BT CLOUD VOICE.
CUSTOMER ADMINISTRATOR GUIDE.
A comprehensive guide to setting up
and using the many features of BT Cloud
Voice, and how they can help you get
the very best out of your business.
WHAT’S IN THIS GUIDE.
Welcome to BT Cloud Voice.3
Our service options.4
Understanding the basics.4
Understanding your BT Cloud Voice service.5
Telephone Numbers.5
Licenses.6
Devices.6
BT Cloud Voice Portal and User Profiles.6
What you should think about before
you set up your service.7
What does BT Cloud Voice offer
and what does it actually do?8
NEED HELP?
If you have any problems setting up or using
your BT Cloud Voice service, contact the
Helpline on 0800 389 0537
or email bt.cloudvoice@bt.com
999 or 112 emergency calls.
EMERGENCY
CALLS.
Your BT Cloud Voice phone number is registered to a specific address, so when you make a 999 or 112 call
from your phone number, that’s the address the emergency services will see. If you use your BT Cloud Voice
service at a different address, the registered address does not automatically change. So if your work
location changes let your BT Cloud Voice service administrator know as they might also need to change your
registered address.
You might not be able to make 999 or 112 calls when there’s a power or network failure or if using the
service through an app on a mobile device.
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WELCOME TO BT CLOUD VOICE.
Introducing the BT Cloud Voice
team – dedicated to helping you
and your business.
Here at BT, we know that changing the way you deal with your business
communications can be daunting. Our BT Cloud Voice service team has been set up
with the sole purpose of supporting you and giving you the best experience possible
while you make the switch. We’ll get you up and running quickly and smoothly so
there’s no disruption to your business, then support you while you get used to the
service and make sure that it is perfectly tailored to meet your needs.
All of our UK-based team are trained experts on BT Cloud Voice, but we will give you
a named contact who can answer your questions promptly. This contact will only be a
phone call or email away, and they will stay in touch with you throughout the process
of setting up your order. Please use the team and ask us questions as we really do
want you to get the most out of your new service.
Before your official ‘go live’ date we will schedule in a 60 minute familiarisation call
to run through the basics with you. If you have chosen the self-configure option
(page 4), this will help you find your way around the service so you can set it up and
get started.
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OUR SERVICE OPTIONS.
BT Cloud Voice has been designed to give you total control of your own business
communications. This is why we have two service options: one for those who want to
be more ‘hands on’ and one for those who don’t.
Configuration – As the service is Cloud-based, it will need to be set up and organised
via the BT Cloud Voice web portal. This lets you (as the service administrator) choose
who will be able to use it and decide what happens to your calls. If you prefer, BT can
do this on your behalf – we’ll just need to talk through your requirements with you
first.
Installation – This is the part where the IP Phones are actually set up in your office. IP
Phones are pre-configured to connect to the service, so once they have been
allocated to people connected to the BT Cloud Voice web portal, these devices will be
ready to use. Have a look at the user guides for each phone to see an easy-to-follow
step-by-step process. Again, if you prefer, BT can arrange for an engineer to do this
on your behalf at a time that works for you.
Both these services are optional and chargeable, so please think about which style
of set-up will work best for you.
UNDERSTANDING THE BASICS.
Introduction.
BT Cloud Voice lets you update your service via the portal whenever you like, whether
it’s adding new users or simply making a few changes to your existing set-up. But
before you get started, as the Administrator, there are some basic points that we
need to go through.
BT Cloud Voice and your internet
connection.
BT Cloud Voice is very different to our other telephony services. Historically, we have
used wires for your phone lines and, while these work very well, they can be a bit
restrictive if you work from more than one site. BT Cloud Voice is accessed through an
internet connection instead, giving you one seamless service that you can use
wherever you are.
By now, we will have checked your requirements and suggested the most suitable
internet connection for you. We have also enhanced our BT network to make sure
your voice calls have the necessary priority across this connection. By managing your
access in this way, we can be certain that we are providing you with the best possible
business-grade service for making calls and having real-time conversations through
the internet. This is why we can only support BT Cloud Voice where we provide your
business internet service too.
