Page 27 - July August 2014

July/August 2014
Telecom Reseller 27

Q:he many phones I support have either more people. It’s a very old feature in the Nortel key, but it allows the user to do something very
Conference or No Hold Conference
feature set.
similar.
R
or in some cases both. Why would I need to I don’t have inside information on the origin When the user presses the No Hold
UFFIN
have one over the other? Don’t they both do
of the No Hold Conference feature, but I suspect Conference key, everything works just like the
conferences?
it was created as a response to pressure from Conference key except that the conversation by Phil Rufin
Nortel Notes
companies who were converting from AT&T already established is never separated from the A:
PBXs. Of course, the AT&T PBX later became call. Let’s say you have Mr. Jones on the line and he names of the features, as you
the Lucent PBX and later still, the Avaya PBX. you want to add Mr. Smith.
probably guessed, do give clues to help
hat system had (and still has) a Drop key on the When you press the No Hold Conference
answer your question, but not really a full answer.
phones. he Drop key allows the user to hang up key, you and Mr. Jones both hear dial tone.
Conference is the feature you’re probably most
on the last party added to a conference.
You both hear Mr. Smith answer the phone.
familiar with. You use it to add another party to
he No Hold Conference key is not a Drop
You can conduct your conference without ever a conversation you’re already having with one or
completing the conference feature because
everyone can hear everyone. If Mr. Smith declines the request to join the conference, you
can press the line button to drop him of, much
as you could use the Drop key on what is now an
Avaya PBX.
I know people who much prefer the No Hold
Conference key to the old standard Conference
key, but I don’t include myself among them,
and here’s why. Placing myself as the user in our
example, I do not want Mr. Jones to hear Mr.
Smith’s response, because Mr. Smith (or whoever
answers the phone) may have things to say about
me, Mr. Jones, or my company that I don’t want Vodia® mini PBX – Size does matter
Mr. Jones to hear. In my opinion, it is much more Vodia® mini PBX
professional to deal with Mr. Smith privately
before introducing him to my conference.
Vodia® mini IP-PBX is ideally suited for SMBs and Home offices
In keeping with my earlier eforts to include requiring a full-featured IP-PBX phone system with an ultra compact
Cisco phones in these discussions, there doesn’t form factor. By bringing the powerful Vodia® PBX software to a
seem to be an equivalent to No Hold Conference compact low-power appliance, Vodia® mini delivers A-Grade
on Cisco phones.
business telephony features such as Auto receptionist, Automatic
Q:I have a department that uses a call distribution, Video, SMS notifications and mobility, ensuring a
CallPilot menu to direct calls to
higher productivity for your business and a significant reduction in
individuals. One menu option is to leave a the overall TCO. Further value-add features such as Fax-to-email,
message ater hours for the group, and whoever Click-to-call, Address book synchronization, Call recording, CRM
comes in irst in the morning is to check for www.vodia.com/mini
messages. Now they have asked me to give them integration and Microsoft® Lync presence, allow the Vodia® mini to
all a message light for the group voice mailbox. provide SMBs with functionality that has so far been only available
I can light a few XMWK keys, but there aren’t on larger UC solutions.
enough spaces in the CallPilot mailbox to list
an extension for all the members of the group. The Vodia® mini PBX supports up to 20 IP phones with a capacity of  Full featured IP PBX
How can I get an XMWK key to work?
up to 20 concurrent channels. The SIP standard compliance of the  Easy to set up
A:Vodia® mini allows it to support a large range of compatible IP  Low power consumption
One trick I’ve used for this is to add a devices and services including Video equipment, SIP trunks and PSTN Compact design
non-ringing extension that no one will
gateways. The automatic plug and play support for a wide range of IP 
call to the phones. If you don’t have enough phones further enables Vodia® mini to provide seamless integration  No monthly contracts
buttons, add a module in sotware without  Failover or primary PBX
adding the matching hardware. hat way no one in a multitude of deployment scenarios.
will press the key (since there won’t be one). Use
the same non-ringing extension on all the phones that need an XMWK key. he XMWK key does, Deploy the Vodia® mini as the primary PBX, for expanding a larger
of course, need to be visible. hen just add that PBX, or as a failover device in the case of a power failure.
single extension to one of the MWK ields in
CallPilot. o
r
Do they want to have the red message
indicator light for this also? Add LMPX to the
CLS. A word of warning, though. If you have
e
the red message light indicate both the prime
key messages and an external mailbox messages,
617-399-8147
i
there can be some confusion. For example, let’s
say there is a message in both Fred’s personal n
www.vodia.com | sales@vodia.com
voice mailboxand the group mailbox.
he MWK key is lit, the XMWK key is lit,
f
and the red light is on. Fred checks the group o
voicemail irst. When he starts listening to the
last new message in the mailbox, the XMWK
r
indicator goesout and the red indicator goes
m
out. Fred still has messages in his personal voice
mailbox, but the red light is of.
You can see how this could cause confusion.
a
Vodia Networks Tel: (617) 399-8147 | Email: sales@vodia.com 400 TradeCenter | Suite 5900 | Woburn, MA 01801 | USA
I suggest to users in this situation to simply
t
check both mailboxes each time to make sure no
Vodia is a registered trademark of Vodia Networks, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. messages are missed.
i
© 2014 Vodia Networks Inc. All rights reserved.
o
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