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Current Needs - Telephones
Introduction
CCM is looking to renew, replace or upgrade our telephone system. We have purchased a second building in Easton, and plan to move the Wild Goose (our coffee shop) to the Easton building once the necessary work has been undertaken. At present, we expect this to happen around October 2010.
There are a number of changes which should take place to our telephone system as soon as possible (possibly April 2010), some which should take place in the near future (possibly July 2010), and some which should take place at the point when the Wild Goose moves to Easton (possibly October 2010).
Overview of the Current System
The current system was provided by BT.
We have two distinct parts to the phone system. The first part is simple: there is one number (0117 924 0799 - note it is '924' and not '942'!) and one line. It provides the broadband for our Internet connection, and the fax number. The line is connected to the main office printer, which also functions as a fax machine.
The second part is less simple. We have two physical lines coming in (so a maximum of two people can talk on the phone at any one time), and two numbers: one for the office (0117 942 3088), and one for the shop (0117 942 3092).
The phone in the shop receives calls directly (on the 3092 number), and also as an extension from the office (on the 3088 number).
Calls to the office ring on the phones on the second floor, and also on the LITE phone if the 'night' service is switched on. Once picked up, they can be passed on to any extension.
If a call is not picked up, it goes to an answerphone system. There is a system answerphone if nobody picks up, and also an individual answerphone for each extension. The current answerphone system is not easy to use, and is easy to switch off by mistake.
The current extensions are:
- Office Manager
- Paul (General Manager)
- Andy (Training and Development Manager)
- LITE Training Room
- Coffee Shop
- Basement
The main office number is well publicised, and we would need a very good reason to change that. The other two numbers are not published, and can be changed without difficulty.
Short Term
We need at least the current level of functionality, but it does not have to be delivered in the same way. For example, we need to be provide a means by which people can dial directly to the coffee shop, but this does not have to be done using a different number: if we had the facility to dial extensions directly, the coffee shop would be just one more extension the public could dial.
The revised phone system should include:
- Manuals for configuration!
- A '1471' last number redial facility
- Three more phones: for Alan, Lisa and Steve
- Replace the phone in the LITE Training Room with a cordless phone in the main office
- Configure the system to provide a proper 'night service' facility which switches incoming voice calls straight into the answerphone (this is also needed during the day when we have meetings in the office)
- Upgrade the broadband connection to provide a fixed IP address
- It would be nice to enable people to directly dial extensions from outside - what would this cost?
Medium Term
Once we have a secure room available in the building in Easton, it would be helpful to have a computer and telephone there.
The new building must function as another set of rooms in the existing building: people must be able to phone CCM without knowing which building a member of staff is working from.
The new building will require:
- A broadband connection
- A number (currently unspecified) of phones acting as extensions to the existing voice line.
The current proposal is that the phones in the new building will be IP phones connected by Cat5 cabling, which will also provide the connections for the computers. But we are open to other suggestions.
When the Wild Goose moves from City Road to the new building in Easton, either the number for the coffee shop must move with it, or we need to get a new number or direct dial facility to enable volunteers to ring straight through to the shop.