Support SERVICES

Most of you with Partner or Merlin Communications System have a feature in your voicemail called "Outcalling".   

You can set your mailbox to call you anytime a caller leaves you a message.  Your cell phone will ring and you will be prompted to enter your password to retrieve the message. If your staff are constantly calling in to check for new messages, Outcalling will eliminate the need to do this.  Your staff will be more responsive to messages left for them because they will be alerted to new messages left for them immediately.  

Outcalling is not turned on by default and must be enable by logging in as the system administrator.  Look for helpful Self-Support documents to guide you or schedule an affordable tech support session with us to set it up.  

Some versions of IP Office support voicemail to email.  In this scenario, when a caller leaves a message in a user's mailbox, a WAV file recording of it is emailed to them along with the Caller ID information.  Receiving an email copy of the voicemail allows remote staff, to be more responsive.  Since it's an email, they can save or forward it to coworkers as well.  

There's a few different ways to accomplish this.  Some systems have a feature called "Centrex Transfer" which, when used with the proper service from your provider, will transfer callers off-site to your employee's home or cell.    In this scenario, your office lines are free to take additional calls.  

Other systems offer "Trunk to Trunk" transfers by bridging two of your lines together; the line that the original call came in on and another line to call out to your staff to connect them.  

Please Note:  Since each call actually uses two lines, you need to be mindful of the capacity of your system to process "Trunk to Trunk" transfers.  For example, if your phone system has four lines and two calls come in and are transferred off site to staff, all four lines will be in use.  No other calls can get through to your office and no one in the office will have a line available to place an outbound call until one of the two offsite calls are finished.     

The various techniques aren't perfect, but as they say, "are better than nothing".  Caller ID in most cases is not passed to the homeworker.  Depending on the method and your service provider, the audio might be a little weak, and options to transfer the caller a second time off to a coworker or their voicemail are limited.  

We have some self help documents available and offer affordable remote support options to help get you up and running.  Contact support@mtelsystems.com with your initial questions or to have us help determine what version system you are running.  Once we know this, we can let you know your options.