Beginning in September 2014, the Voice over IP (VoIP) Implementation Team started replacing the existing Avaya phones at the NCI Campus at Frederick with VoIP phones. By the end of December, Implementation Team is scheduled to complete deployment of the new Cisco VoIP phone system to end users on the NCI Campus at Frederick. This project brought improved service to over 1800 government and contractor employees, spanning 68 buildings and covering nearly 2500 phone end point deployments in just 14 months. Throughout the project, the team upgraded the Cisco VoIP Unified Communications platform to the latest recommended version and added advanced paging functionality for end users which expanded the scope of the project without extending the timeline. The team upgraded portions of the network infrastructure to accommodate the increased number of VoIP phones by installing larger racks in LAN closets and installing additional switches. The team coordinated with the Environment, Health and Safety Directorate to ensure 911 capabilities were not negatively impacted; pulled over 1000 new lines to provide the needed infrastructure; taught monthly classes and provided user guide documentation with each phone; and responded to questions about the new systems.

As a follow on to the initial project scope of the NCI Campus at Frederick, the team will be adding the infrastructure required for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) at the Pilot Plant on Geoffrey Way and at Industry Lane. They will then deploy phones at those two locations before completing specialized phones and clean-up of old Avaya equipment on the NCI Campus at Frederick. The overall project is expected to be completed in April 2016.

Useful Documents:

Read full article in the Poster

FAQs on the New Phone System

What does this mean to me?
Your Avaya phone will be replaced with a Cisco Phone and many features will work differently. It is recommended you attend a training session that will go over how to use features such as voicemail, call forwarding, and conferencing.

When are these changes occurring?
September 2014 – December 2015

Who is affected?
All NCI Campus at Frederick employees – the ATRF was deployed with this technology when it was built.

When will I be affected?
The most up-to-date deployment schedule can be found on the VoIP website at http://ncifrederick.cancer.gov/News/Feature/NewPhoneSystem.aspx under deployment schedule.

How will I be notified?
In August 2014, everyone was notified through the Notice ListServ about the article in the NCI at Frederick Publication, the Poster, at http://ncifrederick.cancer.gov/about/theposter/content/new-phone-system-coming-nci-campus-frederick. Your building coordinator will be notified the month before deployment to contact all occupants about pre-implementation training.

How will I be trained on the new phone system?
The project team is coordinating training for upcoming buildings on a monthly basis with the building coordinators. If you’re unable to attend the training sessions scheduled in the month prior to the new phones being deployed to your building, or after receiving your phone decide that you would like to attend a training session, please contact the NCI at Frederick helpdesk at 301-846-5115 or fredhelpdesk@nih.gov. They can forward your request to the project team, who may either schedule a dedicated post implementation training session for users that have requested training, or have you join the training session for another upcoming deployment. Additionally, with each phone deployment, you will be provided with a user guide that is easy to follow.

What happens when my phone is replaced?
A member of the project team will visit your office or lab and install your new phone. They may need to briefly disconnect your computer from the network to do so. At this point incoming calls will still be coming to your Avaya phone, and you can use either phone to place outgoing calls. At some point after that (typically later that day, but sometimes the wait is longer due to shared lines etc.) your number will be removed from the Avaya, and your Avaya phone will go blank. At this point incoming calls should ring on your Cisco phone. Shortly after this, typically on the same day, a member of the project team will again visit your office to verify that your Cisco phone can receive incoming calls, as well as remove your old Avaya phone.

If I have concerns or positive feedback after deployment, what do I do?
Your building coordinator will send out a post-deployment survey and your feedback, positive or negative, is appreciated. If you feel you have an urgent concern with the way the project is being carried out please reach out to the project manager, Roxanne Angell at Roxanne.Angell@fnlcr.nih.gov. For operational issues or questions please contact the NCI at Frederick Helpdesk at 301-846-5115.

Where can I get more information?
http://ncifrederick.cancer.gov/News/Feature/NewPhoneSystem.aspx

Where do I go with questions?
Contact the NCI at Frederick Helpdesk at 301-846-5115 or fredhelpdesk@nih.gov

When I go to change the rings (on a 7945 or 7965 phone) I see a “Default Ring” and then each of my lines listed. Why?
Each line on your phone can have a different ring if you want. The default ring is the ring that all lines will use by default. If you change the default ring then all lines that you haven’t changed individually will use the new default ring. If you arrow down to a specific line and press the “Select” softkey you can select a ring for that specific line.

How can I view my missed calls (on a 7945 or 7965 phone)?
If you press the directories button the first three directories are “Missed Calls”, “Received Calls”, and “Placed Calls” You use the arrow keys to select any of these and then press the Select softkey or the checkmark at the center of the arrow key to view the corresponding list.

You can then use the arrow keys to scroll through the list. If you only have one line the date and time of the highlighted call will be displayed towards the bottom of the list. If you have multiple lines it will first display the line the call was received on then the date and time. If you want to dial the caller back you can press the dial key (the + in front of outside lines indicates that the system has recognized this as an outside number and you do not need to dial 9 for the call to work).

When looking at a Received or Placed call in the log you can press the more softkey followed by the Details softkey to view additional information including the duration of the call.

How does the alternate greeting work?
The alternate greeting can be used to record a temporary message, for example to use when you’ll be out of the office on vacation. You can easily switch between the alternate greeting and your “standard” greeting, and can even set the alternate greeting to turn off and switch back to your standard greeting at a specific time.

