Company Mainline
A cornerstone of OnRelay’s mobile office phone system is the company mainline functionality. Mainline features cover all the advanced call management features for handling calls to your company main number. You can easily configure how your business calls are distributed among your mobile users, queues, ring groups and other destinations.
Main Company Number
You get a new company number from OnRelay in your area code and country of choice. You can also port in an existing number at no cost. Calls to your main company number are per default routed to your main auto attendant. Alternatively you can enable a Live Operator group whose members can answer company calls directly.
Company Number Aliases
You can expand your mobile office phone service adding other company numbers in different cities, area codes or countries. Normally you would route such main number aliases to your main voice menu. Alternatively they can be assigned as direct numbers for functions such as Sales or Customer Service.
Auto Attendant
An advanced multi-level auto-attendant powers the voice menus and call trees. It automatically routes calls to your destinations of choice. The auto attendant will answer your incoming company calls and transfer them onward as per callers’ instructions. The auto-attendant is also an efficient spam filter since it traps most robocalls.
Live Operator / Receptionist
Some companies prefer that an office manager or receptionist answer calls directly such that callers reach a real person first. You can enable a specially designated parallel ring group called ‘Live Operator’ for this purpose. All members of this group, e.g. your receptionist, will receive calls to your main company number first.
Custom Voice Menus
OnRelay is delivered with a default voice menu for your company main number. It is very straightforward to customize the menu with your dial options of choice. The voice greeting is automatically updated when you change the menu. You can also just type in a custom greeting or upload a manual recording.
Call Tree
For many companies it is beneficial to build a multi level call tree of voice menus. This allows your callers to more easily find the information or call destinations they are looking for. You may e.g. chose to use sub-auto attendants for each of your office locations. You can also create information greetings for common queries about e.g. your events or opening hours.
Parallel Ring Groups
Parallel ring groups are call groups where callers hear a normal ringback tone. All group members are called in parallel until the call times out. Unanswered calls go to a shared group voice mail box per default. Alternatively overflow calls can be routed to fallback destinations such as your company mailbox, another group or an answering service .
Call Queues
Call queues are call groups where callers hear music on hold until their call is answered by a staff member. Queue group members are called according to preselected call distribution algorithms such as parallel, round robin, longest wait, random or ordered. Callers wait in the queue until someone answers or a custom time out expires.
Company Mailbox
Each account has a shared company mailbox. The company mailbox has a standard greeting as well as after hours and holiday greetings. Messages left in this mailbox are distributed to all users tagged as supervisors as well as members of the live operator group. Messages show up under the Mainline conversation panel of their mobile apps.
Time of Day Routing
Each auto attendant and call group can be configured to be reachable at all times or only during working hours. It is also possible to define for which time zone working hours routing takes effect. You can e.g. create separate Sales and Support groups at different time-zone locations in geographically distributed organizations.
Answering Services
OnRelay’a mobile office phone service supports two-way integration with commercial answering services that can answer calls on your behalf. They can be configured as your main receptionist, or to answer calls your staff are not able to reach. Virtual receptionists at the answering service provider can then easily transfer calls back to your extensions. To do so they get a return call number to an OnRelay auto-attendant with an up-to-date directory of your staff.
Dial-by-Name Directory
All your company extensions are automatically added to a dial-by-name directory with recorded names of your users. Callers can easily find your staff members by using their phone keypad to spell their names. The dial-by-name directory reads matching names to callers as recorded by OnRelay’s speech generator. Calls are then transferred onward to the mobile extension selected by the caller.
Virtual Conference Rooms
With OnRelay you can add virtual conference rooms and invite internal and external callers to voice conferences. The conference room is reachable via a direct number and / or your mainline voice menu. Callers simply enter the conference room using a configurable PIN for moderators and participants, respectively.
Overflow Call Routing
When your staff is busy with other calls it is essential overflow calls are handled in a systematic manner. OnRelay supports a variety of fallback destinations. You may integrate with an answering service, use second tier call groups or monitored group voice mails for this purpose. Queues may hold calls indefinitely, but should only be used when you are confident all calls will eventually be answered.
