Assigning more than one number to a user

[Tawnytim]

I'm a one-person small business.  I have two phone numbers and two phones in the office.  I'd like both phones to receive calls on both numbers but when I go to assign my numbers, it looks like it will only allow me to assign one of the two numbers to my user account.  How to I accomplish what I'm looking for?

Redacted screenshot 

[Vinnie]

I haven't seen that "limitation" you are showing in the screenshot, but I only work with Business/Enterprise accounts which allows you multiple PSTN numbers to be allocated to a single user.

Question: Do you have/see the capacity to add Share Lines in your Zoom Phone Administration Portal? If you do, maybe you can create 2 Shared Lines (one telephone number on each) and add the Share Lines to both phones.
Are you trying to add the lines to the Phones itself? or the the Users? Maybe it is a limitation of the phone itself that won't allow more than one line at a time, in which case the Share Line option most likely won't work either.
What is the phone model?
Can you provide more details? Or maybe a larger screenshot that shows 

[Tawnytim]

Thanks for the speedy response!  I'm actually not ported in yet but trying to get everything set up ahead of time so I can avoid downtime.  That said, currently my phones and numbers are ringing through Flowroute and the 3CX PBX.  I do have a shared line option it appears - although that feels more like a workaround. 

More screenshots 

[Vinnie]

Hello @Tawnytim 
I read your question again and I misinterpreted the first time around: In Zoom you cannot assign directly the same telephone number to multiple users, you have to do it either via a SHARED LINE or a CALL QUEUE, at least for Incoming Calls; there are other tricks like Delegating, Additional Device Ringing for a user, but those require a less organized/reliable way of doing it and with a more configuration overhead.
Share Lines or Call Queues: "This is the way"
During porting, once the numbers show in your Zoom Portal, you should be able to allocate them for all your configurations.

[Tawnytim]

OK, that clears it up.  So do I need to create a fake second user(complete with email and everything) so that I can assign both numbers, one to me and the remaining number to the fake user account?

[Vinnie · Accepted solution]

1. To allocate external number to a user it requires the user to have a Phone License: If you have only one User License, that is not an option, at least not by itself, unless you buy another license.
2. Common Area Phones also require to have a license per phone, and if you don't have that, then that option is very likely discarded as well, unless you buy the License...but please try, maybe I am misinformed here for non-enterprise accounts.
   • If you in fact can do Common Area Phones, the create two (2) Shared Line Groups with one Telephone Number on each, and then allocated both Shared Lines to Both Zoom Phone Desktop Phones.
3. The option I see can let you add multiple phone to an entity without the need to a license are Auto Receptionist and Call Queues:
   • So you can create one (1) Call Queue and put both numbers there.
   • Create two (2) "Fake Users" and make them members of the Call Queue, and this will resolve the INBOUND calls part of it.
   • Only users with a Zoom Phone License will be able to make Outbound Calls and/or SMS

Let me know which one you like better, and actually works for your particular situation.

[Tawnytim]

OK.  I do have 2 licenses because I was told by the sales person that one number==one license and I have two numbers.  I'm sure I can hobble this together from here.  Thanks for your help!

[Vinnie]

Happy to help. If you don't mind, let me know how it went; I think other people could benefit from your experience. Enjoy it!

[Vinnie]

I am glad I was able to help. Enjoy "playing" with Zoom Fun...I mean Zoom Phone. 

😁

[aitc]

Hi Vinnie, how about 100+ inbound only ported numbers? Each inbound number identifies a certain product to the limited number of agents who answer any of the calls. Since I would rather not assign 50 fake users, which approach would you take?

[Vinnie]

We will have to look into limitations of the Physical Phone itself as I am not sure you can allocated 100+ lines/telephones to a single device; there are multiple factors to consider; you don't need 50 fake users but just the 2, but as many ZAR or ZCQ as telephone numbers, but to scale it that much we need to look into system limitations like: i.e. How many ZCQ a single user can be part o, as that would limit the amount of telephone lines you can user before being forced you to use ZAR instead and change the architecture; it would be "stretching" it too much: If you need scalability beyond certain level (still to be determined), I would recommend a different route.

There is a limit to what you can do with a one or two licenses and one or two users using Zoom Phone with what comes out of the box; using APIs you could develop an external application that helps enhancing what can be done, but I suspect it won't be very practical to your need.

It would recommend testing something like this:

1) Create 2 generic users with its licenses.

2) Create 2 desktop phones and allocate each phone to its own user from 1)

3) Create 2 ZCQ and make both users members and each one with its own telephone number.

----- If this works as you expect by calling each telephone number then...

4) Create 2-3 additional ZCQ (No external numbers unless you have them) and allocate both users from 1) to it just like you did in 2)

-----Call internally the ZCQ from 3) and if works as expected ringing on both phones then...the limit for the amount of telephone lines you could scale to would be as how many ZCQ a single user can be part of.

I would rather recommend you using Zoom Contact Center instead of Zoom Phone, but I think Desktop Physical Phones aren't supported yet, but if that is the not the case, you could handle as many telephone numbers as you need, with only one or two Users/Agents, adding at the same time somewhat powerful automation when it comes to handling Incoming calls.

Vincenzo C.

[aitc]

Thanks for the insights. I am deep in custom Zoom APIs at the moment so I will try the recommended tests and see where I get. I prefer the DIY approach for customization 🙂