Problem
Like most Ring Central customers our implementation is a complex mix of 'User Accounts' and 'Groups' - all of which show in the 'Company Contacts' list shown in the Windows soft phone and the mobile app.
In fact in our implementation the Groups (aka 'Call Queues') are not used for pushing calls to multiple members of staff but simply for transferring unanswered calls and as dummy entries which is required by the RC system. This should not be called directly.
Additional to this list of groups and users are an ever growing number of 'virtual users' that need to be created in order to add direct dials to each user extension's 'Presence' ability and the desk phone's side car / expansion unit ( click here for details on why this is needed). These 'virtual users' also appear in the 'Company Contacts' list and really only need to be available for the member of staff for whom they were created.
This means that the 'Company Contacts' list (at the moment) consists of 50% of valid user accounts for staff extensions and 50% invalid entries that should never be dialled.
Solution
Add a setting, against each user account in the online portal, that determines that user account's visibility to the company / RC account (excluding the 'super user' of course). The setting would have the following values:
Summary
This would make the 'Company Contacts' list much cleaner and really represent the staff in the company instead of a long list you have to scroll down to try and find a valid entry.
This is especially important in the mobile app where screen space is limited and you don't want to scroll if you can help it.
This will also become more important when RC integrate the 'company contact' list with the various desk phone handsets (which have even smaller display screens).
Like most Ring Central customers our implementation is a complex mix of 'User Accounts' and 'Groups' - all of which show in the 'Company Contacts' list shown in the Windows soft phone and the mobile app.
In fact in our implementation the Groups (aka 'Call Queues') are not used for pushing calls to multiple members of staff but simply for transferring unanswered calls and as dummy entries which is required by the RC system. This should not be called directly.
Additional to this list of groups and users are an ever growing number of 'virtual users' that need to be created in order to add direct dials to each user extension's 'Presence' ability and the desk phone's side car / expansion unit ( click here for details on why this is needed). These 'virtual users' also appear in the 'Company Contacts' list and really only need to be available for the member of staff for whom they were created.
This means that the 'Company Contacts' list (at the moment) consists of 50% of valid user accounts for staff extensions and 50% invalid entries that should never be dialled.
Solution
Add a setting, against each user account in the online portal, that determines that user account's visibility to the company / RC account (excluding the 'super user' of course). The setting would have the following values:
- Visible to all users (the default)
- Visible to none
- Visible to specific members (and allow them to be selected)
Summary
This would make the 'Company Contacts' list much cleaner and really represent the staff in the company instead of a long list you have to scroll down to try and find a valid entry.
This is especially important in the mobile app where screen space is limited and you don't want to scroll if you can help it.
This will also become more important when RC integrate the 'company contact' list with the various desk phone handsets (which have even smaller display screens).
