For Assistants—Using the Manager Assistant on Your Phone

For Assistants—Using the Manager Assistant on Your Phone

This chapter describes how you can access Manager Assistant features directly on your Cisco Unified IP Phone (sometimes called the “Assistant Phone”).

You can use the buttons and softkeys on your phone to perform most tasks that you can perform using the Assistant Console. You can also use your phone to perform some tasks while you use the Assistant Console at the same time to perform other tasks. Also, features available on your phone are also available on the Assistant Console, with the exception of Distinctive Ringing.

To use the Manager Assistant on your phone, we recommend strongly that assistants support no more than five managers.

Also, several tasks cannot be performed on the phone, such as assigning the preferred assistants. The manager assigns these tasks using a website that your system administrator sets up, and you assign these tasks using the Assistant Console.

The Manager Assistant feature on your phone is supported on these Cisco Unified IP Phones:

  • Cisco Unified IP Phones 7945G, 7942G, 7941G-GE, 7941G, and 7940G

  • Cisco Unified IP Phones 7965G, 7962G, 7961G-GE, 7961G, and 7960G

  • Cisco Unified IP Phone 7975G, 7971G-GE, and 7970G


Note

Before you begin, you must identify which mode your system administrator chose: shared-line or proxy-line. For more information about the modes and for which mode you are using, see Shared-Line and Proxy-Line Modes Overview.

Log In to the Manager Assistant on Your Phone

Use these steps to log in to the Manager Assistant on your phone.

Procedure

Step 1

Press the Services button on the phone.

Step 2

Select Primary IPMA Phone Service.

Step 3

Enter your user ID and PIN and then press Submit.

The Manager Status screen appears.

Figure 1. Manager Status Screen

What to do next

If the Primary IP Manager Assistant(IPMA) service goes down, your IP Phone screen will not receive notification about this condition. However, you will receive a Host not found Exception message when you try to use a softkey. In this case, you must select Secondary IPMA Phone Service manually from the IP Services menu and log in again.

Log In to the Manager Assistant on Cisco Desktop Collaboration Experience Phones

Use these steps to log in to the Manager Assistant on your phone.

Before you begin

Make sure that your phone is active

Procedure

Step 1

On the left pane, select Turn Assistant On.

The Assistant Sign In screen appears
Step 2

Enter your user ID and Password and then press Sign in.

The Manager Status screen appears.

Check the Status of Your Managers

You can see a list of managers that an assistant supports on the Manager Status screen. This topic describes the screen and the softkeys on it.

For each manager that an assistant supports, this information is displayed:

  • Manager’s Assistant Status line—Indicates if the assistant is online or offline.

  • Number of managers in the list—Enables you to determine the number of managers quickly.

  • Name of manager—The names are sorted based on new call indication, change of manager status from on hook or phone on hook.

  • Call-status icon—The Call Status icons on the Manager Status Screen table describes the status icons that can appear to the left of the manager’s name

  • Proxy line of the manager

Table 1. "Call Status Icons on the Manager Status Screen"

Manager call status icon

What it does

Busy

Appears if the manager’s phone is busy (phone line is in use).

Hold

Appears if the manager places a call on hold.

Idle/on hook

Appears if the manager’s phone is on hook.

Off hook

Appears if the manager’s phone is off hook (the handset is lifted or another audio device is in use).

Ring

Appears next when the manager’s phone is ringing.

Unknown

Appears when Manager Assistant cannot determine the state, such as in the case of a CTI failure or when the manager is logged in.

MWI

MWI (which means message waiting indicator) appears if the manager has a voice message waiting.

Handle Calls and Perform Other Actions

The table describes the softkeys that appear on the Manager Status screen. The softkeys enable you to perform a different call-handling tasks.

Table 2. "Softkeys on the Assistant’s Phone"

Softkey

What it does

Select

Selects the highlighted manager from the list of managers and takes you to the Manager Settings screen, where you can configure settings for the selected manager.

Answer

Answers an incoming call for the corresponding manager.

Exit

Exits the Manager Status screen and takes you to the Services menu page.

