Pbx

The Balls Food Company uses a PBX phone system within the grocery stores

that they own. PBX stands for Private Branch eXchange. With this phone system there

is a lot of capabilities for the company. It allows the company to do several things that

would not be possible without using a PBX system. In the next few paragraphs I am

going to tell you about the security that the system provides and several of the features

that are used within this company.

The securtiy issues that can be related to using the PBX are that while using our

system you cannot dial long distance. All of the stores are in the 913 or 816 area

codes. You can not even dial out unless you know the password. The only way that

anyone can dial out to any number is to use the feature function and type in an eight

digit code that will in turn get the caller an outside line. The feature was actually added

not to long ago because the stores were having trouble keeping all of the workers that

had no business being on the phone off of the phone. By implementing the password,

we have stopped a lot of the kids from tying up the phone lines. This is just one of the

few features that will be discussed.

Some of the other features that are commonly used is using a three digit number

to reach another department. There are about fifty phones throughout the store and

every one of the phones has its own three digit number. By having every department

using phones to talk to each other, there is more work accomplished and less time

spent visiting. This feature especially comes in handy to be able to call the checkers

and give them answers than having a situation where they need a price check and

instead of making someone run from up front, the checker just calls the department.

Another feature that comes in handy is that you can pick up a phone and dial

another store by simply hitting the feature key and dialing the store number. You would

think that it would be as hard to remember a store number as it is to remember the

actual phone number, but it is easier. For instance, the store I work at is the Hen

House in Lee's Summit. I know that there is a Price Chopper down the street and that

their store number is 14. Using the information that everything the company does is

using three digit codes, I pick up the phone, hit feature and type 014 and it will connect

me with customer service of the