Office Phone App
OnRelay is a mobile office phone service, and is designed such that all user functions are available for smartphone users using the OnRelay mobile app. Each registered user has a mobile extension. They can access all the functionalities and features of the system using standard cell minutes and regular quality wireless calls on their smartphones.
Mobile Extensions
Each staff member registered as a user in your company gets a 3 short code digit extension as part of your short number dial plan. Their extension numbers can be dialed directly by other colleagues and entered by external callers when they reach any of your auto attendant voice menus.
Direct Public Number
Your users may optionally be assigned a direct inward dialing number (DID). This way their extension is directly reachable from outside callers so they don’t have to call via your mainline voice menu. Registered users can also dial out from their DIDs to direct office calls back their way.
Displayed Number Setting
Your business may have multiple company numbers for different locations and functions. Some users can also have direct inward dialing (DID) numbers. Users can at any time select which company number to present as caller ID for outbound office calls. This is useful to route return calls to the desired destination.
Business vs Personal Calls
Business calls are clearly indicated as office calls on your incoming call screen. You can also assign a different ring tone to your office calls. The office call label shows in addition to the actual calling number and calling name. Your standard phone call log labels all business calls as an ‘Office Call’. The OnRelay conversation log shows the actual caller number and name.
Availability Call Routing
OnRelay’s mobile app includes a menu where you can select to route office calls to your mobile, to your landline VoIP phone, to both of them at the same time, to send all office calls to voice mail or to forward all calls to a colleague. This way you can easily control how and when you want office calls to reach you.
Do Not Disturb
Most users use personal smartphones with OnRelay. For flexible working purposes it is therefore critical to be able to turn off office calls those times you only want to receive personal calls. This way you don’t have to turn off your personal cellphone or switch it to silent mode just because you do not want to be disturbed by office calls.
Call Group Sign In
The OnRelay mobile app includes a groups panel where users can join and leave call groups. Users can also see who else is currently a member of each call group. Group memberships may be restricted by admins such that users only see groups they are allowed to join.
Called Group Display
When receiving group calls, the incoming call screen shows which group is being dialed by the caller. This way users can answer correctly, e.g. if they are members of both a Sales and a Support group. Each call group also has a separate tab in the conversation such that it is easy to distinguish group calls from direct extension calls.
Short Number Dialing
Registered users may call and message each other using the 3-digit extensions of your internal dial plan. All voice menus and call groups also has 3 digit extensions that makes it easy to route calls their way. The live directory may also be used to click to dial any company extension.
Contacts Dialing and Lookup
You may dial or text any smartphone contact from the OnRelay app. Calls placed from the OnRelay app will arrive from your office number at the dialed party. Your smartphone contacts are also queried for caller name and photo when you receive business calls to your smartphone. It is therefore common to sync customer contacts with smartphone contacts among OnRelay customers.
Live Company Directory
The OnRelay mobile app has a live directory that includes all active company extensions. Here your colleagues can see if you are available to receive office calls or if you are currently busy in a company call. They can also read any free text presence info you have shared internally within your company.
Shared Presence
In a distributed and mobile team it is very useful to be able to notify colleagues about your current whereabouts. The OnRelay availability setting includes a free text field you can use to share a simple presence status within your company. This presence status is shown to colleagues in their live directory lookup views.
Integrated Conversations
The OnRelay mobile app includes a conversations view where you can see all office calls, messages and voice mails organized on a per contact basis. This way it is easy to quickly track the most recent office communication with any external contact. All records are synced with the cloud server infrastructure and stored centrally.
Call Group Conversations
In OnRelay each call group is also a messaging group. The mobile app conversation view elegantly separates your direct conversations from your call group conversations. This way a call group such as Sales can communicate as one with external parties, and current members can also share info via messages within the group.
Instant Messaging
You can send and receive instant messages within your company using your 3 digit extensions. You can also send instant messages between members within any call group. Just click on another user or group in your live directory to send a new message. The instant message service includes received and read notifications as well as typing status, as you would expect from a modern messaging app.
SMS Text Messaging
You may optionally enable any of your public phone numbers for SMS text messaging (US and Canada only). This way staff can send and receive messages from your main company number as well as from their direct office numbers. For group and mainline originated messages all users with access to the group can see what other group members have texted to the external party so as to avoid crossed wires and misunderstandings.