Redirect

Immediately diverts a ringing, connected or on-hold call to the corresponding manager (by default) or to another preset number.

To set the divert target to a directory number, press AsstSett, then press Set Divert Target, then enter the number.

More

Shows the remaining available softkeys for the Manager Status screen.

TrnsfVM

Sends a ringing, connected, or on-hold call to that manager’s voice mailbox.

InterCom

Enables you to speak to a manager on an intercom line.

GoOffLine

Takes you offline. If there is another assistant configured for the manager and if that assistant is online, that assistant becomes the active assistant for the manager.

If no other assistants are available, calls for the manager are not filtered or diverted, and all ring at the manager’s phone.

Note 

When the primary assistant goes offline or logs out, the manager's phone and call status are shown on the phone of the next available assistant, which becomes the primary assistant.

AsstSett

Takes you to the Assistant Settings screen, where you configure various settings. See Table 1 for the fields you can configure.

Answer a Call Using Manager Assistant on the Phone

You can answer a call to a manager displayed on the Manager Status page:

Procedure

Select one of these options:

  • Press the Answer softkey on the Manager Status page.
  • Select the Line button of the ringing call or the speaker button.

  • Exit the Manager Assistant application screen. The Call Processing screen appears. On the Call Processing screen, select the Answer button.

The Call Processing screen shows the originating number of the call and contains the Answer, Redirect and TrnsfVM softkeys.

Configure Manager Settings

The Manager Settings screen, which appears when you select a manager from the list shown in the Manager Status screen.

This table describes how to set the fields in this screen.


Note

If you press menu items too rapidly when change the manager settings from the Assistant Console, that manager is logged out as a security measure and the Assistant Watch window disappears. For the manager to be logged back in, a Save operation must be executed on that particular Manager Configuration web page.

Table 3. "Manager Settings Fields"

Softkey

What it does

Filter

Toggles between On and Off. Change the setting of this field by highlighting the field and pressing Select. If this field is set to On, then the filter rules configured in the Filter Mode field apply.

Note 

To configure filters for a manager, you must use the Assistant Console. For more information, see Create Filter Lists for a Manager.

Filter Mode

Toggles between Exclusive and Inclusive. Change the setting of this field by highlighting the field and pressing Select.

  • Exclusive—Calls matching the phone numbers in the filter list are sent to the assistant; the remaining calls are sent to the manager.

  • Inclusive—Calls matching the phone numbers in the filter list are sent to the manager; the remaining calls are sent to the assistant.

Permitted wildcard characters are X for a single digit and * for a string of digits at the beginning or end of a number only.

Do Not Disturb

Turns off the ringer on the manager’s phone. This task can be performed on a per-manager basis.

Divert Calls

Toggles between On and Off. Change the setting of this field by highlighting the field and pressing Select. If this field is set to On then ringing, connected, or held call is sent to the manager or to another preset number (a number you specify by selecting the Set Divert Target field).

Set Divert Target

The number to which calls are diverted, if the Divert Calls field is On.

Default: Calls are diverted to the corresponding manager’s phone unless another Directory Number is configured here.

Alert Tone

Toggles between On and Off. Change the setting of this field by highlighting the field and pressing Select. If this field is set to On in a proxy-line environment, calls to the manager generate an audio alert on the manager’s phone.

Display Manager Settings Screen on Cisco Desktop Collaboration Experience Phones

Procedure

Step 1

Press ... button

Step 2

Select the Phone Settings from the drop-down menu.

Step 3

On the Manager Status screen, select a manager from the list.

The Manager Settings screen appears.

Configure Manager Settings for Cisco Desktop Collaboration Experience Phones

This table describes how to set the fields on the Manager Settings screen.


Note

If you press menu items too rapidly when you change the manager settings from the Assistant Console, that manager is logged out as a security measure and the Assistant Watch window disappears. For the manager to be logged back in, click Save on that particular Manager Configuration web page.

Table 4. "Manager Settings Fields"

Softkey

What it does

Choose Assistant

Press to select an assistant to apply the settings.

