ShoreTel 7.5 supports On-Net Dialing (OND), an enhancement that allows users to create more flexible dialing plans than before. In contrast with previous releases which could only support a “flat” dialing plan and treated all numbers as a single, indivisible unit, the On-Net Dialing feature allows users to divide phone numbers into two separately-managed parts:
• extension prefix - typically 3 digits in length; similar in concept to a site code
• user extension - typically 4 digits in length; acts as the number you would dial to reach other users in your organization
By dividing phone numbers into two parts, the OND feature provides customers with a more seamless method of migrating from their legacy phone systems to the newer ShoreTel system. OND allows customers to preserve their existing dialing plans when integrating ShoreTel equipment with their legacy equipment. While previous releases allowed customers to integrate ShoreTel equipment with their legacy PBX, the configurations needed to maintain the customer's existing dialing plan were complex and the complexity increased with the number of people and extensions involved. For example, if one company acquired another company and the two companies wanted to merge their phone systems, then no two users could have the same user extension, even if they were at different sites with different prefixes.
Vertical Service Codes If a Vertical Service Code was dialed, digit manipulation rules do not apply.
Vertical Service Codes work with ISDN PRI trunks and some loop-start trunks.
• With PRI trunks, Vertical Service Codes for Caller ID Blocking control will be converted to D-Channel messages. • With loop-start trunks, the service
provider must be able to accept the outpulsed digits with only 50 msecs of pause between each digit, including the service codes.
Vertical Service Codes are typically not supported by service providers on wink-start trunks. If you have outbound access on wink- start trunks and you dial a vertical service code, you will likely get an error message from the service provider.
Not applicable.
Off System Extensions Off System Extensions define ranges of extensions that when dialed will be routed out of this trunk group. This is typically used to interface to a legacy PBX system using the ShoreGear-T1 or ShoreGear-E1 voice switch. Off-system extensions digits can be manipulated using a translation table.
Digit manipulation, including the Dial Out Prefix, will not be applied to these calls.
Not applicable. Table 6-1 Digit Manipulation Options
With OND, users will be able to call other users within a site by dialing only the user extension. Inter-site calls would require users to dial the extension prefix plus the user number. Off-system extensions (OSE's) will continue to be used to route calls to legacy PBX's.
How It Works
Figure 6-7 Abbreviated 4-digit dialing with extension prefix
As shown in the illustration above, On-Net Dialing assigns extension prefixes to each site or to a group of sites. All calls are placed “on the network” if they are within the same prefix, and the user need only dial the user extension. Calls preceded with the trunk access code (usually “9”) are sent to the PSTN.
Benefits of On-Net Dialing:
• Scalability – For larger organizations, On-Net Dialing enables the creation of a common and consistent “cookie cutter” dialing plan that can be replicated throughout an organization that has many offices. For example, a department store might have a phone in each of its different departments with one for clothing, furniture, kitchenware, etc. With On-Net Dialing, a user can assign the extensions of 4000, 5000, 6000, and 7000 to each of these departments. By modifying the 3-digit site code/extension prefix at each location, this approach of assigning 4-digit extensions to departments can be replicated across an entire department store, nationwide, so that a user who knows the extension for the automotive department in one city could travel to another city and would know how to reach the automotive department if he knew the site code.
• Preserve existing legacy dialing plans – As mentioned before, you can preserve the existing dialing plans when adding ShoreTel equipment to a deployment with legacy equipment by assigning a new prefix to each new site or to users on the new ShoreTel system.
• Legacy integration via OSEs (Off-System Extensions) – Ability to call multiple legacy PBXs from the ShoreTel system.
• Multi-tenant – On-Net Dialing allows a landlord to maintain one phone system at a building that houses two or more businesses or organizations in such a way that neither organization is aware that the infrastructure or trunk lines are being shared. Despite the fact that both organizations are in the same building, you can assign different prefixes to each company and could then hide one organization's phone numbers from the other group so that neither group would see the other via the directory.
