Posted April 7, 2021 by Academic and Institutional Technology
Tags: Department News
Hello, Soft Phones!
In our last Technology Review we included advice for how to clean your desk phone during COVID-19. Now we have more information about desk phones: as we’re moving to use Microsoft Teams for our phone and video conferencing needs, we will be transitioning to using soft phones (aka using your computer as a phone) and retiring many of the desk phones on campus. This transition will be happening at the end of this fiscal year, June 30, 2021.
Not only will it be more convenient to have all of your video conferencing and phone tools in one place (particularly for those of you working remotely), but this will also save our institution a significant amount of money—no small thing in these challenging financial times!
You may have some questions about that process, and though we don’t know all the answers yet, here are few tidbits.
Q: Will I lose my current phone number/phone extension?
A: No! You will retain your current phone number/phone extension and people from within our campus or from outside will be able to still dial that number and reach you.
Q: What if I use my desk phone to manage multiple phone lines and utilize advanced features and therefore can’t afford to lose it?
A: Work with your manager to make sure that he/she knows that, and AIT can work with you to keep your phone.
Q: If I don’t have a desk phone, how will I call someone who doesn’t do video conferencing?
A: Although this feature is not enabled yet, soon you will be able to use Microsoft Teams as a phone. It will be available in the “Calls” tab.
We’ll have more information to share as the project moves along. As always, if you have any questions you can contact us by email at ait.service.desk@wheaton.edu or call 630.752.4357 (HELP).