FAQs
Q: What is Unified Communications?
A: Unified communications (UC) is the integration of real-time communication services such as instant messaging (chat), presence information, telephony (including IP telephony), video conferencing, call control and speech recognition with non-real-time communication services such as unified messaging (integrated voicemail, e-mail, SMS and fax). UC is not a single product, but a set of products that provides a consistent unified user interface and user experience across multiple devices and media types.
UC also refers to a trend to offer Business process integration, i.e. to simplify and integrate all forms of communications in view to optimize business processes and reduce the response time, manage flows, and eliminate device and media dependencies.
UC allows an individual to send a message on one medium and receive the same communication on another medium. For example, one can receive a voicemail message and choose to access it through e-mail or a cell phone. If the sender is online according to the presence information and currently accepts calls, the response can be sent immediately through text chat or video call. Otherwise, it may be sent as a non real-time message that can be accessed through a variety of media.
Q: How do I fix the date and time on my ShoreTel phone?
A: The time is pulled from the server that you use as your time source, usualy a domain controller. To find what server the time is being pulled from – While the handset is in the cradle, hit the mute button on your phone and then type INFO# (4636#) on the keypad, this will bring you to the information currently configured on the phone. Continue to hit the # key until you get to the value of SNTP, the IP address that it is showing (ie. x.x.x.x) is the IP of the server that the time is coming from. Check the time on that server to ensure that it does in fact have the right time. Once the time on the server is corrected it will push the right time to the phones (the phone pulls the time from the server every 2 minutes).
Also, at the beginning of your ShoreTel install, we may have asked you to setup 2 options in you DHCP scope — option 004 which will point to your time source and option 156 which will let the phones know what the FTP (ShoreTel Server) IP address is so that it can pull it’s firmware. I would verify that option 004 has been setup properly and the time source you have selected has the right time.