Lucent Technologies 5 manual Sharing Lines, Forward and Follow Me

MERLIN LEGEND Communications System Release 5.0	Issue 1
System Manager’s Guide 555-650-118	June 1997

4Features and Applications

Features Page 4-33

Sharing Lines

The simplest way to cover someone else’s calls is to share a line with him or her. This method is most appropriate in Hybrid/PBX and Behind Switch systems. Listed below are the types of lines that can be shared:

■Prime Lines (Behind Switch Only). In this type of arrangement, a person who is covering for someone else has a line button that corresponds to the covered person’s prime line. You can adjust the ring timing (Ringing Options feature) so that a call rings immediately at the covering phone, or after a delay. If transferred calls come in on prime lines, they are covered; otherwise, they are not. People who share prime lines can join one another’s calls, but you cannot use the system to assure privacy of conversations. Instead, check with your Centrex provider or host system manager.

■Personal Lines (Key and Hybrid/PBX). If most or all of a person’s calls come in on a line assigned only to his or her extension, someone else can also have a button for that personal line and cover calls. You can adjust the ring timing (Ringing Options feature) so that a call rings immediately at the covering phone or after a delay. Calls that come in on SA or ICOM buttons, whether transferred outside calls or inside calls, are not covered. People who share personal lines can join one another’s calls, and they can use the Privacy feature to assure that others do not listen in.

■Shared System Access Buttons (Hybrid/PBX only). Shared SA buttons (called SSA buttons) offer a simple method for covering calls. The extension being covered (called the principal extension) has an SA button that also appears as an SSA button on up to 16 other extensions. (A covering phone can have up to 27 SSA buttons, but only one for a given principal extension.) Ring timing options are automatically set so that a call rings twice at the principal extension before ringing at any SSA buttons, but the Send Ring feature allows the principal user to change the ringing on SSA buttons so that calls arrive at them immediately.

People who share System Access buttons cannot answer the same call, but they can join one another’s calls in progress; they can also use the Privacy feature to assure that others do not listen in. When Privacy is required, a button should be programmed, because turning on the feature prevents all other users of the SSA or SA button from joining calls. Furthermore, the lighted button provides a reminder when Privacy is on.

Forward and Follow Me

Forward, Follow Me, and Remote Call Forward allow a user to temporarily send calls to another inside extension or to an outside number (Remote Call Forward, for example, to someone’s “home office”). If the user turns the feature on or off at his or her own phone, it is called Forward; if the person turns it on or off from the destination extension, it is called Follow Me.

In Release 4.0 and later systems, forwarding features are useful for covering calls regularly, rather than only temporarily. Forward, Follow Me, and Remote Call Forward can be set up to ring first at the forwarding extension before they are sent