This post applies to New Zealand systems only, as the recommendations are based on the current New Zealand Number Administration Deed

Recommendation – Dial ’7′ for internal

I have found that ’7′ seems to be the least common start digit for local NZ Number (The exceptions being a couple of regions in the 03 and 06 calling ranges – see caveat below)

It is my suggestion that you use ’7′ to lead all of your internal number on your system. The reason for this is with nothing else in this range external to your organisation, it is an easy way for you to destinguish internal and external calls at the dialplan level, speeding up dialing at the endpoint, and eliminating the need for a number to access an ‘outside line’.

Use ’7′ for all of your internal destinations, not just extension numbering, but any other dialable numbers like ring groups, hunt groups, PBX Features like Voicemail, Directory etc., IVRs and anything else dialable. Plan your numbering in advance and keep it Consistant (Same number of digits).

As a guide, assume that you may need up to 2x the numbering space as you expect to have users. This includes remote users or users who share desks. Use headcount rather than desk count here. Plan ahead – Don’t create extension space for 50 users if you know (Or even imagine) the organisation could have 500, or even 5000 users some time in the future. You don’t want to have to re-number every extension in the organisation at some point in the future.

The below table should give you an idea of the lenth you should make your numbering ranges, based on how many users you expect at peak

Caveat: If you are in one of the few local calling area where there are local numbers starting with 7 you will need to modify this strategy. My recommendation would be to either A) Require area code dialing on all calls, local included or B) Modify your dial plan to allow for the additional digits required to have local and extension numbers in the same rule. This would mean, depending on your setup, you may need a timeout to start dialing on the shorter extension numbers, or if your device allows it, press # or ‘Dial’ to proceed the call.

The study is published on the Blackberry website (here) so should probably be taken with a grain of salt for obvious reasons, however I find it’s results quite interesting.

The report suggests that “typical (median) end user converts 60 minutes of downtime into productive time per day” – That is one hour per day that the average user would be being paid for where they are not not productive into productive time – And the survey states they have taken a conservative approach.

For a person on a $40,000 salary, this equates to $5,000 per year of recovered productivity!

There are issues that the analysis does not cover, such as the social impacts of a constant connection to work, but from a business point of view the numbers sure do seem to stack up.

The survey puts the TCO at about $1,325 PA, so if the number are correct, that is a huge benifit to business.

I don’t use a Blackberry myself, any out of office email I do for work is done on a Laptop over a VPN connection. For those of you who DO use one, do you agree with the finding above?