In the fall of 2019, you may remember Greg and me standing in front of the Campus Center telling you that we would be finalizing a replacement to our phone system during the 19-20 school year. And finalize we did – finding the best new platform, testing options, and securing funding. Now, in a pandemic, a new phone system feels like the last thing we need – alas, we have a new building coming online soon, and our old phone system is no longer supported by the vendor. So, here we go! Some important info about how calling now works at Overlake follows – employees should review this information at their soonest convenience.
There’s a lot more to this whole system when we’re back on campus about the phones that are actually in classrooms, meeting rooms, and public spaces. For now, we hope this is enough information to get started – please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions!
What You Need to Know
What’s the Same? |
What’s Different? |
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425.868.1000 still reaches the Front Office Reception. |
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Employee extensions have all changed - gone are our old three-digit extensions. You can find your extension in the “Calls” tab of Teams (see attached screenshot), or check in the Veracross Portals Employee Directory. Employees now have four-digit extensions that all start in 425.602.xxxx. Mine is 425.602.7172. What is yours? |
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425.868.6191 still dials a recording with a menu (called an auto-attendant). |
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When people call you, it rings in Teams, wherever you have Teams installed. Whether your laptop, your smartphone, your home computer – you’re going to want to set your voicemail message. You can also make outgoing calls from the “Calls” tab in Teams on your laptop or smartphone and it will show to callers as your Overlake extension. See videos below. |
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Classrooms and public spaces still have dedicated phones. Learn how to use them. |
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Employee extensions are no longer displayed on our public employee directory on our website. Parents and students need to access the Employee Directory on their Veracross Portal to see your phone number. |
What You Need to Do
WATCH |
LEARN |
UPDATE |
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Your new extension and direct-dial phone number – see VC Employee Directory or Teams (see screenshot) |
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Your email signature, business card, contacts, vendors, etc. |
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Set your voicemail in Teams (<1min) to make sure you receive calls (or don’t!) as you prefer. |
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How the rest of the system works as described in this article. |
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If you are the contact for an office or program, let us know if you need your phone number updated on our website. |
What about 911?
You may dial 911 from a classroom phone or Microsoft Teams. When calling 911 from a classroom phone they are informed of the specific location from which you are calling. Dialing 911 from Microsoft Teams DOES NOT give 911 a specific location, i.e. Humanities 203, so emergency calls should always be made from a classroom phone where possible. The emergency response team is also immediately notified by email when any 911 call is made from a classroom phone or from Teams.
What Else?
Give it a spin! Try calling your colleagues, try calling your cellphone from your school number, try calling our main number at 425.868.6191, set up your voicemail! It's important that you kick the tires before you actually need it to call parents, vendors, etc. While this article focuses primarily on how employees can manage calling through Teams, you'll also want to review instructions on using on-campus classroom phones.
We're still working on some details on a few more aspects of the phone systems, including faxing. If you have uses of the phone that don't include basic calling from a classroom or any of the above information, please reach out to Jay Heath and Greg Morse.