Chorus, the University’s phone system, is being upgraded on 5 July 2022 [article updated with revised date on 22 June]. This upgrade will provide increased system stability and security, bringing Chorus back into support and replace ageing hardware.
There will be very little change for most people who only use desk phones and voicemail accessed via their desk phone or email attachment.
Telephony over Teams
Around 1,500 people at Oxford currently use features that will not be included in the upgraded version of Chorus: the web portal https://web.chorus.ox.ac.uk/ (for setting preferred device), OpenScape Mobile (OSMO) phone app and a softphone. This set of people are being offered Telephony over Teams, which offers similar functionality by providing a dial pad in Teams for making and receiving calls, and will be moved over from May, before the Chorus upgrade.
People who are in a phone group with someone who is eligible to get Telephony over Teams are also being offered the new service, because when you are group working, everyone in the group must be either on Chorus or have Telephony over Teams.
The project is currently working closely with IT support staff and telephone coordinators to confirm who should be in this group. Individuals will be contacted in early May and no one will be moved to Telephony over Teams without advance notice.
Other ways of doing things
Although we are offering Telephony over Teams to some people, for many this isn’t necessarily required. If you only make internal calls within the University, you can use Teams without telephony to contact people and you can add external people to a Teams meeting using their email address.
People who currently use the Chorus web portal for features such as call history, accessing voicemail, setting up call forwarding and managing conference calls, will need to do these differently after the upgrade. Mostly, you can use your desk phone but we will be providing updated guidance about this.
After the upgrade
If you change the way that you work at any time after the upgrade, and need to use Telephony over Teams, or switch back from Telephony over Teams to Chorus, then this will be possible via a new process that is being put in place - but you should always discuss your needs with your local IT support or Telephone Coordinator (link requires SSO login) first.
More information
For more information about the Chorus upgrade project, please visit the project website or contact the project team: chorusupgrade@it.ox.ac.uk
