Set up 8x8 Work Contacts

A contact is a user without 8x8 services (licenses) and permissions. To create a contact, enter the basic information such as first name, last name, email, username, and site. The contact is created and added to the users list but cannot function as a user as no services or licenses are assigned to them yet. To create a contact in 8x8 Work, from the main menu in 8x8 Admin Console, go to Users > + Create User. You can save a contact and later upgrade it to a VO User with additional features. To create multiple contacts at once, see Create Users in Bulk.

To create a contact, enter first name, last name, and email address, then continue to add the following fields as needed:

• Username: By default, the system recommends a username created from company name, first name, and last name, and notifies you if a duplicate exists. For example, John Smith of AcmeJets Corporation sees this username by default: AcmeJets.John.Smith. If you wish to create a different username, it must be unique and never used before.
• Site: Site is the location of your business. By default, your phone system is assigned to a site based on the service address provided. The emergency address and language fields are derived from the site. The site's country is the default address country in the user account. You can modify the above values if needed. See how to set up sites.
• Language: Language controls the language of the voice prompts, email notifications, and device display.
• Time Zone: Time zone is used for downloading call recordings, viewing call queues, and scheduling and running reports when logged in as the current administrator.
• Contact Directory Scope: Define whether the user can view contacts and other users in the same PBX, site, or the entire company. A company can have multiple phone systems, multiple sites, and many users. For example, AcmeJets company has two phone systems and three sites. You can choose the user to be visible at the PBX level or at the site level.
• Display contact in company directory: You can hide users, rings groups, call queues, internal fax numbers, etc., from the public in the company's contact directory. If the display option is disabled, the name and number is no longer visible in contacts. To hide a user from the company's directory, go to Home > Users > Basic information. Click to disable the Display contact in company directory, and save the user.

Under Additional information, add job title, address, department, personal phone number, and custom fields if enabled.

• Job title: Enter the job title of the user.
• Department: Enter the department the user belongs to by using up to 100 characters.
  
• Personal contact number: Enter the user's personal contact number such as home or mobile number. The personal contact number appears on the user's 8x8 Work for Desktop and 8x8 Work for Mobile. If you enable Display contact in company directory in the user profile, the user's personal contact number will also appear in the company directory. For details, see our FAQ content on how to add a mobile number.
  
• Custom fields: If custom fields are enabled, they are visible as Custom Field 1, Custom Field 2, and Custom Field 3. Learn more.

Support for custom fields for migrated customers

Classic 8x8 customers who are being migrated to the X series platform are now able to access the custom fields in the contact directory. Let's say you have previously defined custom fields such as Employee ID or Company Division in Account Manager, they are now visible as Custom Field 1 and Custom Field 2 in your new 8x8 Admin Console.

Limited availability

As an 8x8 customer, you will have custom fields enabled if:

• You are being migrated from Classic to X Series (i.e. not available for native X Series customers)
• You have used custom fields for the user profiles in Account Manager (i.e. have data already)

Features

• All customers see a refined layout of the User details page.
• The Basic information section is split into Basic information and Additional information.
• Basic information holds mandatory fields and key functional fields.
• Additional information holds contact info such as address, job title, department and, if enabled, custom fields.
• Three custom fields are shown in the Additional information section.

Limitations

• Custom fields cannot be turned on or off individually
• Custom field names and types cannot be modified
• Existing names are retained during migration
• Custom field names are not shown in 8x8 Admin Console
• Custom field names are visible in Switchboard Pro
• Custom fields cannot be set or modified via bulk file upload

FAQ

Refer to the following frequently-asked questions for more information: