Sutus

Hi everyone,

I was speaking with the Sutus support team, and they mentioned that there is sometimes confusion about what the default Reception workspace is for, why it is included, and how it can be used effectively.

The Reception workspace, for the most part, is like all other shared workspaces: it allows its members to share access to files, emails and phone calls. Also, all members of Reception can configure the behavior of that shared workspace; what happens when someone calls (the incoming call flow) or when someone emails reception (email forwards/alias). Reception has two other benefits that normal shared workspaces do not have:

1. It is the default destination for all external incoming calls.
2. Its members have the added ability to record the Auto-Attendant greeting.

Now that we have an idea of why and how the Reception shared workspace is used by the company, we should look at how shared workspaces help administrators manage their system. The first and foremost benefit is that it allows for role-based configuration. For most companies, it does not matter which employee is currently acting as the receptionist. Calls and emails will normally be handled in the same way by all receptionists.

Imagine, for example, that your receptionist, Bob, is leaving the company and will be replaced by a new employee, whom we will call Jill. By using the Reception shared workspace to handle the role of the receptionist, all you will need to do is:

1. delete Bob’s workspace, because he has left the company,
2. create a new personal workspace for Jill, and
3. add Jill to the Reception shared workspace.

However, if the Reception shared workspace was not being used, the administrator would need to:

1. create a new personal workspace for Jill,
2. write down Bob’s configuration, including call flow, email settings, and the like,
3. forward all of Bob’s non-personal email to Jill,
4. copy all of Bob’s non-personal files to Jill,
5. forward all of Bob’s non-personal voice mails to Jill,
6. delete Bob’s workspace,
7. edit Jill’s workspace configuration to be the same as Bob’s,
8. edit the callflow of all GW310 line’s to use Jill’s callflow, and
9. edit the callflow of your VoIP provider to use Jill’s callflow.

Ouch. That is a lot of work.

In the second example, the role of reception was attached to a personal workspace. Moving this role to a new personal workspace requires a lot of customized configuration. In the first example, the role of the reception is attached to a shared workspace. This means that just the members change, not the workspace configuration! Jill will automatically have access to all of the reception email, files and phone calls that Bob had received during his time as the receptionist.

Using a shared workspace to manage roles applies to other positions in your office such as support, sales or accounting. By creating shared workspaces to handle each role, employees (personal workspaces) can move between roles and even share multiple roles.

The other benefit for installers is that all incoming calls go to a known place by default. This means that there is no configuration required if a new GW310 PSTN gateway or VoIP provider is added to the system. This is because the default behavior is to direct all of the phone lines to Reception’s incoming call flow. This makes new equipment installation easier and faster by reducing the number of configuration steps required.

That’s pretty much it for this week. Shared workspaces, in particular the Reception shared workspace, are pretty powerful tools. They can simplify the administration and day to day usage of your Business Central.

-Dave.