4
UNDERSTANDING YOUR BT CLOUD VOICE SERVICE.
The following information should help you understand how your service is set up – we’ll also talk you through
the basics on our familiarisation call. We are confident that you’ll be able to take control on your own once
you’ve mastered them, but remember we’re always here to help.
Users.
A user is generally a person, but it could also be a ‘functional’ user i.e. a lobby phone.
For example, Susan works within your business and needs to be able to make and
receive calls. To give Susan access to BT Cloud Voice, she must firstly be set up as a
user on the service and given her own account. That account will be assigned a
license which provides Susan with the functions and services that she needs to do her
job. Susan’s user account must be registered on a device which allows Susan to make
and receive calls e.g. an IP Phone (one that works through the internet) which sits on
Susan’s desk.
Sites.
When we set up BT Cloud Voice for you, we will create one or more ‘sites’. These often
represent the office or building where you will usually use the service. When you set
up a new user, they must be allocated to a site.
When we build your site(s) we will record the full address for the purposes of the 999
Emergency Service database. Your telephone numbers will be assigned to these sites;
you can then allocate them to people as you wish.
If you need extra sites or numbers, please contact us and we can arrange for them to
be added to your service. Also, if things change and you move, please let us know
your new address so we can update the site records. It’s important we maintain
accurate address records for the purposes of 999 Emergency Services.
TELEPHONE NUMBERS.
The service lets you use two types of numbers, internal and external.
Internal numbers have a short extension number for each user which can be dialled
by any other person on your service. For example, Susan has internal number 3101
and Chris has internal 3102. Chris can call Susan on 3101 without having to dial the
full phone number. Generally, but not always, the internal number is the last four
digits of the external telephone number. As the customer administrator you can set
the internal number for each user.
External numbers are those that you would normally consider to be your telephone
number to give out to your customers etc. People can dial these from local, national,
international and mobile networks, as well as via BT Cloud Voice. You can have brand
new numbers for your business or you can use existing numbers if you want to keep
things consistent. You then assign them to people or the functional users mentioned
earlier, such as Auto Attendants (see page 8).
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LICENSES.
We currently have three user license types; BT Cloud Voice Basic, BT Cloud Voice
Connect and BT Cloud Voice Collaborate. Each has specific features that will support
the different roles within your organisation.
We’ll talk about the license types in more detail later, but generally the Connect and
Collaborate options are allocated to people and the Basic user license should be
considered a ‘functional’ account suited to a door phone or lobby phone.
You can choose to have extra user and site licenses if you need them. For example,
you could get an ‘Auto Attendant’ (Site add-on license) to answer your calls
automatically or a ‘Reception Console’ (User add-on license) to turn any PC into a
professional and efficient reception desk.
The BT Cloud Voice portal lets you see how many licenses you have, how many are
allocated and therefore how many are free. If you reach your limit and want to buy
some more then simply contact us to sort it out.
DEVICES.
Please note:
Only IP Phones supplied from the
BT Cloud Voice portfolio can be
connected to the service.
When you want to make a call, you will need an IP phone. This could be a physical IP
phone which sits on a desk or a softphone (an app that lets you make calls from a
computing device) loaded onto a mobile, tablet or PC.
There’s a secure activation process that you have to follow when you want to allocate
an IP Phone to someone. This is controlled using your system password authority
levels. Once you’ve done that, the person’s account is linked to the device and it will
ring when they receive a call. For a physical IP Phone we use a MAC address (this is a
unique number which identifies that particular phone); for the ‘Apps’ there is a
username and password which is set up via the portal.
BT CLOUD VOICE PORTAL AND USER PROFILES.
Note:
There must be at least one
nominated Company Administrator
for the Cloud Voice service.
That nominated user can then
create additional users and manage
their profiles.
Everybody on your service will be given a user name and password to login to the BT
Cloud Voice Portal. Once they are in, there are three user profile types that determine
what a person can do:
•
Company Administrator – this person has full admin control across the entire
service. They can modify any user on any site, including managing site features.
