Table Of Contents

For Assistants—Using the Manager Assistant on Your Phone

Logging in to the Manager Assistant on Your Phone

Checking the Status of Your Managers

Handling Calls and Performing Other Actions

Answering a Call Using Manager Assistant on the Phone

Configuring Manager Settings

Configuring Assistant Settings

Customizing the Distinctive Ringing Feature

For Assistants—Using the Manager Assistant on Your Phone

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This topic describes how you can access Manager Assistant features directly on your Cisco Unified IP Phone (sometimes called the "Assistant Phone"). Within this topic, see these subtopics:

•Logging in to the Manager Assistant on Your Phone

•Checking the Status of Your Managers

•Handling Calls and Performing Other Actions

•Answering a Call Using Manager Assistant on the Phone

•Configuring Manager Settings

•Configuring Assistant Settings

•Customizing the Distinctive Ringing Feature

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 using a website that your system administrator has set up, and you assign these using the Assistant Console.

The Manager Assistant feature on your phone is supported on these Cisco 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

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 Overview of Shared-Line and Proxy-Line Modes, page 2.

Logging in to the Manager Assistant on Your Phone

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

Procedure

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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 should appear (see Figure 3).

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Figure 3 Manager Status Screen

If the Primary IPMA service goes down, your IP Phone screen will not get updated 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.

Checking the Status of Your Managers

You can see a list of managers that an assistant supports on the Manager Status screen (Figure 3). 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 in this order:

–New call indication

–Change of manager status from on hook

–On hook

•Call-status icon—Table 3 shows the status icons that can appear to the left of the manager's name

•Proxy line of the manager

Table 3 Call Status Icons on the Manager Status Screen 

Manager call-state 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 that 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 the fact that the manager has not logged in yet.
MWI	MWI (which means message waiting indicator) appears if the manager has a voice message waiting.

Handling Calls and Performing Other Actions

Table 4 describes the softkeys that appear on the Manager Status screen. The softkeys enable you to perform a different call-handling task.

Table 4 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 (see Figure 4), 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 6 for the fields you can configure.

Answering a Call Using Manager Assistant on the Phone

You can answer a call to a manager, which displays on the Manager Status page, in any of these ways:

•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 and select the Answer button on the Call Processing screen, which is the screen you can see after you exit the Manager Assistant screen. The Call Processing screen shows the originating number of the call and contains the Answer, Redirect and TrnsfVM softkeys.

After you answer the call, the Call Processing screen overwrites the Manager Assistant screen. (The Call Processing screen may be visible already.) Then use the softkeys on the Call Processing screen as you would normally. The Manager Assistant does not control these features.

Configuring Manager Settings

Figure 4 shows the Manager Settings screen, which appears when you select a manager from the list shown in the Manager Status screen (see Figure 3).

Table 5 describes how to set the fields in this screen.

Figure 4 Manager Settings Screen

Table 5 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 Creating Filter Lists for a Manager, page 51.
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 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, Cisco Unified Communications Manager Assistant User Guide sends a ringing, connected or held call 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.

Configuring Assistant Settings

Figure 5 shows the Assistant Settings screen, which displays when you press the AsstSett softkey on the Manager Status screen (see Figure 3). The Assistant Settings screen lets you configure such items as divert targets and sorting for the Manager Status screen.

Table 6 describes how to set the fields on the screen, and Table 7 describes how to use the softkeys on the screen.

Figure 5 Assistant Settings

Table 6 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. Enabling this flag sends real-time updates while you are on a call. It is useful to check if a manager's status is busy or idle before diverting a call to that manager. With this flag enabled, a change in a 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 this flag is enabled, the Manager Status screen is sorted based on new call events. For the hierarchy of how the managers list is sorted, see Checking the Status of Your Managers. If this flag is not enabled, the Manager Status screen is static.
SetDivertTarget	When the Divert All field is set to On for a manager (see Figure 4), incoming calls to that manager get 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 7 Assistant Settings Softkeys  

Field	What it does
Select	Pressing this button changes the settings for the two toggled fields on this 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 33 managers you are supporting 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 will need to re-login to the service once you log out.

Customizing 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

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Step 1 Press the Settings button on your Cisco Unified IP Phone.

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

Each of the lines on your phone, along with its selected ring type, is displayed on your phone's 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 button to select the line, and press the Select softkey.

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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.)

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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, then press the Play softkey.

Step 5 To associate a new ring type, press the Select and Ok softkeys and then press Exit.

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