Getting Started with BE4000

Introduction to Cisco Business Edition 4000

Cisco Business Edition 4000 (BE4000) is a dedicated voice appliance that provides essential IP telephony and voicemail services for up to 200 phones. BE4000 comprises of a BE4000 appliance that is installed in the customer premises and the Cisco Business Edition 4000 Management cloud portal that manages the phone configurations.

Your Cisco partner configures your network in Cisco Business Edition 4000 Management portal and deploys the BE4000 appliance at your site. After the site is successfully deployed, use Cisco Business Edition Selfcare Portal to log in as a customer administrator. Using Cisco Business Edition Selfcare Portal you can manage, monitor, and configure the phone systems at your site.

To access Cisco Business Edition Selfcare Portal as a customer administrator (also referred to as Cisco Business Edition 4000 Customer Administrator Portal), your Cisco partner must add your email address as an administrator while creating the site. After the site is deployed, you cannot modify customer administrator contact information. Your Cisco partner configures only one customer administrator per site.

Register to Cisco Business Edition Selfcare Portal

Before you begin

Ensure that you have:

Procedure

Step 1

Click the Register link displayed in the registration email received from the Cisco BE4000 team.

Step 2

Enter the password. Your password must contain:

Your password must contain a minimum of 8 characters having at least one lowercase letter, one uppercase letter, and one non-alphabetic character (number or symbol).

Step 3

Enter the captcha security code displayed on the screen and click Continue.

Step 4

Click OK after your email is verified successfully.

Step 5

Click Accept to accept the Terms of Service and click Continue.

Step 6

Scan the QR code using the OTP application on your smart phone or tablet and click Continue.

Step 7

Enter a device name for your application. The name you enter here is displayed in the OTP application on your smart phone or tablet.

Step 8

Enter the 6-digit security code generated by the OTP application on your smart phone or tablet and click Continue.

Step 9

Save the recovery code displayed on the screen.

Note 

This recovery code is used to log in to the portal if you lose or replace your smart phone or tablet.
Step 10

Choose Business Edition Management to sign in as customer administrator.

An email notification is sent after successful registration. The Sites page is displayed with your organization site details.

Sign in to Cisco Business Edition Selfcare Portal

Before you begin

Ensure that you have:

  • Successfully registered to Cisco Business Edition Selfcare Portal

  • A smart phone or tablet with One Time Password (OTP) application configured with BE4000

Procedure

Step 1

Enter the URL https://myphone.cisco.com.

Step 2

Enter your email-ID and password.
Step 3

Click Sign in.

Step 4

Enter the 6-digit security code generated by the OTP application and click Continue.

Step 5

Choose Business Edition Management portal to sign in as customer admin and click Continue. The Sites page is displayed with your organization site details.

Cisco Business Edition Selfcare Portal Dashboard

The Sites page contains the following:

  • User Details—On the top of the screen, the user information and notification details are displayed. The following options are displayed when you click the username:

    • Documentation—Click to access BE4000 technical documentation

    • Sign Out—Click to log out from the portal

  • Site Search—Search sites

  • Refresh—Refresh to get latest site information

  • Edit Columns—View more information of the site and appliance. For example, IP address, last call, version, the last change made, and so on. By default, you see following:

    • Location

    • Status

    • Serial Number

    • Phones

    • Last Change

    • Actions

  • Actions column(…) allows you to perform the following:

    • Manage Site—Add users, change extension numbers, enable, or disable groups or voice mailboxes, and so on

    • Configuration Summary—Provides an overview of site deployment

    • Run Inventory—Collects the inventory of the all the devices including phones

BE4000 Intersite Dialing

BE4000 supports a BE4000 site to call other BE4000 sites or to a central call control system without using a PSTN network. Intersite Dialing is useful in a business with multiple locations such as regional branch offices.

A thorough understanding of Intersite Dialing feature, network design, best practices, and careful planning are required before deploying a BE4000 site with Intersite Dialing capabilities.


Note

  • Intersite Dialing capability is supported only on the main interface (GE 0/0/0).

