Cloud PBX
Question 1) What is a BLF?
Answer) BLF stands for Busy Lamp Field.
Typically this is a light, or LED light with buttons, on an IP phone that indicates whether another extension or phone is available, ringing or busy. This is a useful feature for busy office environments, remote workers or receptionists who need to swiftly see when colleagues may be available on the phone, without the need to physically visit their desk.
Our VoIP service fully supports this feature on BLF-enabled IP phones as standard. Some BLF-enabled devices such as some Grandstream or Snom IP phones can also allow easy-pickup of calls to colleagues by pressing BLF buttons when new calls come in. Typically BLF functionality needs to first be turned on directly via the IP phone. This is often carried out via the web interface specific to that phone.
If you need any further help today, please don't hesitate to contact our friendly support team on 03300 437543 or by email!
Question 2) What is call parking and how does it work?
What Is Call Parking?
Answer) Call parking is as the name suggests where you can park a call. When you park a call the caller is placed on hold until you or another person takes the parked call out of its parking space! Anyone can park or un-park a call, so it's a popular way of transferring calls in a small office where you can see each other. "Hey Fred, there is a call for you parked on 1!"
How Does It Work?
To park or un-park a call simply dial followed by 11 by default. The park feature can be edited like other short codes. This parks a call in "Parking Space 1". To un-park a call (EG: Remove from hold and pick it up again) simply dial the same again from your device or another like your colleagues. EG: dial followed by 11. We configure 5 parking spaces for you by default so you can park in space 2 by using 12, space 3, 13, and all the way up to space 5, with * 15.
If you don't like our default shortcodes for parking, remember that you can configure short codes to park and un-park a call in your dashboard at Voice > Config > Short Code.
If you need any further help today, please don't hesitate to contact our friendly support team on 03300 437543 or by email!
Question 3) What is monitored call parking and how do I set it up?
Answer) Most VoIP phones have customisable keys that you can set up for various functions, such as BLF (Busy Lamp Fields) and speed dials. We now also support Monitored Call Parking which means you can see if a parking slot is in use already and who is parked in which slot - this makes it much easier if you are a big team and need to know if a slot is already in use before parking your call.
To set up call monitored parking, simply set the value of that key to your parking short code (we have set up 11, 12, 13, 14 and *15 for you already) and setting the mode to 'Monitored Call Park', if your phone supports the feature.
If your phone doesn't support the feature, you can still use Regular Call Parking to park your calls using short codes.
We have been using Grandstreams and Yealinks in our office to test Monitored Call Parking, please see below for examples!
If you need any further help today, please don't hesitate to contact our friendly support team on 03300 437543 or by email!
Question 4) What is call pickup and how do I set it up?
Answer) Call Pick Up Functionality Now Accessible on our Cloud PBX
We are excited to introduce improved call pick up options for Users of the Expediusly Cloud PBX.
Now whether using a physical VoIP Phone or VoIP softphone, it is possible for Expediusly Users to pick up an incoming call on another extension via a unique key code. Simply dial the allocated Short Code on our Cloud PBX, followed by the extension number that is ringing to pick up a phone call.
This feature update means that there is now even less of a chance of your business missing important calls, clients, or leads. So there is no more need to dash round to a colleague's desk to try to pick up their ringing phone.
Advantageous for busy offices or at times when team members may be on annual leave, absent from the office, or simply working remotely.
Our directed call pickup functionality enables the option of picking up calls for both individual extensions and Groups too. The Group call pick up setup can be particularly useful if you have a number of different departments or teams within your office that use your Cloud PBX.
For added manageability, we have also made pickup permissions available within the Expediusly user Dashboard. We have ensured it is easy to authorise precisely which User or Group can pick up an incoming call, as well as which team members are able to have their calls picked up by other colleagues.
This new option is located within the Short Codes section of the Expediusly Dashboard and it takes no time at all to add a keypad Short Code and get started with this feature.
So sign up to try it out today, or if you are already a Expediusly User, login and set it up now.
Question 5) Why can’t I transfer calls between SIP Users when using an IP based SIP trunk?
Answer) When you configure a SIP trunk to authorise your traffic by IP address, our platform expects all traffic from that IP address to perform as a SIP trunk. This impedes a number of features of also using our SIP Users directly on our platform with SIP endpoints.
If you wish to combine SIP trunks and SIP Users in the same environment simply amend your SIP trunk to a user/password authenticated trunk. We will then be able to distinguish the traffic you are sending us and both SIP trunks and SIP Users will work as expected.
If you need any further help today, please don't hesitate to contact our friendly support team on 03300 437543 or by email!