The hot desk feature allows for a temporary or communal workstation. For instance, in an office environment, multiple devices can be setup in a centralized location. These devices would then be solely utilized by visiting supervisors, traveling salespersons, and other users who do not have a permanent workstation.

The devices do not belong to a single person; they belong to anchor extensions. The user activates one of the devices (via feature code or the Portal), which will then route that user's inbound calls to the device until deactivated. It will act as if the device is the user's personal one; that is, until the user is released from the device.

Prerequisites

• Phones should be programmed as hot desk phones without an assigned owner.
• Users must have their extension and voicemail PIN.
• Use extensions 97900-97999 as the anchor extensions. They will display the logged in extension's name and number internally.

Caution: Hot desking should only be performed on phones configured specifically for this purpose. Logging into someone's personal phone can forward their calls to you, effectively disabling their extension.

Use Cases

Hot Desking is particularly useful in:

• Shared Workspaces: Where employees do not have fixed desks and use any available desk.
• Shift-Based Work Environments: Where different employees use the same desk at different times.
• Remote Offices: Allowing employees to log in at different locations maintaining the same extension.

General Rules
1. Activating a device will release the previous user if they forgot to release themselves.

2. After the device is activated, the user's calls are automatically routed to the device and call statistics will be recorded as usual.

3. The phone's physical display will always display the anchor device's extension in the account label section. However, the line appearances will change to the current owner's first name//last name//extension when the dynamic tokens are used in the SNAPbuilder "label" field.

4. MWI will reflect the current owner of the anchor device's voicemail box status.

FAQs

What is a hot desk's caller ID?

On-Net Calls
When hot-desking into a device, and then placing an on-net call, the destination device will display the user's caller ID and not the device's. If my extension is 1004, and I call another user in my office while hot-desking, they will see x1004 as the caller ID. When the hot desk is released, it will return ownership to the anchor extension (not a real person). The caller ID from the device would now display the device's anchor extension (such as x9876) when making a call.

Off-Net Calls
When hot-desking into a device, and then placing an off-net call, the destination device will display the user's caller ID. Nothing is different from the above scenario except the device will show the user's DID rather than an extension and then the device's DID (rather than an extension) when released.

What number will display on the hot desk device?

**If you use extensions 97900-97999 they will display the logged in extension's name and number internally.**

On a SNAPbuilder-enabled phone model, navigate to SNAPbuilder and add a "custom label" line appearance key as follows.

SNAPbuilder will read this label and fill in the tokens accordingly. You can use one or all of them below.
[[first_name]] [[last_name]] [[extension]]

Do incoming calls still display caller ID on the hot desk?

Yes. Incoming calls from an off-net or an on-net call will display incoming caller ID like normal.

How is CDR handled for a hot desk?

CDR captures the default user (the anchor extension) as the number, and the caller name as the hot desk user.

How are call queues handled for a hot desk?

Add Agent by "User"

When the Call Center Agent is added to the queue by "User" and when the queue receives a call, then all devices ring simultaneously (including the hot desk). 

Add Agent by "Phone"

When the Call Center Agent is added to the queue by "Phone" and when the queue receives a call, then the agent's phone will ring and not the hot desk.

Can I hot-desk into multiple devices at one time?

No. As soon as you hot-desk into a second device using your same user account, then you will be released from the previous device.

Will my soft keys follow me to the hot desk device?

No. Soft keys are configured per device, and not per user. A user's device configuration will not follow them to another device.

I. Create a Dedicated Hot Desk Device & Anchor User

Step 1: Create the Anchor User

1. First create an anchor user. This should not be a real user, although they are created the same way. This user will own the hot desk device.
   
   
2. Navigate to the Portal > Select a Domain > Users.
   
   
3. Create the anchor user as you would any other user, with the following exceptions:

   Name	Create an easily identifiable name to differentiate this anchor user from real users. Example:
   Extension	In order to ensure that there are no unexpected conflicts in the future, we recommend using extensions 97900-97999 so that naming works correctly.
   Scope	Can be whatever you would like them to be.
   Enable Voicemail	The option to "enable voicemail" is checked by default. Leave this checked.
   Add Phone Extension	This is important! Make sure "add phone extension" remains checked (it's the default choice). This will also create the user device, which is not a phone configuration. It is a SIP endpoint that the phone config uses to register the phone against.