Extension Forwarding
It is possible to forward all direct extension calls to another internal extension. This can be useful to allow a colleague to temporary handle all your direct customer calls while on sick leave, or to ensure calls are answered responsibly for someone that has recently left the company.
Call Transfer
After you answer an office call on your smartphone, you may transfer it onward to any of your colleagues using their 3 digit extension. You can also transfer the call back to your main voice menu or to a different call group. When you use the live directory to transfer calls you can easily check whether a colleague is busy or not available before you transfer.
Visual Voice Mail
OnRelay’s mobile office phone service includes an advanced voice mail system where messages can be retrieved in a variety of ways. The simplest way to manage the message inbox is to use the mobile app’s visual voice mail feature to download and listen to voice messages. The visual voice mail also works on call group voice messages, such that read status is shared among members. Voice messages can also be accessed via phone dial-in and email forwarding
Carrier Divert Detection
There is a reason none of OnRelay’s competitors allow cell phones to participate in call queues. It is very difficult to reliably determine whether smartphone calls are answered by the actual user or by some kind of answering service. Without such a mechanism the personal mailbox of someone’s switched off phone may inadvertently answer all queue or parallel ring calls. OnRelay’s patented protocol includes an advanced divert detection mechanism that prevents carrier voice mail inboxes from answering any office calls.
Who Answered Queue Call
In a distributed and mobile team it is sometimes difficult to know whether someone else answered a missed parallel ring or queue group call. The OnRelay mobile app constantly syncs its call log with the server infrastructure, and shows who answered the call within the group conversations panel.
Carrier WiFi Calling
The OnRelay mobile app seamlessly integrates with the standard carrier WiFi call function of your smartphone’s Phone application. All you need to do to use WiFi calls for your office calls is to turn on this setting in your standard smartphone settings. Then both your personal smartphone calls and your office calls will automatically follow this setting.
Office IP Phones
OnRelay is 100% functional for smartphone users, and landline VoIP extensions are hence not required. Irrespectively, some customers value landline extensions for e.g. receptionists and office managers, and OnRelay therefore supports tight VoIP integration with both IP desk phones and PC soft phones.
Landline Pairing
If you use a landline VoIP phone it pairs tightly with your mobile app. It has the same 3 digit extension and can be setup to ring at the same time as your smartphone in your mobile app availability setting. Your mobile app outbound number selection is used for outbound landline calls as well. Your office voice mail box is seamlessly shared between your mobile app and your landline phone. All your call permissions and call log history are also integrated.
Parallel Ring
From the mobile app availability setting you configure how you want your landline phone to ring. With landline pairing enabled you can set your availability to Ring Both, Ring Mobile, Ring Landline, Do Not Disturb or Forward. With Ring Both enabled, both your mobile all and your landline will ring, and you can decide on the fly where to answer each call.
Polycom VVX Desk Phone
OnRelay supports Polycom’s range of VVX multimedia desk phones for use with its service. Most regular users prefer the simple 3xx series devices, whereas office managers and receptionists sometimes go for more advanced 4xx or 5xx series models.
Bria PC Softphone
OnRelay supports the CounterPath Bria Solo softphone for PC and MAC users. The softphone supports VoIP calling and call transfers using your 3 digit extension for internal calls. Just as a landline VoIP phone it receives office calls on your computer in parallel with your mobile app when its availability is set to Ring Both or Ring Landline.
Consultation Transfer
Office managers and receptionists frequently answer multiple incoming mainline calls. They often find consultation or two step transfers useful to transfer calls onward to colleagues. This means they can check if someone is really available to answer a customer call before sending it through.
Multiple Line Keys
Office managers, executive assistants and receptionists sometimes need to monitor the line of other colleagues or senior executives. Additional IP phone line keys that include in-call status are added for this purpose. This makes it easier to filter and transfer unwanted calls. Sometimes it may also be beneficial to have call groups such as Sales and Support ring at a group key on a shared phone in an office reception or similar shared office area.
