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Okanagan College has replaced conventional telephones with Microsoft Teams at all campuses.
Historically, OC used Mitel phones in classrooms, offices, and other spaces on all campuses. With the conjunction of hybrid work environments and collaboration platforms like Teams, desktop phones are losing utilization at OC. For faculty and staff, Microsoft Teams has full telephone functionality, requiring only an internet connection. This gives OC employees a modern telephony experience along with improved mobility.
Teams has all the features you're used to using with telephones, including voicemail, call forwarding, and much more. Teams calling is calibrated to work with the OC switchboard.
Wherever you have Internet access this service allows you to connect to your phone local from any device, desktop, laptop or cell phone that you can connect to Teams with; on or off campus.
In case of an emergency, please dial 911 on your Teams phone.
In a situation where you place an emergency call, be sure to state your name and CURRENT LOCATION, ie. campus, building, and room number, or your current location if you are off campus. Due to the portability of Teams locals the number is no longer reliably associated with a physical location for 911.
Make an Internal call to another Teams phone person
1. Navigate to the "Calls" tab on Teams.
2. Type the recipient's name into your Teams dialpad, and hover over their icon. If it says "Available", press the phone icon in the top right corner to call. Alternatively, you can click or type the desired local.
Make an External call
Call external numbers directly from your dial pad under the "Calls" tab on Teams.
Make a Long Distance call
Call external numbers directly from your dial pad under the "Calls" tab on Teams. Dial 1, followed by the phone number.
Please note that international calling is currently a work in progress.
Dial numbers while in a call
It is possible to dial touch tones (ie. "Press 1 for IT support, press 2 for People Services").
If you are in an internal call with another OC user, click "More" (the three dots), and then click "Dial pad". You can select numbers from there!
If you are in an external call with a number outside of OC, click "Keypad", and you are good to go.
Transfer a call
When you're in a call, select More actions (...) and then Transfer.
Start typing the name of the person you want to transfer the call to and select them when they appear.
Forward a call
From Teams, click the three dots (...) in the top right corner beside your profile picture. Click Settings, and then Calls.
Under Call answering rules, choose Forward my calls, and then select where you want your forwarded calls to go: voicemail, another person, or a call group.
Access voicemail
To access your voicemail, go to the Calls tab, and notice the History row near the top of the center column. From here, select Voicemail.
You can listen to the recording of any voicemails you have received, along with an automatic transcription of the audio message. A written transcript of the voicemail will also be sent to your email.
Configure voicemail
From Teams, click the three dots (...) in the top right corner beside your profile picture. Click Settings, and then Calls.
1. Under Call answering rules, change If unanswered to Voicemail
2. Below, under the subsection called Voicemail, click Configure voicemail
2.1. Record a greeting
2.2. Set Call answer rules as desired
Log in and out of a call group
From Teams, click the three dots (...) in the top right corner beside your profile picture. Click Settings, and then Calls.
Scroll to the bottom and notice the call groups you are a member of are listed. From here, you can simply flip the switch to log yourself in (or out) of call groups.
Log in to Teams on your Yealink phone
Step 1:
On the login page of your Yealink Teams device, you will see a prompt to go to the following link: https://microsoft.com/devicelogin
Follow that link via the browser that you are signed in to your @okanagan.bc.ca account on.
Step 2:
Enter the code shown on your device into your Yealink Teams phone.
Step 3:
Continue by signing in with your @okanagan.bc.ca account information on the phone.
Your Yealink Teams device is now logged in and operational!
Change Teams ringtones
To change the type of notifications you receive from Teams, click the three dots (...) in the top right corner beside your profile picture. Click Settings, and then Calls.
Near the bottom of this tab, find Ringtones and select your desired ringtone.
Ensure calls only reach you during work hours
If you are using a work computer, simply turn off Teams or close your computer.
If you have Teams on your mobile device, you can set Quiet time.
To do so:
- Open the Microsoft Teams app on your phone.
- Click your profile picture in the top left corner.
- Click Notifications
- Under Block notifications, click the During quiet time setting
- From this menu, you can configure Quiet hours as well as Quiet days. If you wish to have work calls silenced outside of work hours, select start and end times for your Quiet hours