The transition from hard phones to softphones has many advantages, such as freedom from being tied to a single location and space. However, there are some differences in how they function.
See Softphone (MiCollab) Quickstart or Troubleshooting pages for more detailed support.
What Are Softphones?
Softphones are applications (our current campus app is MiCollab) that run on your computer or cell phone allowing you to make and receive calls to your Cal Poly extension.
What Are Some of the Main Differences?
Each staff is issued a softphone extension. This extension is for their personal use and cannot be shared.
Staff will be able to answer shared lines but since you don't have a phone set or button to flash accessing them will be different.
5-digit dialing is still available so dialing any on-campus number is 6xxxx.
If you are dialing off campus you must still dial 7 to get out to the world so 71xxxxxxx.
Your voicemail box and access are the same, however, you will need to call into voicemail (66245) to retrieve messages as you no longer have a device with a light to notify you of messages.
New Standard…
Users will receive email notification of voicemail by default when given a softphone, making voicemail much more convenient.
How Has Hunt Group/Appearance Functionality Changed?
Hard phone Hunt Groups allowed users to answer a shared phone line (like the main office number) by having a button on their phone that flashed or rang allowing anyone with that “appearance” to answer a call to that shared extension.
Softphones do not have devices or buttons. Instead, each person's extension is added to the Hunt Group itself and then it rings on the phone just like any call except it will have a note on the LED screen saying that it is via the Hunt Group line.
By default, all Hunt Groups are cascaded, meaning all phones ring when there is a call.
Hunt Groups are sequential by department request only. It only rings a single phone line, not everyone, so it is not apparent when a user answers a Hunt Group call or a direct dial to their extension.
Unfortunately, one of the challenges is that all phones will ring when there is a call to a Hunt Group and there is no escalation for managers/supervisors though they can see that it is a Hunt Group call on their softphone and just refuse it.
Can I Still Utilize Appearances WIth My Softphone?
On a hard phone, many users had Appearances for office mates and other staff to be able to answer those phones when the staff was unavailable. This isn't possible on a softphone for personal lines. You can see a person's status by adding them as a contact from the top right section of the Home window in MiCollab.
How Can I Turn OFF Outlook Access?
When starting up, MiCollab has a popup wanting to access Outlook for 1 minute by checking the box to the left or more if you down caret the 1-minute field.
To Turn OFF Outlook Access:
Click the button to the left of your name to display the Account Menu.
Click Settings.
Click General.
Click Personal Contacts.
Click the Contacts toggle button to the left (OFF) position.
The toggle button background color switches from blue to greyed-out.
Click the X on the upper right of the Settings box to exit back to the Home screen.
You have now turned Off MiCollab trying to access Outlook and the popup will no longer be displayed.
How Can I Turn OFF Audible Ringer on My Softphone?
Ringer is ON by default, if you set it to OFF, the ringer will NEVER ring (whether you are in a meeting or not) until you set it to ON once again.
To Turn OFF Audible Ringer:
Click the button to the left of your name to bring up the Account Menu.
Click Settings.
Click General.
Click Notifications.
Scroll down and click the Audible Ringing toggle button to the left (OFF) position.
The toggle button background color switches from blue to greyed-out.
How Can I Set a Hunt Group as Outgoing Caller ID?
For folks who are part of a Hunt Group, when returning calls you want to have the Hunt Group show as the extension returning the calls NOT your personal extension, that way callers don't call you back directly but call the Hunt Group to get assistance.
NOTE: The Hunt Group will ALWAYS be the Caller ID unless you change it back
Click on the button to the left of your name to bring up the Account Menu
Click Settings.
Click Manage Status, then choose the In the Office status and click on the caret to the right.
In the Show my public outgoing number click on the down caret to bring up the list and choose your Hunt Group extension.
Click Done
Click the X on the upper right of the Settings box to exit back to the Home screen.
NOTE: On the bottom right next to your soft phone it will tell you if you have your outgoing number set to other than Default.