Set up Sites

A site in 8x8 Work represents the location of your business. Your 8x8 Work service comes with sites already created for you, based on the information you have provided at the time of purchasing the service. As your business grows, you can create additional sites. Sites in 8x8 Work simplify administration for all endpoints within a site by applying common properties, such as emergency address, language, dial plan and time zone. Moreover, administrators can manage advanced call handling options such as receptionist dialing for the site.

Features

• Assign common address, language, and time zone to all users belonging to a site.
• Define a unique site code only when your business needs to reuse extension numbers across sites.
  • Users within a site call each other using short dialing. (Robin dials Sam using the extension number 1010)
  • Users across sites can dial each other using short dialing if the extension numbers are unique across sites.
  • Users across sites with identical extension numbers dial each other using site code + extension number. Let's say we have a business with three sites each with site code 100, 200, and 300 respectively. If a user from site 1 needs to talk to the site 1 receptionist, they simply dial 1001. If they need to talk to the receptionist of site 2 or site 3, they must dial the site code followed by the extension number 2001001.
• Identify a receptionist extension for each site. Having a site receptionist allows users to reach the receptionist when callers reach the voicemail of a user, call queue, ring group, or auto attendant within the site. They can dial 0 followed by # to be directed to the site receptionist.
• Define a main line number for the site which serves as the primary number to direct your site call traffic.
• Set the main line number as the caller ID for all users belonging to the site.
• Select the calling country based on the call traffic of the user. If a user handles most calls from Australia, select Australian numbering plan.
• In a single PBX phone system that is VCC enabled, all sites created are VCC enabled by default.
• In a multi-PBX phone system with 8x8 Contact Center, site association to the PBX should be based on whether the site will include VCC users or not.

Create New Sites

You can set up and manage sites from within 8x8 Work 8x8 Admin Console.

To create new sites:

1. Go to Sites > + Create Site.
2. Enter a Site Name.

3. If available, select a PBX. The PBX field appears only if you have a multi-PBX phone system. A PBX can be VCC enabled or not. For details, see VCC-enabled PBXs below:

   • Single-PBX Phone System: If your phone system has a single PBX and it is linked to a VCC tenant, then the PBX is VCC enabled. When you create a site within the VCC-enabled PBX, the site is automatically VCC enabled. When you create a VCC user, assign the user to the VCC-enabled (Contact Center) site. All VCC users must be assigned to a VCC-enabled site.
   • Multi-PBX Phone System: In a multi-PBX environment, creating sites and users must be planned ahead. In the Company page, you can view the VCC tenant name and the PBX name it is linked to. When you create a site which includes VCC users, you must ensure the site belongs to the VCC-enabled (Contact Center) PBX. While creating a VCC user, you must assign the user to a VCC-enabled site only. If you select a non VCC-enabled site, you will be disabled from assigning VCC services.

4. In Internal Dial Plan, enter a Site Code and an Extension Length. All sites belonging to a VCC-enabled PBX are VCC enabled by default. This ensures all VCC users are on the right site and the right PBX. By enabling site dialing, users from within the site are able to dial each other without specifying the site code (short dialing), but from outside the site they are only accessible by their qualified extension, site code + extension. For example: if the site code 101 has two extensions 10110 and 10111, users are able to dial each other by dialing just 10 and 11. You can enter up to ten digits for the combination of site code and extension length. For details, please refer to Understand Your Dial Plans.

   Note: Even with a defined site code, you can enter any extension length you like when creating a new user. If you do not follow the site code and the recommended length, the system warns you. However, you can save the user and function as long as the number is unique across all phone systems (PBXs). For example, if the system suggests 10100 for extension number and you change it to 101, a warning appears that "...not respecting the site dial plan may impact short dialing".

5. Enter your site's Address, or click to create a New address.
   A valid verifiable address is required for a site to meet the needs of emergency service providers. By default, the emergency address for all users within the site is set to the address of the site. If you have remote workers, you can override the emergency addresses on the user level as needed.

