Important Information For Administrators; Arranging Your Outside Lines: Pooled Or Square; About Pooled Systems; About Square Systems - AT&T MERLIN 3070 Administration Manual

Important Information for
Administrators
Familiarity with two basic concepts of system design will help you tailor the MERLIN
system to get the best fit for your business. You will need to know the difference
between pooled and square line configuration, as well as the importance of the unique
administrator/attendant console.

ARRANGING YOUR OUTSIDE LINES: POOLED OR SQUARE

The MERLIN system gives you two options for arranging your outside lines: pooled
or square configuration. In a pooled arrangement, several outside lines are grouped
together and represented by just two buttons on every voice terminal. Pooled opera-
tion does not confine you exclusively to the lines in the pool; telephones that need
individual lines can have them in addition to the pool. In a square arrangement, every
outside line is normally represented by a separate button on every voice terminal in
the system, except for those voice terminals with too few buttons to accommodate
all the lines. It is possible in a square system, however, to assign private lines to peo-
ple who have a special need for them.

About Pooled Systems

For most businesses large enough to need the Model 1030 or Model 3070 MERLIN
system, pooled operation is more efficient than square because:
The more pooling you do, the fewer outside lines you need. Since the lines in
the pool can be shared by many people, each line gets more use.
Only two buttons on each voice terminal are necessary to represent up to thirty
interchangeable lines, so you can use more of the smaller, less expensive voice
terminal models.
Voice terminal buttons that would otherwise represent lines can be used for
custom features—a substantial advantage in systems with a large number of
outside lines or many 5- and 10-button voice terminals.
All your lines do not have to be in the pool — any voice terminal can have
separate lines in addition to the pool. These may be special-purpose lines such
as personal or WATS lines. Assigning a special line to a button on one voice
terminal in no way affects the use of the corresponding button on other voice
terminals.

About Square Systems

In general, square systems are recommended only if you have fewer than eight out-
side lines. This is because each button used for a line could otherwise be assigned
a MERLIN system custom feature, and also because some voice terminals may not
have enough buttons to accommodate all of your lines. If your business has fewer
than eight outside lines, little need for many custom features, and you do not expect
this to change in the next year or two, a square system may be best for you. Here
are some of its advantages:
Many people are accustomed to using a square-type system, such as
®
COM KEY , and therefore require minimal training to adapt to a square MERLIN
system.
All lines appear on exactly the same line buttons at every voice terminal.
People can join in on calls simply by pressing the appropriate line button.
A person can pick up a held call at any voice terminal.
It is difficult to use many 5-button voice terminals in a square arrangement. No mat-
ter how many outside lines your company has, 5-button voice terminals are limited
to three line buttons because of the two fixed Intercom buttons. This means that
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