Here are the details we will need in order to set up your new Horizon account, or add a new user.

You can of course add users yourself once you have your admin account but we’re happy to do this for you as part of the setup process if we have the necessary information.

For multi-site systems we may ask for additional information.

If you’re unsure of any answer, give us a call, and don’t worry, there are only two items we can’t change later and these are not seen by anyone but you and us. There are notes at the bottom of the list to help you.

Admin account

We need the name of the person who will be the administrator of the Horizon system for your system.

• First and last name,
• preferred username (6-30 characters)
• email address,
• contact phone number
• optionally, mobile number. 

Service setup details. 

• Company name
• Number of sites
• SIP domain
• Number of digits in extension number (3, 4, 5) 
• Call recording enabled? 
• Site address(es). Also contact name and details for each site. For the first site, we assume the admin user given above will be site contact unless you say otherwise. 
• Number of phones.  
• Number of subscriptions. Normally the same as the number of phones. 
• Number of phone numbers.

Users

For each user of the system, we need to set up a user account. Unless you would prefer to handle this part of the process yourself once you have your admin account, we need to know

• First and last name
• Preferred username (6-30 characters) 
• Mobile phone number (optional but recommended)
• Email address
• Model of phone required
• DDI required

Notes

Company name – doesn’t have to be an actual company. It’s the name we give your Horizon system within our administration and billing system so it can be anything so long as it identifies you. It will appear on your Horizon portal screens and on our management screens.

Sites – if you operate out of more than one office, Horizon likes to split your users up into separate groups within the system. So your London users (say) will appear on list one, and your Glasgow users on list two. Features such as hunt group operate within the site. If you have one main site and some “homeworkers”, we suggest the homeworkers are all shown as working at the main site. Give us a call if you want to explore the pros and cons of different ways of arranging things.

SIP domain. This forms part of your username, you’ll need to add it when you log in to the portal, and it will be used if you use our instant message “chat” service to speak to Horizon users outside your company – within your company it isn’t used. It is NOT the same as your internet domain, but it must be unique and ideally should identify with you – accordingly if you have an internet domain we suggest you use the same as your SIP domain, e.g. mycompany.com. If you are unsure what to use, we can of course help!  This can’t be changed later so we will take the time to get it right!

Extension digits. The number of digits in “internal” phone numbers, e.g. 301 for Mike, 302 for Shirley, 303 for Reception… Three digits is generally enough for a single site Horizon system where you don’t expect to have more than 100 users. With multi-site systems, we recommend four digits, so the first digit can reflect the site, e.g. 3000 – London reception, 3001 MD, 3002 Accounts, 4000 Glasgow reception, 4001 branch manager… You can’t change this later!

Call Recording. If call recording is enabled, and it will be unless you ask otherwise, then you can turn on recording for an individual call, all calls, or a random number of calls chosen by the system. If you record calls, it’s up to your ADMIN user(s) to “housekeep”, log in and download the recorded calls, and delete them from the server when not needed. There is a charge for calls stored on the system, so to prevent accidentally turning on call recording and running up additional costs, we can disable this for your system. It can be changed, either way, later, if the situation changes.

Number of phones. Number of subscriptions. You need a phone for each user to have on their desk. If you want to have additional phones, in meeting rooms, front desk, or for users to work from home, you will need to add “users” for these and assign them a phone each. You need a subscription for each active phone/user. But you can also order phones as “hot spares” so you can swap out a faulty unit at once, or create a new user without having to wait for a new phone to be delivered. If you order spare phones, you do not need to order subscriptions for them. If you swap out a faulty phone, you remove the old phone and add the new phone to the user and continue to use the same subscription. If you add a new user, you will need a new subscription activated, but this can be done in minutes, where a new phone may take a couple of days to arrive and configure.

Extension numbers.  If you want to choose extension numbers for your users, perhaps to match the numbering of your old system, let us know. If you don’t give us anything, we will by default assign numbers to each user as we create the account starting with 301.  Also by default we will set the extension number for your Voice Portal to 666 – that is, the number to dial from your Horizon phone to access your voicemail.   If you wish to assign your own numbers, there are no restrictions save that we suggest you don’t use numbers starting with 1 or 9 to avoid potential confusion and misdials with emergency service numbers, etc.

Number of phone numbers. User DDI. If you wish to assign a user’s phone with its own individual phone number, indicate here. The number can be one from a new range assigned with your Horizon system, or it can be a number “ported in” from your old system or phone lines. This can easily be changed later so don’t worry if you haven’t decided yet. If you assign a ported-in number, we can’t set it up until the porting is complete, and we don’t normally carry out the porting process until the Horizon system is setup and running safely. You will also need a DDI for the Voice portal, and for any Hunt Groups or Auto Attendants you may need to set up, so we usually assign a few extra ones. We can always add more numbers later but we can’t guarantee that later numbers will be in the same sequence.