Step 2: Add the Hot Desk Device (Phone Hardware)

1. The next step is to add the MAC address(es) for the dedicated hot desk devices. The extension schema should have already been decided at this point, since the anchor users have already been created. Remember the schema when assigning devices to extensions.

2. Navigate to the Portal > Inventory > Phone Hardware. Add the device, making sure to use the correct MAC address, and assign Line 1 to the anchor user's extension.

II. Apply Tokens to SNAPbuilder Template (Recommended)

Dynamic and static tokens can be applied on a per-brand or per-device basis. This is not required, but it is highly recommended. It ensures that the hot desk device displays the logged-in user's name and extension as Line 1. 

1. In the Portal, navigate to Inventory > Phone Hardware > SNAPbuilder dropdown arrow > "Manage Configuration Templates".
   
   
   
2. Select the appropriate template. For instance, if all of the Yealink SIP-T54S device's are being used for hot-desking, select that template.
   
   Notice that the "Line Appearance" for Line 1 is already set as a dynamic line. This is important and means Line 1 will change depending on set variables.
   
   
   

3. Now choose tokens that should populate as Line 1. Any combination of static text (it will never change) and dynamic tokens (changes based on who logs into the phone) work here. Type it in the "Custom Label (Optional)" field underneath Line 1.
   
   Here is an example that uses only tokens (which are inherently dynamic):
   [[first_name]] [[last_name]] [[extension]] with spaces in-between, resulting in: Bob Smith 4545 appearing on Line 1

   Here is an example that uses a combination of static text & dynamic tokens: hot desk [[first_name]] [[last_name]] [[extension]], resulting in hot desk Bob Smith 4545 appearing on Line 1

   

4. Save changes to the template.

5. Navigate to Inventory > Phone Hardware.
   
   Check the box, or multiple boxes, for the devices that are used for hot-desking and require the template you just created.
   
   Then click on the SNAPbuilder dropdown arrow > "Apply a template to selected devices".
   

6. The configuration template modal will list the available templates. Select the right one and then click either "apply" (and resync later) or choose to "apply and resync" now. Resyncing will reboot the devices.
   
   In this example, here is what happens if you attempt to apply a template to a different model than the template was configured for (notice the error message).
   
   Make sure the devices you are selecting match the model you chose to configure a template for. 
   

V. Portal Configuration

Modifying Users

This section explains how to manually add a hot desk user.

1. In the Manager Portal, navigate to Your Domain > Users > Add User.
   
   
    
2. Create a user that will be associated with the hot desk feature. Note that each user who uses the hot desk feature requires their own user account. Repeat this process as needed for the number of users who need to access the hot desk workstation (assuming they don't already have a user account). 
   • The name of the user will be the name of the employee who is using the feature, rather than the generic name given here. 
   • You can uncheck "Add Phone Extension" if this user will not have their own device and they will be using the hot desk devices only.

1. On the phone, either dial *75 or press the HD Login button.
2. You will be prompted to enter your account number, which is your extension, followed by your voicemail PIN and the # key.
3. You will hear a readback of your extension and will be asked to press 2 to log in.
4. Listen for a confirmation message that you have successfully logged in.
5. The phone will reboot to provision itself to be the user that logged in.

Configure Dial Translations

The next step is to configure the required dial translations. There are 2 dial translations that must be added in order for on-net outbound calls to appear as if they are from the hot desk user (rather than from the hot desk device); 1 for dialing on-net outbound calls and 1 for forwarding to on-net outbound calls. 

1. Navigate to the Admin UI > Dial Planning > Dial Translations. 
   
2. The first dial translation rule is for on-net 4-digit dialing from the hot desk device. Add the rule as follows, paying close attention to the highlighted fields: These will be at the domain level of the domain using the hot desk feature.
   
   Destination Host Translation: <OwnDomain>This will be the domain itself
   Source Name Translation: <CallerName>
   Source User Translation: <CallerUser>
   
3. The second dial translation rule is for forwarding calls to an on-net 4-digit extension from the hot desk device. Add the rule as follows, paying close attention to the highlighted fields:
   
   Destination Host Translation: <OwnDomain>This will be the domain itself
   Source Name Translation: <CallerName>
   Source User Translation: <CallerUser>
   

Troubleshooting

If needed, navigate to the Admin UI Core Module > Connections > User Devices to view the owner of the device. 

Here is the hot desk device when no agent has activated it. In this example, the anchor extension is "1001".

Here is the hot desk device when an agent activates the device. In this example, the agent's extension is "876".