Configuration
The process of configuring On-Net Dialing consists of the following tasks:
• Planning and Configuring the Dialing Plan
• Adding Sites
• Associating an Extension Prefix with a Site
• Assigning User Extensions
Each of these tasks is addressed in more detail below.
NOTE Enabling On-Net Dialing is an irreversible process that makes permanent changes to the database. Thus, you should plan carefully before proceeding with any configuration changes.
Planning and Configuring the Dialing Plan
Assigning extension prefixes to a specific digit must be done all at once. Once the dialing plan window (shown below) has been configured and saved, there is no way to make changes to the extension prefix assignments without erasing the database and starting all over. Therefore, we recommend carefully planning and reviewing your dialing plans before configuring the dialing plan window.
To configure the dialing plan via Director, follow the procedure below:
Step 1 Launch ShoreWare Director and enter the user ID and password.
Step 2 Click on the Administration link to expand the list (if it has not already been expanded).
Step 3 Click on the System Parameters link and then the Dialing Plan link to display the Edit Dialing Plan window, as shown below:
Figure 6-8 Configuring dialing plan
Step 4 Click on the drop-down menu to the right of the desired digit and select the number of digits you would like the extension prefix (i.e. site code) to contain. Extension prefixes can range from 1 to 7 digits in length. The leading digit determines the length of the prefix. Extension prefixes with different leading digits do not have to contain the same number of digits.
Step 5 Repeat this process for any other extension prefixes, unused extensions, or trunk access codes.
Step 6 Click Save to store your changes. The Configure Extension Prefix
Warning window (similar to the one shown below) appears with a list
Figure 6-9 Make sure to back up your system before clicking Save
The Extension Prefix Warning message lists each site in your system. Next to the list of sites you will find a blank field that requires you to enter the desired extension prefix. Note that this prefix will be applied to every dialable number at that particular site, so if the site is an existing one, they will see their phone numbers converted to the new prefix.
NOTE System extensions are not associated with a hard port in the system. They are always global and will have a user number and a null extension prefix. Therefore, these system extensions are not affected by changes made to the extension prefix in the Edit Dialing Plan window. Only dialed numbers (user extensions, menus, workgroups, distribution lists) are affected by changes to the extension prefix.
Adding Sites
You can add the sites via ShoreWare Director before configuring your dialing plan (or alternatively, you can configure your dialing plan and then add sites at a later time). To add a site via Director, follow the procedure below:
Step 1 Launch ShoreWare Director and enter the user ID and password.
Step 2 Click on the Administration link to expand the list (if it has not already been expanded).
Step 3 Click on the Sites link.
Step 4 Click on the Add a new site in drop-down menu and select the country where the site will be added.
Step 5 Click the Go link to display a window similar to the one shown below:
Figure 6-10 Add a new site
Step 6 Enter the name of the site, along with all other relevant information, in the appropriate fields. (Refer to the “ShoreTel Sites” chapter in the
ShoreTel Administration Guide for additional information on con-
figuring this window.)
NOTE The Extension Prefix field will not appear in this window until after you have modified the Dialing Plan window (which is our next task).
Step 7 Click Save to store your changes.
Step 8 Repeat this process to add any other sites that you would like to include in the dialing plan.
Once you have created the dialing plan and saved your dialing plan configurations, you can return to the Edit Sites window in Director to verify that the changes have been propagated throughout the system. By clicking on the name of the site, you will see an Extension Prefix field. The field should be populated with the value entered in the Extension Prefix Warning window, as shown in the window below:
Figure 6-11 Extension Prefix field now populated
Adding Users to the System
When the On-Net Dialing feature has been enabled and the extension prefix for a site has been updated, the first new user added to the system may not receive the site's new prefix. (This is due to cookies in the system populating the new user's extension with old and outdated information.) However, after this first user has been added,
subsequent users will have their extensions automatically populated with the correct site prefix.
Details:
• User numbers can vary in length from 3 to 5 digits. All user numbers in the system must be the same length.