6. Specify the email address(es) to be notified when 911 is dialed from a number associated with this Site. It is a best practice to notify at least one user at the same location where the call is made

7. Select a Language.
   The language set at the PBX level is the default language until you select a new language for your site. The site language settings specify the default language of the system audio prompts, and the display language on the desk phones. By default, the language for all users within the site is set to the language specified at the site level. If you have a user who requires a different language, you are able to override the language at the user level.
8. Select a Time Zone.
   The time zone set at the PBX level is the default time zone, until you select a new time zone at the site level. If you have users in other time zones, you can set the time zone on the user level.
9. Enter a Default voicemail 0 out destination. You can search by user, service name, extension, or phone number.
   Having a site receptionist allows users to reach the receptionist when they reach the voicemail of a user, call queue, ring group, or auto attendant. When reaching the voicemail box, callers can leave a voicemail, or dial 0 followed by # to be directed to the site receptionist. See Enable Switchboard Pro to learn how you can add a site receptionist as a switchboard operator.
10. Select the Main Line Number.
    Main Line Number serves you as your site's main telephone number, and can be assigned to any user or service. You can select any available number from the claimed or ported numbers as your main line number. If you are in the process of porting a number to 8x8, you must wait until the porting is complete successfully to use it as your main line number.
11. Enable Set Main Number as Caller ID for all users belonging to this site.
12. Enable Share Main Number as Caller ID with all users belonging to this site.
13. Select the Calling Country.
    This field determines the default calling country for the user created within a site, but can be overridden by the administrator at the user level. Calling country is usually determined by the country the user calls the most. For example, if a user in US makes most of his calls to Germany, the calling country should be defined as Germany Numbering Plan.
    

Change Users Sites

You can change a user's site via bulk edit as long as the new site is located within the same phone system or PBX. When you change the users sites, the system does not allow you to change other values in the same bulk edit session. Save the new site before you can change other fields such as time zone or department.

With every site change, the following components may change:

Component	Change	Example
Extension	Changes if the site dialing (site code) is enabled.	For example, if the new site code is 7, the user's extension is automatically prefixed with 7. If the user moves again to a site prefixed with 8, the site code changes to 8.
Language	Changes to the new site's language only when the previous user's language is the same as the site’s language.	For example, if the user's language and the site's language are both French, when the site changes to German, the user's language also becomes German. However, when a user's language is French and the site's language is English, if the user moves to a new site with German language, the user's language will still remain English.
Time Zone	Changes to the new site's time zone if the previous user's time zone is the same as the old site’s time zone.	For example, if the user's time zone and the site's time zone are both US Pacific, when the site changes to UK time zone, the user's time zone also changes to UK time zone. However, when a site's time zone is US Pacific and the user's is UK, if the user moves to Australia, the user's time zone will remain US Pacific.
ANI	Changes to the new site's Main Line number if the new site uses mainline number as external caller ID.
E911	Changed to the new site's address if the previous user's address is the same as the old site’s address.	For example, if both user's and site's addresses are San Jose, when the site changes to San Francisco, the user's address also changes to San Francisco. If you register an invalid email address for emergencies - the email addresses having no dot (.) in the domain part and email addresses with a suffix apostrophe (') - do not passed the validation.
Receptionist	No Changes to the new site's receptionist.
Dial Plan	No Changes to the new site's dial plan.

Note: The site change is only possible through Bulk Edit. To change the site of a single user, go to Home > Users, select the user you want to update his/her site and click Bulk Edit, then change the user’s site.

Note: If you have to move a user across phone systems, you must delete the user then create the user again in a site that belongs to the new phone system.

To change a user’s site:

1. Go to the Users page and select the users you would like to change.
2. Click Bulk Edit.
3. Select Site and click to choose one from the list.
4. Click Continue.

5. Review the report to see whether all selected users have moved to the new site then click Confirm Bulk Edits. A task will be created. You can monitor its progress in the Tasks area.

   

FAQ

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