NOTE: This article is applicable to Sky customers. If you are a MiCloud customer, see the Managing Groups article for information about utilizing Groups in the MICloud Account Portal.
A Group is a customized grouping of members, which can include individual users/contacts (persons), phone numbers (profiles), and other groups. Groups provide members with access to functionality that is specific to their needs. The functionality that is controlled by the use of Groups in the Sky phone system includes the following:
Business Intelligence Reporting - Provides Group-based reporting that includes Live Answer, Talk Time, Call Activity, and other reports. For more information, see the BI Reporting article.
Group Features - Provides Group-based permissions that enable the use of restricted phone features that include Extension Dial, Watch, Park, Pickup, Intercom, and Group Voicemail. For more information, see the Group Feature article.
Authorized Contact Roles - Provides Group-based roles that give specific powers to a subset of users for managing aspects of their phone system. For more information, see the Authorized Contacts article.
Access is limited to Authorized Contacts (Decision Makers and Phone Managers).
Log in to the Account Portal with your username (typically email address) and user password.
Navigate to Organization > Account > Groups. The Groups screen opens displaying data in the following columns:
Name: The name that was entered when the group was created or last edited.
Description: The description of the group that was entered when the group was created or last edited.
Created: The date when the group was created.
Group Owner is a Team Manager
Groups are created by adding individual members or by adding other groups. Authorized Contacts create Groups and the designated Owner of each Group becomes a Team Manager. Only Team managers (and Authorized Contacts) have access to the Team menu in the Account Portal.
The Team menu provides Team Managers with the following ways to access phone data for members of their Groups:
In the Intelligence and Call Activity sub-menus, access a variety of customizable reports based on phone data for Locations and/or Groups
In the Manage sub-menu, manage Report Subscriptions to schedule email delivery of specific reports based on phone data for the members of their Groups
In the Add-on Features sub-menu, access Sky Replay Team Recordings for members of their Groups
Decision Makers and Phone Managers can log in to the Account Portal with username (typically email address) and user password.
Navigate to Organization > Account > Groups.
Perform one of the following actions:
To Create a new group, click Add on the toolbar, which opens the Manage Group wizard displaying the Properties panel.
Click the link in the Name column for the group you want to edit or right-click the desired Group and select the Edit option that appears.
In the Properties panel, perform the following:
Group Name: Provide an appropriate name for this group.
Description: Optionally, provide a description explaining the purpose of the group.
Group Scope: Select Account or Location as the scope for this group.
Account: If you want the new group to contain users from multiple locations, select Account.
Location: If you want the new group to contain users from a specific location, select Location, then select the desired location from the Location drop-down menu
Click Next, which displays the Members panel showing a list of all Groups, Persons, and Profiles associated with the selected account.
In the Members panel, perform any of the following to add members to the new group. (While viewing members, you can click a column heading to sort by Member Name, Location, etc. and click the column heading again to sort in the opposite order.)
Group: To add ALL members from one or more existing groups into the new group, in the area of the screen below the column headings, expand the Group list (click the + plus sign), scroll through the list, and select the check box (in the Add column) to add a check mark next to each desired group.
Person: Persons represent users and the associated roles and permissions. To add existing users/contacts into the new group, expand the Person list (click the + plus sign), scroll through the list, and select the check box (in the Add column) to add a check mark next to each desired person.
NOTE: If you intend to add new Authorized Contact roles that you want applied to all members of the group being created, only selected Persons (and Persons who are members of selected Groups) can utilize the permissions associated with each role type. These roles are usually added from the Add User wizard or the Roles and Permissions tab of the Personal Information screen.
Profile: Profiles represent phone numbers and the associated settings, features, and calling data. To add existing phone profiles into the new group, expand the Profile list (click the + plus sign), scroll through the list, and select the check box (in the Add column) to add a check mark next to each desired profile.