To enable and record an alternate greeting do the following:

  • Press the messages button
  • When prompted enter your PIN followed by #
  • Choose option 4 for “Setup”
  • Choose option 1 to change your Greetings
  • The greeting you currently have set is played. You can then choose option 2 to access the Alternate Greeting
  • If you want to set and end date to switch back from the alternate greeting to the standard greeting you can press 1 and follow the prompts, if you want the alternate to play until you go in and change it back press #2
  • Your alternate greeting will now play. If you want to change the recording you can press 1 and follow the prompts. If you are happy with the message you can press * and your alternate greeting will now be enabled. You can hang up at this point.

To switch back to the standard greeting from the alternate greeting do the following:

  • Press the messages button
  • When prompted enter your PIN followed by #
  • Choose option 4 for “Setup”
  • Choose option 1 to change your Greetings
  • The greeting you currently have set is played. If this is your alternate greeting and you want to change back to your standard greeting press 2.
  • Your standard greeting will now play. If you want to change the recording you press 1 and follow the prompts. If you are happy with the message you can press * and your standard greeting will now be enabled. You can hang up at this point.

How can I check my messages when I’m out of the office?
There are several options to check your voicemail when you are out of the office.

From a telephone you can do the following:

  • Dial 301-228-4900
  • When you hear the “Welcome to Cisco Unity Connection Prompt” press * followed by your extension and the # key.
  • The system will then prompt for your PIN followed by the # key just like when you press the messages button in your office
  • Once you enter your PIN you can interact with the voicemail system just like if you had pressed the messages button in your office.

If you have NIH webmail access your voicemail messages can be accessed along with your emails via the webmail client.

  • The message will be a wav file attachment to the email, on most computers double clicking the attachment will play the message.
  • Keep in mind that deleting the message from your email does not delete it from your phone, you will still need to delete the message from the phone when your return to the office.

How can I send all calls to voicemail so my phone doesn't ring?
The Cisco phone does this by forwarding your phone to the voicemail number. Press the “CFwdAll” softkey followed by the “Messages” button (the one that looks like an envelope). At the bottom of the screen the phone will say “Forwarded to Voicemail”. This affects only the primary line, if you have additional lines on your phone they will continue to ring.

To turn this off press the CFwdAll button again, and the call forwarding will be deactivated.

I have heard that there is a way to say the name of a person and have the system automatically connect me, how can I do this?
If you dial extension 3431 you will be prompted to say the first and last name of the person you are trying to reach, the system will attempt to match that to a person, and will then offer to connect your call. In the future this directory may include people at other NCI and NIH locations, however at this time it is limited to people using the NCI at Frederick phone system.

How do I get to the voicemail system from the new phones? I tried dialing 7000 but my PIN/password doesn’t work anymore.
When your phone is replaced you are setup with a new voicemail account as well, if you had one before. To access the new voicemail system you can simply press the messages button on your phone (looks like an envelope). Your PIN/password was reset as part of the change, the default PIN is in the documentation you should have received with the new phone. If this doesn’t work please feel free to open a ticket with the Frederick IT Helpdesk at 301-846-5115. If you need to get to your voicemail from a phone that doesn’t have a messages button, dial extension 4900, or if you’re not on our system call 301-228-4900. If dialing from a phone other than your own, press the * key when the voicemail system answers to indicate that you want to sign in. When prompted for your ID enter your extension, and then when prompted for your PIN/password enter the same PIN/password as you use to access your voicemail from your desk. You can then interact with the voicemail system in the same way you do when using your desk phone.

On the old system I had speed dials setup, how can I setup speed dials on the new system?
The Cisco VoIP phones allow you to setup what Cisco frequently refers to as “Abbreviated Dials” and sometimes as “Speed Dials”. To set these up you use a web site that connects to our Cisco phone system. Directions for accessing this web site and setting up these “Abbreviated Dials” are available through the Cisco Speed Dial Link.

Personally Identifiable Information (PII)/Protected Health Information (PHI)

What precautions should I take if I work with PII/PHI Information?
Employees who frequently deal with PII or PHI information should change their voice mail greeting to strongly request that callers not leave personal information that others not authorized to retrieve the information may hear.

Employees who frequently deal with PII or PHI information should request the feature in Unified Communications, whereby the voice mail the message is forwarded to the recipients e-mail, be disabled on their UC Phone by submitting a request to the IT HelpDesk @ fredhelpdesk@nih.gov.

What do I do if people leave PII/PHI Information on my voice mail?
If someone chooses to leave sensitive information including PII/PHI on voice mail that is forwarded to e-mail then it is the responsibility of the employee to not forward the e-mail unless encrypted.

International Calling

I used to be able to make international calls on the Avaya phone system but I cannot on my Cisco phone, why?
Only authorized users who have authorization codes have had their phones enabled for international calling. Any other users that need to have international dialing access need to request a code via a fillable form on the NCI at Frederick Website at https://ncifrederick.cancer.gov/Cad/Media/Documents/InternationalPhone.pdf. Telephone access codes are supplied on an individual, as needed basis, for work related calls only and are not to be shared amongst employees. Additionally, all Cisco conference room phones are being enabled as they are deployed. If you would like verification that a conference room phone is configured, or to request a fax machine be able to fax internationally, they need to send a request to fredhelpdesk@nih.gov to have international calling enabled.

Where do I go with questions?
Contact the NCI at Frederick Helpdesk at 301-846-5115 or fredhelpdesk@nih.gov.