  • You can configure Intersite Dialing only for the sites that are in the "Online" state. A customer must have a minimum of 2 sites in the "Online" state for configuring Intersite Dialing.

  • While configuring Intersite Dialing, if the IP address of the BE4000 is not in the following IP address range, then add them manually on the Private IP Range page before deploying:

    • 10.0.0.0 /8

    • 172.16.0.0 /12

    • 192.168.0.0 /16

  • When an end user from one BE4000 site calls an end user in another BE4000 site by dialing the site ID followed by the extension, on the caller phone, the called phone number is displayed without the site code.

    Example

    An end user with extension 2001 belonging to site 1 having site ID 21 calls an end user with extension 3001 in site 2 having site ID 31 by dialing the site 313001. In this scenario, the phone belonging to the extension 3001 displays the incoming call number as 212001. But, the phone belonging to the end user with extension 2001, displays the outgoing called number as 3001 instead of 313001.

BE4000 Sites in Mesh Topology

A mesh topology allows you to connect up to six BE4000 sites directly for Intersite Dialing. A mesh topology does not require a central call control platform. Selecting mesh topology leads to guided configuration where administrators can select from a list of best practice options to ensure ease of management and reliable deployment.


Note

In a mesh topology, only BE4000 sites can be connected. To connect to other call control devices, you must use star topology. For more information on star topology, see BE4000 Sites in Star Topology.

In a mesh topology, calls are routed directly from one BE4000 to the other over an IP network using SIP. Calls can be made between sites using a shorter number than dialing the whole Direct Inward Dial (DID) extension number. For example, dial 4503 rather than +1 555 123 4503. There are two dial plan options available to end users.

  • Dial using Site ID and Extension Number

  • Dial using Extension Number

Call an Extension in Another BE4000 Site Using Site Identification Number and Extension Number

Each site has 3, 4, or 5-digit extension numbers and 2-digit site identification number (also known as site ID). When calling an extension within the same site, end users dial the extension number. When calling between sites, the end users dial the site ID of the remote site and then the extension number. Key advantage of using a site ID is that you can have the extension numbers overlapping between sites and the dial plan requires less planning. Using site ID is beneficial while retrofitting Intersite Dialing to an existing deployment where the dial plan cannot natively avoid overlaps between sites.

Call an Extension in Another BE4000 Site Using Extension Number Only


Note

BE4000 does not support calling an extension in another BE4000 site by using extension number only.

Each site can have 3, 4, or 5-digit extension number which has to be unique across all the BE4000 sites in the deployment. When dialing either within the BE4000 site or across multiple BE4000 sites, an end user simply dials the extension number. There is no need to dial the site identification number.

Key advantage of using a flat dial plan is that extension numbers are kept short (minimum 3-digit dialing) and the organization appears to be one large deployment. A flat dial plan needs up front planning. To ensure that extensions do not overlap, reserve an extension range for each site.

BE4000 Sites in Star Topology

A star topology allows you to connect any number of BE4000 sites to a centralized call control system (such as Cisco Unified SIP Proxy, Cisco Unified Communications Manager, third-party SIP provider) for site-to-site dialing. Selecting star topology leads to an advanced configuration, where administrators enter dial plan rules to route calls to the centralized call control.

There is no limit to the number of BE4000 sites that can be used in a star topology. A system can have only one BE4000 site communicating with an existing non-BE4000 call control system, or thousands of BE4000 sites connected to a Cisco Unified SIP Proxy in a retail branch scenario.

In a star topology, calls are routed directly from each BE4000 to the centralized call control over an IP network using SIP. Star topology is only recommended for administrators with a strong knowledge of SIP configuration in Intersite Dialing deployment scenarios.

Modify Customer Administrator's Phone Number

Procedure

Step 1

Click Manage Site from the Actions column for the desired site.

Step 2

Click edit (pen icon) under Contact Information.
Step 3

Enter the phone number. Provide the mobile number or a number that can be reached by outside the BE4000 system. Do not enter the extensions within the BE4000 system.

Step 4

Click Save.