• Site Administrator – This person has full admin control at site level. They can
modify any user or site feature at one particular site.
• End User (Employee) – This person can manage their own user account.
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WHAT YOU SHOULD THINK ABOUT BEFORE YOU SET UP YOUR SERVICE.
What’s worth considering?
Every business is different in terms of how it operates. We can make sure your BT
Cloud Voice service meets your needs and easily handles all the different ways that
your customers can contact you. Keeping track of all your calls helps you build and
maintain good business relationships; therefore it’s worth taking time to consider
what you want the service to do for you and how you want it to work.
Before setting up, here are a few things to take into account:
•What volume of calls do you take, and do your calls fluctuate throughout the day?
•Do you want to manage calls differently depending on the time of day and the
day of the week?
•For the main numbers that you publish for sales or service, how and to whom do
you want to route the calls?
•Would it be better to put your calls in a queue, rather than giving potential
customers an engaged tone?
•Do different employees need different features, such as mobile applications and
conferencing?
•Does everyone need voicemail?
•Are your work force distributed across multiple locations?
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WHAT DOES BT CLOUD VOICE OFFER AND WHAT DOES IT ACTUALLY DO?
Call Distribution – How to manage incoming calls and get the caller to the right person with the right skills.
Service Feature
What does it do?
Who might use this?
Auto Attendant
Automatically answers calls and greets incoming
callers with different options to route their call to
the most appropriate team or person. The
message and options can be changed depending
on whether the caller rings during or out of
business hours.
Some businesses prefer a receptionist to answer all
of their calls personally. This isn’t always practical
if there are a lot of calls, so an auto attendant can
help out and speed up how calls are routed to the
right person.
Hunt Group
Rings multiple phones when a single number is
called, even if the hunt group members are on
different sites. You can decide whether to
distribute incoming calls in a certain order around
the group or ring everyone at the same time.
This is ideal for basic call distribution, and most
businesses will find that it will meet their needs in
terms of distributing sales or support calls,
amongst others.
Call Centre (ACD)
This works like a hunt group but with two main
differences:
This isn’t just for big businesses. Call Centre can
help smaller businesses present a more
professional image and provide a better customer
experience. It can help manage larger volumes of
calls, and give you a picture of how long it takes
for a customer to get through to an agent and how
many abandoned calls you get, which can help
with business planning.
1. Calls are queued and it is possible to give
intermittent ‘comfort’ greetings.
2. Those in the group answering the phones
(agents) log in and out so, when they aren’t
available, the call will not ring at their phone.
Again, the agents don’t have to be in the same
place.
Direct Dials
If everyone has their own Direct Dial number,
customers can ring straight through to their
contacts. It is usual to give everyone a short
extension number too, so it’s quicker and easier to
make internal calls.
This is a standard function and most people will
have a direct dial telephone number. Calls can be
received from all other networks and services.
BT Cloud Voice supports geographic numbers
starting 01 or 02.
8
Call Handling – How to manage calls
Service Feature
What does it do?
Who might use this?
Hold
Lets you put callers on hold. Think about using the
‘music on hold’ function to keep your customers
entertained while they are waiting.
This is a standard feature and is useful to anyone
who needs to leave a caller for a short time to deal
with their enquiries.
Transfer
Allows a call to be moved to another line, either
internal or external (for example to the mobile of
an employee who is out of the office).
Anyone who needs to send calls to someone else.
Some businesses prefer to announce the caller to
the third party (warm transfer) before they
transfer the call, which tends to give a better
customer experience.
3 Way conference
Lets a third person be pulled in to an active
conversation.
This is particularly helpful if you need to consult
with someone else, for example on a helpdesk.
Call Forwarding
Sends calls on to an alternative number if the call
isn’t answered. There are various ways to do this,
including Call Forward Not Reachable which
forwards calls to an alternative number if there’s
a problem with the network.
This helps with business continuity at those times
when you are not free to take a call. Call Forward
Not Reachable is a service that is not normally
available with traditional on-premises phone
systems.
