Customization is key - every company's phone system is different.

Web, email and other facets of a company's data infrastructure might all be much the same across companies as a whole, but phone systems are not. Every company has "special requirements" tailored to the way they do business. For that reason its critical that a phone solution be:

• Easily tailored to meet current needs.
• Readily provides for experimentation with new facilities that make a company more efficient as it grows.

The Bluestone web graphics user interface (GUI) provides a uniquely powerful tool to achieve both of these goals. It is also worth noting that both hosted and OSS solutions use the same interface - there is no difference. (Aside - Switching between Hosted and OSS implementations is trivial so it is key that the management of either solution is the same).

DIDs & IVR Group Action Grids.

• Every company's phone system is different. They do not have the uniformity that the deployment of web, email etc systems do.
• Customization of the phone system to meet a company's needs is therefore essential.
• Bluestone's solution excels in this regard with:
  • ACTION GRIDS: Provide an easy-to-use graphical means of programming a broad range of call flows.
    • Place cells on a grid from a library.
    • Parameterize the cells as needed.
    • Calls flow along the row from left to right (ie start at Step #1 and proceed to the right).

Action Grids are used to define call flow for DIDs and IVRs. Some cells are themselves additional action grids. The result is a very flexible means that enables anyone to define custom call flow. No programming expertize of any kind is required.

User & Phone Editors.

Users and phones are organized somewhat differently on this system, then there are on other. In the Bluestone approach the organization is as follows:

• Users own phones.
• When a phone is allocated to a user, the phone automatically inherits that user's contact list, callerID, routing preferences etc.
• This means, for example, that if a user needs a second phone (eg for a home office), simply allocating the phone to the user automatically programs the phone with everything that personalizes that phone to the user.
• Phone configuration itself is focused on the hardware - type of phone, MAC address, etc

If you have any programming background then you will note this organization is in the "object oriented" style - which is the intent. Once you have used it, you will appreciate just much simpler it makes system administration.

Hunt Groups, ACDs, Tracks and other functions

There are a number of other core functions that are managed by the GUI. A summary of these functions is given below:

• Hunt Groups
• ACDs
• Track Synthesis
• E911
• Public Voicemail Boxes
• Public Contact Lists
• Forwarded Phones
• Pickup Groups

In summary the administration GUI provides a simple, yet powerful way to manage a broad range of phone system needs.