Big Bend Technology – Updates

What: BBCC will switch to a new telephone system.

When: November 8, 2022, from 5:00 PM to 10:00 PM

We will soon be switching from our Cisco phone system to a new service provided by 8×8 (8-by-8). With 8×8, we’ll be able to replace our aging telephony platform with a cost-effective cloud-based solution.

Benefits:

• Take your phone anywhere you have internet: Make calls from the Teams client on your laptop, your cell phone, or in a web browser.
• View Presence to see if your co-workers are available before you dial.
• Easily turn your call into a video meeting
• Scan codes are not needed to dial long-distance from the new phone system

Transition:

• Switch-over will start at 5:00 PM on November 8, 2022. Making and receiving calls will not be possible for several hours.
• Any phone calls in progress at 5:00 PM will be dropped.
• Following the transition, desk phones will not work.
  •  Important: You might lose network and Internet access if you unplug your desk phone. Do not unplug your phone. BBT staff will unplug and collect them later.

Training Video:

• A training video is available. This video has been broken into chapters to make it easier to navigate to parts of interest.
• The video can be found here: Training Video

Additional Resources:

• Call handling
• Accessing voicemail and additional 8×8 features
• Calls on the Microsoft Teams mobile app
• Voicemail menu navigation

Q&A:

The training video can be found here: Training Video

Most phone lines will not have SMS or FAX options available.

Yes! In addition, live translation is also available. Learn more at the link below:

Jabber will be retired. Instead, Microsoft Teams will be used to make phone calls.

We will not be replacing desk phones. With the new phone system, we will be transitioning to softphones.  Similar to Jabber, phone calls will be made with your computer.