Call Park /
Retrieve
Parks an active call against a specified extension
(and puts the caller on hold) until it can be
retrieved by someone, not necessarily the person
who originally took the call.
This can be particularly useful in Retail or
Manufacturing as the calls can be parked and
retrieved by different people from different
locations around the business.
Call Pickup
Allows you to pick up calls that are ringing on
colleagues’ phones.
A busy office can benefit from this as people can
answer other phones without leaving their desks.
Priority Alert/
Distinctive
Ringing
Gives distinctive ring tones to different types of
calls, to highlight a particular customer calling or
to differentiate between internal and external
calls.
Helps people to easily distinguish between
different call types so that they can answer the
phone appropriately.
Push to Talk
Behaves like an intercom so you can speak to
others without answering the phone.
Used in retail and warehouse environments to
make announcements over the phone system.
Voicemail
Lets callers leave a message if the calls cannot be
answered. An optional ‘voicemail to email’
notification lets your voice messages be delivered
as audio attachments to email.
Most people will need a voicemail box to make
sure no important calls are missed. The email
feature is an extra way to bring messages to your
attention.
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Additional features and applications – Making life easier and helping you work more efficiently
Service Feature
What does it do?
Who might use this?
Directories
Provides a central list of contacts which can be
searched for on certain Cloud Voice IP Phones. This
helps find contact numbers quickly and can be
used to identify incoming callers.
Any business regularly calling suppliers, customers
or colleagues. It reduces the time and effort spent
searching for contact details.
Music On Hold
Gives the caller music to listen to when placed on
hold instead of silence. There is a default music
source but you can customise your own by
uploading your preferred music choice. Please
bear in mind copyright when uploading music, BT
can help you with this if you need it.
Those who want to provide a better customer
experience when handling calls. Callers listening to
silence are more likely to hang up, either thinking
they have been cut off or because sitting in silence
can feel like a long wait. Music and messaging can
pass the time whilst you deal with their enquiry
and can even give you an opportunity to play sales
messages to your customers.
Call Director
Call Director lets you use any fixed or mobile
device as your desk phone. Callers dial your normal
number and will reach you on any phone you
choose. Several devices can ring at the same time
so you don’t miss any calls, and you can move
active calls from one device to another without
hanging up. This means if you’re on a call on your
mobile when you arrive in the office, you can
seamlessly move that call to your desk phone.
When you dial out from your phone, it keeps your
normal call identity so your contacts will recognise
your number even when you aren’t in the office.
Anyone who works from locations outside the
office. A single number means that customers and
colleagues don’t need to guess where you are and
therefore which number is best to contact you on.
Keeping the usual outbound Caller ID can be a
useful tool for people who regularly work from
home, helping to maintain a professional image.
Busy Lamp Field
This lets you use ‘line’ keys on your IP Phone to
monitor other users. You will be able to see
whether their phone is idle, ringing or busy. This
means you can answer any incoming calls and see
when their line is free for calls or transfers.
Receptionists and Personal Assistants can monitor
colleagues’ lines before transferring calls to them.
Managers and Team Leaders can check whether
their team members are on the phone and field
calls if people are busy.
Communicator
Business
This bundle includes the Cloud Voice
Communicator application for desktops (Windows
and Mac), tablets (iPad) and Smartphones (iPhone
and Android). You will be able to see the presence
(availability) of your contacts, and they will be able
to see yours. You can contact them using instant
messaging, phone calls (including ‘click to call’
from a desk phone), and video calls. Contact lists
can be easily created and managed, with access to
both personal and company contacts. You’ll also
be able to use BT Cloud Voice to set your call
handling preferences.
All users can benefit, especially mobile and remote
workers who will be able to “see” who is available
to help them and then contact them in the most
appropriate fashion.
10
Service Feature
What does it do?
Who might use this?
Communicator
Team
This bundle has all of the features of
Communicator Business, but also includes audio
and web conferencing for up to eight people. This
is simple thanks to the innovative “My Room”
feature – a virtual meeting room that has a simple
“click to join” conference bridge, group chat
window and desktop sharing.
