Chorus glossary
Explaining some key terms used in the Chorus phone system
The Chorus web portal allows you to set up your preferred devices and teleconferences, listen to voicemail, view call history and search the University directory.
Contact center is an application used to provide a call centre platform, including features such as call routing that depends on the time of day and call queueing.
'Executive assistant' working allows calls to a 'manager' to be automatically diverted to an 'assistant' - unless the caller is on a whitelist, in which case the call goes straight through to the manager. One assistant can monitor a number of managers, and make and receive calls on behalf of them.
This functionality also works in Telephony over Teams, as long as both the 'manager' and 'assistant' are on Telephony over Teams. However, note that there is not whitelist equivalent on Telephony over Teams.
Hunt groups are a method of distributing telephone calls from a single phone number to a group of several phone handsets. Within a set of people, calls to a phone number are distributed to a group of several desk phones - either one phone after another until someone picks up, or to all phones in the group at once. There is no need to dial a number to pick up the call.
Hunt groups are available in Telephony over Teams as long as the entire group is on Telephony over Teams.
OpenScape Mobile or OSMO is an app you can install on your Android or Apple mobile device to manage calls, preferred devices, voicemail, conferences, and more.
This feature will no longer be available from Chorus once the Chorus upgrade has been completed but the Teams mobile phone app will include Telephony if you have a Telephony over Teams licence.
Phoneman is a web interface for managing your phone extensions and for telephone administrators to manage Chorus users and accounts, and group working.
As of 1 March 2022, telephone coordinators can also see a column called "MS Teams" which indicates people who currently use softphone, mobile app or web portal features in Chorus, that will no longer be available after the Chorus upgrade, and who will therefore need to move to Telephony over Teams if they want to retain that functionality.
Pickup groups mean that, within a set group of people, anyone can pick up calls to a person’s phone from their own desk phone, by dialling **3.
If you are not in the office, then you can't make use of this Pick up group feature, as you will not hear someone else's desk phone ring. When you are in the office, if you are using a desk phone, then you will be able to continue to pick up someone else's desk phone. If you move to Telephony over Teams, then you will not be able to use this feature.
Softphone is an application for PC used in conjunction with a headset, speaker or microphone. It allows Chorus users to handle their calls, devices, conferences, and voicemails on their PC, including managed staff desktops. Softphones are available for Windows and for Mac and Linux.
This feature will no longer be available from Chorus once the Chorus upgrade has been completed. Softphone functionality to make and receive external and internal calls will be integrated into Teams if you move to Telephony over Teams.
Telephony over Teams is an add-on to the Microsoft Teams application, which requires an additional license. It allows you to make and receive external and internal calls using telephone numbers from within Teams, using a headset/speaker and microphone rather than a physical telephone handset.
If you move from Chorus to Telephony over Teams, you will keep your existing telephone numbers.
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