Chorus glossary

Notice: Telephony replacement project

In response to BT switching off analogue lines in late 2025, the Telephony Replacement Project is currently coordinating the replacement of centrally managed analogue and critical phone lines.  In future (likely later in 2025) the project will also be reviewing the Chorus VOIP (digital line) service. For more information see the Telephony replacement project webpage.

 

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Chorus is the telephone system for Oxford University, providing voice calling, voicemail and desk phones.

'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.

Phoneman is a web interface for managing your phone extensions and for telephone administrators to manage Chorus users and accounts, and group working.

Users can also be moved from Chorus to Telephony over Teams (and vice versa, if required) on the phoneman Numbers view.

Chorus does not have a softphone or mobile app; users will need to move to Telephony over Teams if they require 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.

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.

To view information about your phone, directory status and dialling permissions


Phoneman

 

To change voicemail settings (Needs VPN)


Voicemail

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