Unity Reception Quick User Guide

This will answer an inbound call that is not yet answered, it will only be shown in this scenario.

This will end the selected call, regardless of the current state.

Use this button to dial a number from the Dial window.

You can also right-click this button to quickly dial one of the ten last called numbers.

Use this button to blind transfer a selected call to a number.

If there are multiple calls you can use the context menu to transfer them together (announced transfer) or to transfer to another number.

This will place a call on hold if active, or take it off hold.  These buttons change depending on the state of the selected call.

You can select two calls in the Active Call Window and click this button to quickly conference everyone together.  Once in a conference you can easily select other calls and add them to it, but you must start with a conference with two other calls first.  You can use the hold and retrieve buttons to hold the whole conference, and use the release button to drop a caller out of the conference.  Please note this feature depends on service assignment so may not always be available.

You can use this button to manage call recording in two ways.  You can right-click on the button to select how to record calls. The recording status for the current call is shown in the status section in the Active Call Window.

Or left click to start, stop, pause or resume recording the selected call.  The button will change to show if the selected call is currently being recorded, or if recording is paused or stopped.

This button will only be displayed if you are a member of a paging group, meaning you can call an extension and talk through other colleague’s phones at the same time, this is often used to make announcements.  If you are part of a paging group then you can use this button to call that extension, if you are a member of multiple paging groups then you can select the paging group to call through a menu.

This button will only appear when there is a call parked on your extension.  You can hover the mouse over the button to see who is parked, or click to immediately retrieve the parked call.  Any active calls will be put on hold.

Please note that a “toast” notification will also be displayed, as below.

If you are a call center agent then you can use the Unity Report Viewer to generate reports on your call center performance, please talk to your service provider for more information.

The Active Call Window will display all calls that are related to you, either people that have called you or that you have called.  You can see who the call is from and to, how long it has been in progress and the current status [including the recording state].

The status can be “Ringing”, “Active”, “On Hold”, “Parked for…” or “Camped for…”.  You will also see status icons when the call is on hold or part of a conference.

Receptionists can optionally see all calls in queue for the Call Centers they are joined to, as shown below. This is configured in Settings>Agent>Display queued call center calls in the list.

Drag & drop is an important feature of Unity, it means that in order to perform an action on a call you can simply drag it on top of something.  For example if you want to blind transfer a call to a user then this can be done by simply searching for that user, then dragging the call and dropping it on that user in the contacts list.  You may see some options here depending on what was configured in settings, or Unity can automatically blind transfer the call.  Similarly if you want to perform an announced transfer then simple drag one call on top of the other in the Active Call Window, the calls will be transferred together and be removed from the list.

You can also drag other objects into this list to make a call, for example drag a user from the contacts list into the Active Call Window to call that internal user’s extension or external contact’s number.

When a call is received Unity Reception will automatically tell you who the caller was last transferred, if available.

This information is updated whenever you transfer a call and is shared between Unity Reception clients meaning if the call was transferred by another receptionist last week, today when that same person calls in today and can’t remember who they spoke to, you have that information.  Transferred call history is stored for 28 days by default, but can be increased or reduced in Settings.

You can add notes to the call by right-clicking and selecting add note, as below.  Please note that notes are shared between all receptionists using Unity, so if the call is transferred away, then is transferred back and answered by another receptionist, they will see the note that you added.  You can see below that previous transfer history and notes and combined in the same column.

When a call is camped for a colleague that is on the phone or is parked against their extension, you can configure Unity to keep that call in the Current Call Window.

You can double-click the call to retrieve it, or after a certain amount of time it will automatically be redirected to you.  This can be configured in Settings, as outlined below.

The Active Call Window can be configured through settings, as shown below.

Resize the Current Call List: If set then the Active Call Window will automatically resize to ensure all calls are visible, up until there are 10 calls in the list at which point scrollbars will be used.

Grouping Calls: Unity can group waiting [including held, parked, camped and linked] calls together, as shown below.

Double Click to Retrieve: When this setting is enabled, you can double-click on a held call in the Active Call Window to immediately place any active calls on hold and retrieve the selected one.

Display Parked & Camped Calls: When activated, Unity will retain all parked and camped calls in the Active Call Window.

Display Notes: This setting allows notes to be displayed against calls in the Active Call Window, if this setting is disabled the Notes column will not be displayed.

When Linked User Becomes Available: When using the Hold & Link feature [as outlined in section 2.3.3] Unity can either alert the receptionist that the monitored user is now available, prompt to transfer or automatically transfer.

Transfer History: Transfer history is only available if the Notes field is being displayed.  You can configure Unity to store transfer history information for a defined duration and can specify where the history should be stored if sharing information between Unity Reception clients.

In order to perform a call action against a contact in the Contacts list, simply select it and right-click.  You will be presented with a context menu that dynamically displays various options based on the current state of the call and of the contact you selected.  Options include transfer to extension, mobile or voicemail, camp and park the call on the user’s extension or instant message.

