V69 hotdesking

[RichardDCG]

V69.0.3 Is there any documentation on setting up a Hotdesk using a Hotdesk extension type?  A regular ext. allows a *70, the Hotdesk one does nothing.  I'm also a bit curious about the limitations on these extensions - only login and call emergency numbers??  At the moment I cant even login to the ext.  Must be a step I am missing.

[Vodia PBX]

The hot-desking accounts solve the problem that in a co-working space you otherwise would have to pay almost twice — one time for the physical phone on a desk and another time for the user. The desktop phones need a dummy-extension, so that the phones can be provisioned and can dial log-in, log-out and emergency calls, but not much more. That is why they are prices far below other extensions. 

[RichardDCG]

How do I login using the Hotdesk extension?  A regular one lets me dial *70 to select my extension and login, the Hotdesk extension doesn't respond to *70.  And what is the reasoning to limit calling to only emergency numbers?  Surely workers would be wanting to use the phone as a normal calling device.  I'm not sure I'm following the use of a Hotdesk extension - cheap or not.

[Vodia PBX]

Hmm looks like that account type did not even allow *70 we'll have to fix this in the next build.

[RichardDCG]

and - what is the reasoning to limit calling to only emergency numbers?  Surely workers would be wanting to use the phone as a normal calling device.  I'm not sure I'm following the use of a Hotdesk extension - cheap or not?

[Vodia PBX]

If there is a phone in the office you would want to be able to place a call to an emergency number. For that functionality you need to be registered to the PBX and you can't just recycle the extension number of a regular user. 

Let's say you have a shared office with 100 desks, and 200 people working for the company, many of them working from home. Then it makes sense to pay the regular extension price for those and a small amount for the hot desk accounts.

If there is additional functionality for a hot desk account, we can think about adding that as well. This would be about someone randomly walking to an empty desk and want to something. Maybe calling the front desk? That would be something that could make sense. Internal calls would be debatable, especially if this is in a public area or lobby and you don't want strangers to call employees up or even start overhead paging.

[RichardDCG]

If people need to login to place an emergency call, they will just use their mobile.  A Hotdesk, as far as we use them, is for a small amount of phones/desks to accommodate a larger number of users, a user will login to an available phone with their extension and PIN and then work as if using a regular extension - no restrictions other than those imposed by us via call routing etc..  The 'hotdesk' is just that they don't have an allocated desk and can logon to any available seat provided they have a valid extension to use. 

I would think the whole idea of a lobby phone, apart from it not being a hotdesk phone, would be to call internal users - you would probably want to restrict external calling on it?

[Vodia PBX]

As for emergency calls, it's just smart to make sure that you can call the emergency number. In some countries it might be the law, and in others it just makes sense. I agree a hotdesk phone is not the right choice for a lobby phone. The next version will actually make the login possible and then let's see if there is anything else useful that can be associated with that account type.