Hoteling allows Broadcore users to work in an open environment, such as unassigned work stations for a period of time. Today I sit here. Tomorrow I sit over there. The next day I'm working from home.
In general the administrator sets up the Hotel Host (stations.) In general the users create an association as needed with their user (hotel guest) and the hotel host (station). Simply assign the licenses and turn the services on for both hosts and guests.
Hoteling consists of two separate services, Hoteling Host and Hoteling Guest.
The first service, Hoteling Host, is used to designate a particular user as a host allowing other users with the Hoteling Guest service assigned, to associate their service profile with this user's device.
The second service, Hoteling Guest, is used to allow a user to associate the user's service profile with a user's device that has the Hoteling Host service assigned. This functionality is typically used for transient employees. For example, an enterprise can establish visitor cubes with a phone. The user account associated with this phone would have the Host service assigned. Salespersons, with the guest service assigned and using the cube, can associate their service profiles with the phone in the cube while they are working in the office.
Subscribers with Hoteling Guest assigned associate themselves with a station via the web portal or the voice portal. From the web portal, users select an idle host and associate their service profiles with this host. From the voice portal, users dial in from the host phones they wish to associate their service profiles with. After entering their identities and passwords, they invoke the Hoteling menu and can associate their service profiles with the host phone.
Details
Hoteling allows users to associate their service profiles with a different device. It is typically used for transient employees, that is, an enterprise can set up a visitor cube with a phone, and a visiting employee can use the phone with the visiting employee's service profile. Hoteling functionality is delivered via two separate services, Hoteling Host and Hoteling Guest.
- User accounts with Hoteling Host assigned allow their devices to host other Hoteling Guest users.
- Users that have Hoteling Guest assigned can be associated with a Hoteling Host user and use the Hoteling Host user's device with their service profiles. Hoteling Guest users require mobility (these users require their service profiles to be available over different devices in different locations across an enterprise). Hoteling Host users enable this functionality by providing their devices to one guest at a time. When the Hoteling Guest is associated with a Hoteling Host and originates a call from the host's phone, the Expensive Call Notification feature runs as if the guest originated the call from their own phone.
Hoteling Host
This service is assigned to a Broadcore user that will operate as a host for Hoteling. Typically, such users are configured with a basic set of services and do not identify an actual person within an organization. Note that there are no service assignment restrictions on such users, however. A Hoteling Host user can have a full set of services, if desired.
Various service settings can be configured that determine the hosting behavior of this user, via the Hoteling Host service. These settings are as follows:
On/Off
The service can be enabled or disabled, making this host user available or unavailable to host guest users. If this service is inactive, no guest user can be associated with it. If there is an existing guest user associated and this service is made inactive, that guest user is forcibly disassociated. If the guest is active on a call, then that call is allowed to complete normally.
Associated Guest Indicator
The guest indicator shows which guest (if any) is currently associated with the host. It will show the first name, last name, phone number, location code, and extension. If a guest is not associated with the host, the indicator will not show any information.
Association Time Limit
The association time limit can only be configured by group administrator level users and above. It is view-only for user level users. The association time limit value is a policy setting on the host that restricts the maximum timeout value in hours a guest user can configure when associating with the host. It can be set to an integer value greater than 0 and less than or equal to 999 and defaults to 24. The guest timeout setting is a timer that will automatically disassociate the guest from the host after the specified period of time. An enhancement, Hoteling Timer, makes the disassociation timer optional. Changing the time limit while a user is actively hosted will have no impact on the current host-guest association. For example, if the initial association time limit was 24 hours, then when a guest associates with a host he/she will be allowed to configure a maximum timeout setting of 24 hours. If the association time limit is subsequently changed on the host, then this new setting will be used the next time a guest associates with the host.
Access Levels
The access level can only be configured by group administrator level users and above. It is view-only for user level users. The service defines an access level indicator (Group, Enterprise), restricting the set of guest users that can use it for hosting. The Group indicator will only allow guest users within the customer group of the host user to be associated with it.
- The Enterprise indicator allows all guest users within the host user's enterprise to be associated with it. Changing the access level has no impact on any current association. Only host-guest associations moving forward will use the changed access level.
Both the Hoteling Host and Hoteling Guest are configurable at a user level. When authorized and assigned to a user, links to configuration pages for Hoteling Host and Hoteling Guest appear under the "Call Control" section in the left navigation panel. All levels of users can configure the Hoteling Host and Hoteling guest features except for the hoteling host association time limit value. This is view-only to the user and can be configured by group administrator levels and above. The default state for Hoteling Host is "Off". The default state for Hoteling Guest is "Off". An enhancement, Hoteling Timer, makes the disassociation timer optional. The default status of the disassociation timer for both hosts and guests is "On".