NOTE: When creating a new Group for use with Sky BI Reporting, which includes Talk Time, Live Answer, and other reports, select members from the "Profile" (or "Group) list in the Group wizard (do not select members from the "Person" list).
NOTE: If you intend to request Group Features permissions that you want applied to all members of the new group being created, only selected Profiles (and Profiles who are members of selected Groups) can utilize Group Feature functionality.
Add All: To add ALL members from all of the existing Group, Profile, and Person lists into the new group, click the "Add All" button located in the toolbar above the column headings. This adds a check mark next to every entry in the Group, Profile, and Person lists displayed on the screen. You can selectively remove check marks next to members you do not want to add to the new group. The Add All option does not restrict membership, so use this option carefully, especially when the Group Scope is at the Account level.
Import Members: Select this check box to add ALL of the users (from the Person list) for the selected Account or Location to the new group. The Import Members option does not restrict membership, so use this option carefully, especially when the Group Scope is at the Account level.
Remove All: To remove all members that you have already selected, click the "Remove All" button in the toolbar above the column headings.
Group members: To view the existing members of the group, click the "Group members" button on the toolbar. (This option is not valid when creating a new group because there are no existing members.)
Exclude: To exclude individual Persons and Profiles when adding an existing Group (all members) to the new group, in the Exclude column of the Members panel, select the check box next to each Profile and Person you want to exclude. This prevents the excluded members from having the same permissions assigned to all other members of the new group. Prior to doing this, see the Viewing Group Members section of this article to identify the Persons and Profiles you want to exclude.
The following image shows the Members panel in the Manage Group wizard:
Click Next, which displays the Roles panel that is visible to only Decision Makers and account-level Phone Managers. If you are a location-based Phone Manager, click here to skip to instructions for the Owners panel.
NOTE: Roles added to a Person in a Group can be removed only by editing that Group. For each role added via a Group, the option to delete that role is disabled in the Roles and Permissions tab of the Personal Information screen.
In the Roles panel, add any of the desired roles that you want to be applicable to ALL of the Persons (users/contacts) being added to the new group. For each selected role, determine if the role is applicable for the entire account or for only a specific location, and select the corresponding Account or Location option. When selecting the Location option, use the drop-down menu to select the desired location. Note that a role can only be added one time at the Account level and one time per Location for the Persons who are being added to the new group. To learn more about Roles, see the Authorized Contacts article. Valid Roles include:
Decision Maker
Phone Manager
Billing
Technical
Emergency
DataExport (Do not select this role. See the CDR Data Export article for related information.)
Click Next, which displays the Permissions panel, which is visible to only Decision Makers and account-level Phone Managers.
In the Permissions panel, click Add to add one or more group feature permissions that you want to be applicable to ALL of the Profiles (phone numbers) being added to the new group. For each added feature Permission, use the Scope menu to select the Group to which the feature will be applied. For example, if Feature Group Voice Mail is selected and a Group named Customer Service is selected in the Scope menu, all members of the Group being created will be able to send voicemail messages to all members of the Customer Service Group. The Name field, which appears to the right of Scope and is based on the selected Group and Permission, should not be changed. You can choose from the following feature permissions in the Permissions panel:
Feature Extension Dial: For more information, see the Group Features article.
Feature Group Voice Mail: When you add this permission, enter the desired voicemail group distribution number (1 to 4 digits) in the input field in the Option column. This distribution number will be used to broadcast or forward voicemail messages to the voicemail boxes associated with the extension numbers of all members of the Group selected in the Scope menu. If a 4-digit distribution number is used, make sure this number is not in the range of the existing extension numbers used in your Sky phone system. For more information, see the Group Voicemail article.
Feature Intercom: For more information, see the Intercom article.
Feature Park: For more information, see the Park article.
Feature Pickup: For more information, see the Pickup article.
NOTE: The following Group Features are not accessible to Authorized Contacts. To utilize these Group Features, create a Support Case to communicate the necessary information to Support.