As with calls in the Active Call Window, you can manually add notes for an internal user that are shared between Unity Reception clients.  These notes can be added, edited and removed by right-clicking the contact in the list.  Depending on the view, the notes could be displayed in the status column or as a tool-tip.

Hold & Link is a unique feature in Unity Reception that allows you to link a call in the Active Call List with a monitored/internal user in the Contacts list, thereby giving visibility of who the caller is holding for and if they are currently on the phone, all from within the Active Call Window.

In the below scenario a call has come in from Barry Simpson who wants to talk to Andrew Smith, but he is currently on the phone.  Right-click Andrew from the Contacts list [or drag the call over Andrew] and select “Hold call and link to user” and shown below.

The call will be placed on hold so you can continue to take other calls.  The call holding for Andrew will be shown as below.  At any time you can double click the call [or select the call in the list and click the Retrieve button] to ask Barry if he is happy to continue holding.

Once Andrew becomes available Unity will change the text in the Active Call Window to indicate that he is now available.

You can then drag the call over Andrew in the Contacts list to transfer, or right-click the call and select “Transfer call to extension.”

The hold duration and behaviour of Hold Call and Link to User is configurable and can be found in Settings>Current Calls, as shown below.

A contact group is a grouping of internal and external users, very much like the default contact list but defined by a name.  They are typically used to quickly group users by department or role, so that you can quickly find all users in a specific department simply by clicking the contact group.

To create a contact group, select the user(s) from the Contacts list that you want to include in the contact group, then right-click and select the menu option as below.

You will then be prompted to enter a contact group name.

And the contact group will be displayed in the Contacts tab.

Click on any contact group to quickly see all internal users within that group, along with their phone status and any other information (DND, entered notes etc).  Up to 50 internal users can be added to each contact group.

You can easily add other users to an existing contact group by right clicking as shown below.

You can also remove one or more contacts from a contact group by selecting “Remove from contact group” from the menu option shown above, and can delete the entire contact group by right-clicking it and selecting “Delete contact group.”

Right click in the search box to list all directories, then click the search button to clear it and see your default monitored users.

Unity can integrate with Outlook to show the shared calendar for internal users, provided calendar sharing is enabled and appropriate permissions are granted.  Right-click the selected user from within Contacts and select “Show calendar”, this option will only be available if the email address has been entered in the VoIP platform for the monitored user.

Unity requires “full details” access to read the shared calendar, we recommend that the Reviewer permission level be set to all calendars that Unity needs to display.

If group/enterprise administrator login details have been entered [as outlined in section 1.1] then you can change certain service configuration details for internal users, specifically being able to activate or deactivate Do Not Disturb (DND), forward all calls to a number, or change the routing/presence details for a user [for example by moving them into the Unavailable or Busy profile].

If Unity is configured for remote service configuration then when you right-click an internal user from the Contacts list you will see the below menu options, which may change depending on which services are assigned to the user and if their mobile number has been entered.

The Contacts list can be configured through Settings, as shown below:

Include External Contacts in all Searches: When checked Unity will always search all directories every time a search is performed, which is one second after the last key was pressed.  If the user is a slow typist this could result in many searches, so if there is a large external directory [for example an Outlook folder with several thousand records or a slow-performing SQL database] then Unity performance may be impacted.  Turning this setting off means that by default only the group/enterprise directory is searched, other directories will only be searched if the user presses enter or clicks the search image.

Show Monitored Users First When Searching: When this setting is turned on Unity will always display monitored users first in alphabetical order, then external contact is monitored order.  Otherwise internal and external contacts will be shown together in alphabetical order.

Always Sort New Search Results by Name: This setting can only be modified if the “Show Monitored Users First When Searching” setting is not active.  If active then search results will always be displayed in alphabetical order based on the name of the contact, otherwise the same sorting used in the default list [which could be based on any column in the Contacts list] will be used when searching.

Include Department Name in Search: If activated then Unity will include any internal users where the department name matches the search criteria, for example the receptionist could type “sales” to quickly see a list of all sales people.  In a nested department environment only the bottom-most department will be considered.

Clear the Search Box When Activated: If activated then whenever the user clicks into the search box the current search criteria will be removed and the default list will be shown.

Show Contact Groups/Show Search Letters: As outlined in section 8.4, contact groups provide a fast way to access pre-configured groups of internal and external contacts.  

Including Contacts in Search Results: When searching Unity can be configured to only include contacts in the search results if the name starts with the search criteria or contains the search criteria.  When configured to search based on the contact name containing the search criteria, it will be possible to search on first or last name, but the search results will be less refined (there will often be more entries in the search results).

Show Call Duration: Unity can be configure to include the call duration when showing a monitored user on the phone.  The default option is to show the call duration, this would likely only be deactivated for privacy reasons.

Menu Options on Drag & Drop: You can select what options Unity displays or performs when a call is dragged over a contact in the Contacts list.  If multiple options are selected then a menu will be displayed, otherwise if only one option is selected then Unity will perform this action every time, assuming the option is available based on the state of the call and contact.