Note 

To configure filters for a manager, you must use the Assistant Console. For more information, see Create Filter Lists for a Manager.

Send calls to assistant

Toggles between On and Off.

Set up filter groups

Press to set up the filter groups.

Note 

To configure filters for a manager, you must use the Assistant Console. For more information, see Create Filter Lists for a Manager.

Send all calls except preferred calls to assistant

Toggles between On and Off.

Send only rejected callers

Toggles between On and Off.

Configure Assistant Settings

The following figure shows the Assistant Settings screen, which displays when you press the AsstSett softkey on the Manager Status screen. The Assistant Settings screen lets you configure such items as divert targets and sorting for the Manager Status screen.

The Assistant Settings Fields table describes how to set the fields on the screen, and Assistant Settings Softkeys table describes how to use the softkeys on the screen.

Table 5. "Assistant Settings Fields"

Field

What it does

CallPlaneOverWrite

Toggles between Enabled and Disabled. Change the setting of this field by highlighting the field and pressing Select. When you enable this field real-time updates while you are on a call is sent.

It is useful to check if a manager’s status is busy or idle before diverting a call to that manager. With this field enabled, a change in the manager’s status displays while you are on a call.

SmartSorting

Toggles between Enabled and Disabled. Change the setting of this field by highlighting the field and pressing Select. When you enable this field, the Manager Status screen is sorted based on new call events.

For the hierarchy of how the managers list is sorted, see Check the Status of Your Managers.

When this field is disabled, the Manager Status screen is static.

SetDivertTarget

When the Divert All field is set to On for a manager, incoming calls to that manager are diverted to the divert target, which is either the currently selected manager (by default) or a directory number.

To divert calls to a Directory Number, enter the number in the SetDivertTarget field; to change a directory number, edit the SetDivertTarget field.

Table 6. "Assistant Settings Softkeys"

Field

What it does

Select

Press the button to change the settings for the two toggled fields on the screen—CallPlaneOverWrite and SmartSorting. If you highlight the Set Divert Target field and press Select, you are taken to the screen to configure the divert target number.

StpUpdt/StrUpdt

The Manager Status screen, by default, refreshes when a change in a manager’s status occurs or when there is a new call for a manager.

The StpUpdt button prevents this automatic refresh.

You might use this button, for example, if you have support 33 managers and would like to change the setting for the 20th manager.

You would scroll down the manager list on the Manager Status screen, highlight the 20th name, and press Select.

However, if your screen gets updated during this time, you would lose your place in the scroll list, as well as miss potentially important status updates. Therefore, to avoid refreshes from occurring in such a situation, press the StpUpdt button.

Note 

To re-invoke the automatic updates, press the StrUpdt button.

Exit

Exits out of the Assistant Settings screen and returns you to the Manager Status screen.

LogOut

Logs you out of the IPMA service. You must login to the service again after you log out.

Customize the Distinctive Ringing feature

Distinctive Ringing enables you to associate a unique audible ring type with each of your phone lines. You can associate a unique ring type with your manager’s proxy line to distinguish quickly between your incoming calls and your manager’s incoming calls.

Use this procedure to customize the Distinctive Ringing feature directly on your phone.

Procedure

Step 1

Press the Settings button on your Cisco Unified IP Phone.

Step 2

Use the Navigation pad to select Ring Type from the Settings menu (or press 2 on your phone keypad).

Each of the lines on your phone, along with its selected ring type, is displayed on your phone LCD screen. Initially, all of these lines use the default ring type.

Step 3

To change the ring type for a line, use the Navigation pad to select the line, and press the Select softkey.

Note 

To identify which manager proxy line on your phone is associated with a particular manager, look at the My Calls panel of the Assistant Console. This is the area where manager proxy lines and manager names are displayed. (A manager’s proxy line is the line on which you receive incoming calls for that manager.)

Step 4

Use the Navigation button to scroll through the list of available ring types for the selected line. To hear a sample of any ring type, select the ring type, and then press the Play softkey.

Step 5

To associate a new ring type, press the Select and OK softkeys and then press Exit.