Auto Provisioning
VoIP phones can be very cumbersome to configure for non technical users. Auto provisioning is therefore an important function to ensure VoIP phones can be rolled out and updated with a minimum number of steps. OnRelay hosts a complete auto-provisioning service such that all Polycom phone configuration parameters are centrally managed and maintained.
Contacts Directory
You can use the Polycom directory feature to search for and place calls to any staff extension or external company contact. Your company administrator can upload and manage external contacts that are synced with your IP phone to allow simple dialing and caller name lookup for calls from your most important customers and clients.
Office Phone System Administration
Account administrators have access to a comprehensive web admin panel that makes it straightforward to maintain users, groups, and advanced mainline features. OnRelay is initially delivered with a default mainline setup that can be expanded to support deep call trees and multi-location configurations.
User Management
The OnRelay web admin app includes a user admin panel which shows all active users. Here, new users are added and existing users deleted or updated. User details can also be accessed to check their most recent activity, advanced settings, and what software versions they are currently using.
Group Management
The OnRelay web admin panel includes a group admin panel where both parallel ring groups and queue groups are created, deleted and updated. Group memberships are managed individually, and administrators can also restrict group membership to certain staff members. Allowed staff can join and leave call groups themselves from their mobile apps as per their availability to receive group calls.
Auto Attendant Builder
Administrators can build and manage advanced call trees by linking multiple auto attendants within the web admin panel. There are no restrictions as to how many auto attendants may be added to an account. It is e.g. common to define separate auto attendants for remote office locations or for sharing frequently accessed information.
Multi Location Setup
It is very straightforward to build a multi site system with OnRelay. You can have local mainline alias numbers at an unlimited number of city, state or country locations. Each location normally has its own voice menu and its own set of call groups. You can also have location independent call groups for general company functions that are shared among staff at different locations.
Company Working Hours
You can define your company working hours in your web administration panel. Working hours apply across all your office locations considering local time zones. Both auto-attendants and call groups can be restricted to manage calls only during your working hours for a specific time zone as well.
After Hours Greeting
The company mailbox has an after hours greeting that automatically activates outside office hours. When company working hours are configured the after hours greeting reads the current working hours to callers. The after hours greeting can be further customized by typing a different greeting or uploading a manual recording.
Fallback Routing
Sometimes a parallel ring group or queue call may go unanswered. In these cases it is important to route the call to a meaningful destination. You may want to create a special overflow auto-attendant, a fallback group, a group mailbox or use the general company mailbox. It is also possible to integrate with a 3rd party answering service that can be setup as a fallback destination for any call group or queue.
Global Dial Plan
OnRelay supports local phone numbers in more than 20 countries. In a distributed system across cities, states or countries it is also common to setup multiple localized auto attendants with local direct numbers. You can also have local mobile users in any country location where you have a company phone number.
Voice Greeting Generation
It can be very time consuming to manually record voice greetings and keep them in sync with menus and user changes. OnRelay ensures all voice greetings are automatically created and updated when you click Save for any change to an auto attendant, user or group. All greetings may also be updated by just typing in a greeting message for the speech generator, or you may of course upload a manual recording to override any such automation.
Multi Language Voices
The OnRelay text to speech generator auto generates voice prompts in a variety of voices, including Australian, US and GB English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian. Language settings can be defined for each auto attendant as well as for group voice mail boxes and queue greetings.
Company Contacts
Company administrators can upload external contacts to the system from VCARD or CSV files to allow caller name lookup and ease of dialing to important customers and clients. The web admin contacts interface automatically washes imported numbers. Imported contacts are accessible for simple dialing and caller name lookup for all staff members from both their mobile apps and from their IP phones.
Answering Service Setup
Sometimes it is useful to offload staff with a professional 3rd party answering service that can pick up unanswered mainline calls. With OnRelay it is very straightforward to integrate any such commercial answering service by adding them as an extension in the internal dial plan. This way the answering service can be easily reached from voice menus and / or as a fallback destination for any parallel ring group or queue.
Call History
The web admin panel includes a call history tab where administrators can browse all recent company calls. The call history will display who answered the call initially and for transferred calls also track the route to its final destination.
Subscription Overview
You can check your company’s mobile office phone service monthly subscription at the web admin panel. Subscriptions are broken down as individual licenses with per item costs.