Desk phones now show colleagues and shared contacts in their own directory.
The directory key on a desk phone now opens two phone books.
Two books
- Everyone in the office: each person with an extension, by name.
- Contacts: the shared contact list, plus that person's own.
The second one is exactly what the same person sees on their Contacts page on the web. One list, kept in one place, shown everywhere.
It keeps itself current
The phone fetches both books when it starts and again every hour. A new hire shows up on every phone without anyone touching one. Someone who leaves disappears the same way.
Names on incoming calls
The phone also uses the books to look up who is calling, so a contact's name appears even on calls where the system did not supply one.
Details
- You are left out of your own office book. Nobody needs to call themselves.
- Fax numbers are left out, since calling one gets you a screech.
- A contact with more numbers than a phone's entry can hold is listed again for the rest.
Light on the server
The books are served from what the system already holds in memory. A hundred phones fetching every hour never touch the database.
At a branch
Phones at a branch office fetch their books through the branch's box, over the same encrypted link as everything else.
Why it took a while
Every phone maker formats a phone book differently, and one of them does not show a remote book at all until a separate, unrelated-looking switch is turned on. We found that the usual way: the phone had fetched both books and showed neither.