Feature Barge: For more information, see the Barge article.
Feature Page: When you add this permission, the desired paging group access distribution number (2 to 4 digits) can be configured. This distribution number will be used to broadcast pages to the phones associated with the extensions of all members of the Group selected in the Scope menu. If a 4-digit distribution number is used, make sure this number is not in the range of the existing extension numbers used in your Sky phone system. For more information, see the Page article
400-series phones require dialing a star code (*74) and entering the group access extension number to use this feature on the phone.
Cisco phones require selecting the "Paging Groups" option in the Services menu to use this feature on the phone.
Feature Watch: For more information, see the Watch section of the Group Features article.
Click Next, which displays the Owners panel.
Select either the Persons or Groups option, then select one or more persons or groups from the left Find list box to move them to the right Owners list box using the arrow buttons located between the two list boxes.
NOTE: Each assigned Owner of a group becomes a Team Manager who will have access to all of the reports available in the Team menu of the Account Portal. This is useful when someone who is not a Decision Maker or Phone Manager needs access to the Team menu. This is not a required field.
Click Finish and the Groups (and Owners) are now enabled for use.
Deleting a Group
Decision Makers and Phone Managers can log in to the Account Portal with username (typically email address) and user password.
Navigate to Organization > Account > Groups.
In the Groups screen that opens, find the desired group, right-click anywhere in the row of the desired group, and select the Delete option in the menu that appears.
Click Yes when the confirmation pop-up message appears displaying Are you sure you want to delete this group.
Enabling Partner Access
When a Sky customer has referring partner who was the partner of record at the time of sale, the Partner Access button appears in the toolbar of the Groups screen.
If your account is associated with a referring partner and you are a Decision Maker for your account, you can enable a referring partner to implement changes to your phone system on behalf of your account. To enable a referring partner to access your account, click the Partner Access button, which is located in the toolbar of the Groups screen, and select the desired roles you want assigned to your partner. You can select Decision Maker or Phone Manager or both. For more information about enabling referring partners or new partners (established at a later date after the time of sale), see our Partner Access to Customer Account article.
Viewing All Permissions
Decision Makers and Phone Managers can log in to the Account Portal with username (typically email address) and user password.
Navigate to Organization > Account > Groups.
Click Permissions in the toolbar, which opens the Permissions screen displaying data in the following three columns:
Group Name: This is the group that has permission to use the feature listed in the Description column.
Description: This is the name of the feature.
Member: This is the target or scope of the feature (i.e., the group listed in the Group Name column has permission to use the feature on the group listed in the Members column).
Click Groups on the toolbar to return to the Groups screen.
Viewing Group Permissions
Decision Makers and Phone Managers can log in to the Account Portal with username (typically email address) and user password.
Navigate to Organization > Account > Groups.
In the Groups screen that opens, find the desired group, right-click anywhere in the row of the desired Group, and select the Permissions option in the menu that appears.
Viewing Group Members
Decision Makers and Phone Managers can log in to the Account Portal with username (typically email address) and user password.
Navigate to Organization > Account > Groups.
In the Groups screen that opens, find the desired group, right-click anywhere in the row of the desired Group, and select the Members option in the menu that appears.
Select each of the following options in the Group Members menu to view the associated members:
Group
Person
Profile
Telephone Number
Creating Reports With Groups
Decision Makers and Phone Managers can log in to the Account Portal with username (typically email address) and user password.
From the Team menu, select Live Answer By Group or Talk Time By Group.
Select the desired Group from the drop-down menu, click the From and To calendar icons to select a range of dates for the desired report data, and then click View Report.
Download the file by clicking the Save icon and choosing the format to download, then follow the prompts to save the file to a location on your computer.
NOTE: If you want to receive a recurring scheduled report by email, see Report Subscriptions. You can select the type of report, Group or Location to report on, report frequency, range of dates, delivery format, and email notification.
