also supports both distribution lists and broadcast messages. The system notifies users upon arrival of new or urgent messages and can be configured to notify up to four numeric devices, such as phone numbers, and up to two text devices, such as text pagers or email addresses.

The optional IVR provides caller self-service, letting customers do such things as update personal information, order products, track delivery, check payment status, and request product information, all without involving a customer service agent or contact center agent. The IVR supports a variety of databases, including Microsoft SQL 2000, Microsoft SQL Desktop Edition (MSDE) 2000, Sybase Adaptive Server Version 12, Oracle 10g and IBM DB2 9. The IVR provides an extensive set of real-time and historical reports to give administrators information for understanding customer preferences, network resource planning, and general business assessment purposes.

The automated attendant provides a hierarchical DTMF-based menu that lets callers reach individuals, departments, or prerecorded information such as directions or business hours. The system also provides customizable time-of-day or day-of-week call management. The system allows you to define holidays and set up a customized automated-attendant prompt to be played during the holidays. These prompts can give callers customized information about the operation of the business or special events.

The business hours function lets you define up to four schedules, providing different automated-attendant prompts to be played based on the time of day, without the need for manual intervention. The system administrator can also record an alternate automated-attendant greeting which can be used in case of an emergency or other short-term event, such as a snow day (Cisco, 2011).

The difference between rotary pulse dialing and DTMF dialing is in the way in which each communicates with a central telephone relay or central office. Rotary pulse dialing indicates each digit in a phone number by a series of clicks that corresponds only to that digit. This signaling requires a short pause between digits in order to clearly identify one digit from the next. DTMF dialing uses different tones to indicate each different number. Instead of sending multiple signals for each digit, only one signal needs to be sent for each digit.

WATS lines allow customers to either make calls (OUTWATS) or receive long-distance calls (INWATS) and have them billed in bulk rather than on an individual basis. WATS service is provided within selected service areas by means of special private access lines connected to the public telephone network via WATS-equipped central offices. A single WATS line permits inward or outward service, but not both. Leased lines are circuits designated to be at the exclusive, dedicated use of a given subscriber. A private line is a leased line.

A PBX is a private phone system (switch) used onsite by medium and large companies which is connected to the public telephone network (local Telco) and performs a variety of in-house routing and switching functions. Users typically dial 9 to get outside the PBX system to local lines. Centrex, or central office exchange service, is a service provided by local telephone companies from facilities at the local CO to business users in lieu of them purchasing their own facilities. Centrex service effectively partitions part of its own centralized capabilities among its business customers. Typically Centrex service includes direct inward dialing (DID), sharing of the same system among multiple company locations, and self-managed line allocation and cost-accounting monitoring. In some cases, the phone company places Centrex equipment on the customer premises. Centrex has effectively replaced the PBX, and provides customers with as much, if not more, control over the services they have than a PBX did.