New office phone; explain to me the point...

[catbus]

My company just upgraded everyone to new phones (as in, corded office phones, not cell) that are "optimized for Microsoft Lync 2010," which is the instant-messaging service we use. I understand the point of most of the features.

But what's the point of the phone showing my calendar? It just pulls the information from Outlook. Why would I need my phone to tell me the same thing Outlook does? :^)

[countthestars]

Not sure if this is what you are asking, but my Lync knows when I'm in a meeting and changes my status. If I get a call via Lync, my status will change to "on a call" so even if it wasn't on my calendar, my contact list knows not to call me. I don't particularly love Lync in general.

[catbus]

Jan 24, 2013 11:18:37 GMT -5 countthestars said:

Not sure if this is what you are asking, but my Lync knows when I'm in a meeting and changes my status. If I get a call via Lync, my status will change to "on a call" so even if it wasn't on my calendar, my contact list knows not to call me. I don't particularly love Lync in general.

I guess that might make sense... It's an odd phone. Some (but not all) of my computer sounds also come through it. It's going to take some getting used to.

[catbus]

Oh, IT just sent out the PDF manual for the phone. Looks like the purpose of the calendar is to join a meeting. So if someone in another location scheduled a conference call with me, I would go to my calendar on the phone, select the meeting, then select a "join" option. I GET IT.

[halfpint]

I don't know if does the same, but mine did the above (changed status to "on a call", etc., but also it was linked to Outlook. I would receive an email notification if I missed a call (and from whom), and an email if I had a voicemail. It made it a lot easier to manage all that info in one place, especially if you were working remotely.

Honestly, I miss it - I left that to work for a company that has Lotus Notes and AT&T phones from the 80s. Our payroll clerk still uses a typewriter.

[catbus]

Jan 24, 2013 12:15:03 GMT -5 halfpint said:

I don't know if does the same, but mine did the above (changed status to "on a call", etc., but also it was linked to Outlook. I would receive an email notification if I missed a call (and from whom), and an email if I had a voicemail. It made it a lot easier to manage all that info in one place, especially if you were working remotely.

Honestly, I miss it - I left that to work for a company that has Lotus Notes and AT&T phones from the 80s. Our payroll clerk still uses a typewriter.

I totally appreciate the phone-->Outlook connection, I was just having trouble understanding the Outlook-->phone connection. But now I get it. Yay!

And LOL about the typewriter. Aww. In my department we used to have to regularly request a document from a very large government agency. To do so, we had to use a typewriter to type a certain statement on a carbon paper document, then send that to them by mail for them to certify by stamp. Last year they finally updated to a digital version of the form. OMG it was frustrating to be almost done typing that stupid paragraph and then make a typo, because then we would have to start all over (they would not sign it if the wording wasn't exactly correct).

[evans]

I like that my calendar shows up on my phone because then I don't have to logon to outlook to see where I need to be if I'm running late.