This will be useful for anyone working as part of a
formal or informal team that needs to hold regular
group discussions.
BT Cloud Voice
Toolbar
Places a toolbar within Microsoft Outlook, Internet
Explorer or Firefox to give you instant access to BT
Cloud Voice, allowing you to answer calls, click to
dial, control existing calls and easily change
telephone service settings.
Gives all PC desk-based users fast, convenient
access to BT Cloud Voice straight from their
desktop.
Hot Desking
Lets you use another phone as if it was your desk
phone for a specified period of time. This ‘host’
phone will adopt your account features and
settings, as well as your phone number so that it
receives your incoming calls and displays your
normal office number on outbound calls.
Remote or mobile workers can use dedicated ‘Hot
Desk’ workstations or borrow a colleague’s desk
when visiting an office. This can help control office
space costs by increasing shared employee work
space.
Audio and Web
conferencing
Audio and web conferencing is part of
Communicator Team functionality (see above)
Audio and web conferencing is part of
Communicator Team functionality (see above)
Reception Console
Lets you use a PC to manage calls into the
company. This means that receptionists don’t have
to be on-site to handle calls professionally; they
can use features such as directory look-up, line
monitoring and drag-and-drop call transfer to
deal with callers quickly and efficiently wherever
they are.
Any business with people assigned to a
receptionist role, including those who are remote
workers.
CRM Connect
Helps with customer relationships by giving you
the information that you need to greet callers by
name, with all their relevant details automatically
displayed on your PC screen when the call arrives.
Lets customer-facing staff contact people quickly
by using click-to-call from the CRM application.
Businesses that rely on good customer
relationships to encourage repeat business. Also
useful for those with customer-facing staff who
use a CRM software application.
Call Recording
Lets you record calls when you want to, either on
demand or by blanket-recording every call.
Real-time monitoring of calls can be useful for
coaching purposes. There are flexible storage
options to meet regulatory requirements and PCI
compliance for recording calls with credit card
details. A powerful dashboard makes it easy to
handle the recording and archiving of all your calls.
Those who need to record calls, either to meet
regulatory requirements (eg. legal and financial
industries) or as best practice for customer service
and on-going coaching and training purposes.
Wallboard
The Wallboard works with the ACD / Call Centre
service to monitor and display real-time call
statistics. It is a PC application but it can be
connected to a large screen monitor for display to
a wider team.
Typically used in all types of call centres for
managing and motivating team members.
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Call Management and Cost Control – How to manage the service cost-effectively
Service Feature
What does it do?
Who might use this?
Account Codes
Lets you assign an account code to certain calls for
tracking and auditing purposes.
Anyone who needs to track and bill calls to a
particular customer or department, such as
solicitors who need to invoice clients for phone
calls made.
Authorisation
Codes
Gives you the option of requiring a PIN code for
certain types of call, such as international calls.
Any business who needs to control costs and/or
prevent fraudulent use of the phone service.
BT Cloud Voice
Business Portal
The Portal lets all users and administrators manage
their communications service from any webbrowser-enabled device including a PC, tablet or
smartphone. Sign in to view a dashboard summary
of call logs and voice messages, and to use
shortcuts to popular call features. Click-to-dial
from call logs, and view and download subscribed
applications (such as BT Cloud Voice
Communicator client).
All end users plus company or group
administrators of the service.
In addition, administrators can manage features
such as Hunt Groups and Pickup Groups, update
employees’ credentials and service settings, and
access group and company call reports including
graphical comparison and analytical tools.
Call Barring
This lets you block certain types of calls, such as
premium rate numbers or calls to all or selected
international destinations.
Any business that wants to keep control of
call costs.
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Offices Worldwide
The services described in this publication are subject to availability and may be modified from time to time. Services and equipment are provided subject to British Telecommunications plc’s respective standard
conditions of contract. Nothing in this publication forms any part of any contract. © British Telecommunications plc 2014. Registered office: 81 Newgate Street, London EC1A 7AJ. Registered in England No. 1800000.
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