Sites and departments

Sites and departments are labels that group your users. A site is usually a location, such as “Main Office” or “Warehouse.” A department is a team, such as “Sales” or “Billing.” Neither changes how calls ring on its own, but both make a growing phone system easier to run.

What they’re good for

• Filtering. Search users, call history, and phone hardware by site or department.
• Location defaults (sites). New users added to a site start with that site’s time zone, area code, caller ID, and emergency caller ID, so you don’t have to set them one by one.
• Hold music (sites). Give each location its own music on hold. See Music on hold.
• Call pickup. Dial *34 to answer a call ringing anywhere at your site, or *37 for one ringing in your department. See Star codes.
• Park spots. Limit which parked calls people see in ConnectUC. See Call park.
• Site Managers. A Site Manager can manage the users at their own site only, which suits a company with a manager at each branch.
• Contacts and ringtones. In ConnectUC, people can group contacts by site or department, and give a department’s calls its own ringtone.

Create a site

1. Go to Users and open the Sites tab.
2. Select Add Site.
3. Enter the Site Name. It can’t be changed later, and it can’t match a department name.
4. Fill in the defaults you want new users at this site to start with: Timezone, Area Code, Caller ID, and Emergency Caller ID. Leave a field blank to use your company’s default.
5. Select Add Site.

The Sites tab lists each site with its time zone, area code, and how many users, queues, and connected phones it has. Select those numbers to see the list behind them. Use the buttons on a site’s row to change its music on hold, edit its defaults, or delete it.

Heads up: Site defaults only apply to users created with Add User after the site exists. They don’t change existing users, and users brought in with Import don’t pick them up. Time frames and phone numbers can’t be set per site.

Put users and other items in a site or department

• New user: choose the Site and type the Department when you add them. See Add a new user or extension.
• Existing user: select the user, and on the Profile tab fill in Site or Department, then select Save. To take someone out, clear the field and save.
• Auto attendants, call queues, and conferences have a Site field too, so you can keep each location’s menus and queues together.

Departments don’t need to be created ahead of time. Type the same department name for everyone on the team, and keep the spelling consistent.

Make someone a Site Manager

Site Managers must belong to a site first. Then contact Dial Raven support to give them the Site Manager role. See User roles and what each one can do.

Common questions

Do I need sites if I have one office?

Not really. Departments alone are usually enough for filtering, pickup groups, and ringtones.

Can I remove a site or department from everyone at once?

Clear it user by user on the Profile tab. For a whole-company change, contact support and we’ll help.

Should each site have its own emergency caller ID?

Yes, if your locations have different addresses. Set the site’s Emergency Caller ID to a number registered at that site’s address, and dial 933 from a phone there to check. See Emergency calling (E911).

Related articles

• Add a new user or extension
• User roles and what each one can do
• Call park
• Call history and call details