Manage Hot Desking

Hot desking lets any staff member sign in to a shared desk phone with their own extension, so one handset can belong to different people at different times of the day. Once the feature is in use, you will occasionally need to step in as an administrator: end a session a user left signed in, or remove hot desking access from an extension altogether. Both tasks are handled from the Cloud Voice portal.

Force a user off a hot desking phone

If someone walks away without signing out, their extension stays active on that phone. Anyone who sits down next could place calls as that person, listen to their voicemail, or change their settings. Signing the extension out from the portal (the portal calls this Guest Out) closes the session and protects that user’s information.

1. Sign in to the Cloud Voice portal and open Auto Provisioning > Phones.

2. Point to the drop-down arrow next to the phone you want to clear, then choose Guest Out.

   

3. Confirm the action in the dialog that appears by clicking Confirm.

   Caution

   Guest Out takes effect immediately and does not warn the person first. Only guest someone out when you are sure they have finished or the phone was clearly left unattended. The next time they need a phone, they will have to sign in again with their extension.

The signed-in extension is released from the phone right away, and the handset is ready for the next person to sign in.

Tip

Make it a habit to guest out any phones left signed in at the end of the day. A shared handset that holds someone’s extension overnight is an easy target for misuse when no one is around to notice.

Turn off hot desking for an extension

Disabling the feature on an extension stops that user from signing in to any hot desking phone. You might do this when someone moves to a permanent, assigned desk phone and no longer needs to roam between shared handsets.

1. Sign in to the Cloud Voice portal and open Extension and Trunk > Extension.

2. Click the edit icon beside the extension you want to change, then select the Features tab.

3. Scroll down to the Hot Desking section and switch it off.

   

4. Click Save, then Apply.

   Caution

   Your change is not live until you click Apply. If you click Save but skip Apply, the extension can still sign in to hot desking phones.

From this point on, the extension can no longer log in to a hot desking phone.

Note

Turning the switch off controls whether the extension can sign in from now on. If the user is already signed in to a shared phone, use the Guest Out steps above to end that current session as well.