The Division of IT has been working on introducing significant enhancements to communication and collaboration capabilities at The Beach with the implementation of Microsoft Teams Calling as our new primary phone service, replacing our current traditional physical telephone system. You can visit the Telephone Service Migration Project website for more about the project and background.
This pivotal transition brings with it several operational changes that will change the way departments may interact with Telecom services as described below.
Annual Billing - Teams Voice & Data (IT Bundle)
The most prominent change is the transition to an annual Telecom billing process. Each October/November (following census), an annual “invoice” process will cover voice and data services under a new “IT Bundle” service model. This model encompasses telecom and network infrastructure and related services utilized by employees and departments. The process involves each ASM providing speedchart information for their respective areas' annual billing. Please contact your area ASM if you have questions about this process or require clarification regarding charges applied to your department/unit.
Monthly Charges for Annual Telecom Billing
| Charge Item |
Monthly Charge |
Notes |
| User Voice and Data (National Access) |
$30/user |
All employees excluding student employees and casual workers |
| Department Phone |
$15/phone |
Department phone not tied to a specific eligible employee |
| Call Queue |
$5/number |
Department/Office phone line typically access by a team of multiple employees |
| Common Area Phone |
$5/number |
Many phones not tied to a specific employee can be migrated to a lower cost call queue |
Monthly Billing – Mobile, Work Orders & Grant Charges
There is also a new monthly billing process. This process is specifically for mobile/carrier charges, including those for grants/restricted programs (604808), telecom-related project work orders (660820), and grants/restricted fund charges associated with IT Voice & Data (604809).
*Note: DoIT is only billing IT Voice & Data monthly for grants/restricted funds. All other campus fund charges related to IT Voice & Data will be billed on an annual basis as mentioned in the Annual Billing section above.
Reports
Due to these substantial Telecom billing changes, most of the legacy Telecom monthly billing reports are no longer required, and so are no longer being produced. Where necessary, new reports have been created primarily to support accounting requirements for the campus. Some monthly Telecom billing charge information is still available to ASMs on a limited basis. These include:
- Monthly Carrier Service Charges by Device, which will be sent via CSLink to select contacts (primarily ASMs) starting with the December bill on approximately the 15th of each month. Anyone else who needs this information should contact their ASM. Telecom can also provide carrier charge information for months leading up to December by request by submitting a Billing Reports and Statements ticket.
- Telecom Work Orders are available to all Fiscal Coordinators and ASMs via CFS Data Warehouse from Accounts Payable. Work order charges to your departments/divisions can be found under the Technology Work Order account number 660820. For project details on any of these line-item charges in Data Warehouse, please refer to the TeamDynamix (TDX) ticket number located in the CSU Ref 1 column, or your internal department reference number located in the CSU Ref 2 column when you drill down.
Telecom Tickets
While you may continue to use our various Telecom Service request forms, please be aware that these forms are actively being updated to align with the changes brought about by this service transition. Notable changes to ticket requests include:
- Requests for speedchart or dept ID changes related to employee department moves no longer need to be requested. This is because the new billing process is based on HR records. Please note that exceptions exist for monthly mobile and grant/e-fund related charges, which can still be addressed by submitting a Billing Reports and Statements ticket.
- Directory updates no longer need to be requested during this service transition since employee contact information will now be sourced from HR records. Please be aware that there will be a period during this transition when the online directory will maintain static information until updates occur after each group migration to Microsoft Teams Calling.
- Most traditional Work Orders no longer require one-time charges, which means these are no longer being billed each month and are covered by the annual IT bundle model described above.
- Basic telephone adds, changes, moves, and deletions will be accepted on a case-by-case basis as the Teams Calling migration plan approaches. There are temporary virtual phone services that can be utilized if needed.
- Projects and Quotes for Telecom services are needed only for activity that is related to new installation or relocation of telecommunications cabling and data ports. Charges for such work orders will be processed as part of the monthly billing described above.
Additional Notes About Future Phone Service
- Automatic Provisioning - During the upcoming transition to Microsoft Teams Calling, there will be a point at which newly hired staff members will be seamlessly assigned Teams phone numbers, much like the automated provisioning of email accounts. This will eliminate the need for formal service requests for new staff.
- Faculty Opt-Ins – For faculty members, there will be new procedures in place to allow them to choose to opt-in for a Teams phone number since these will not be automatically assigned. Additionally, revised processes will be introduced for departments to request phone services, including call queues and common phones.
- Department Resources – We will accept new requests for “non-person accounts” (department resources), which include Call Queues and Common Phones. This will include new requests and changes to existing department resource names, email addresses, and location information.
Questions/Contacts
- Annual Billing: Please contact your area ASM if you have questions about the annual process or require clarification regarding charges applied to your department/unit.
- Monthly Billing: Please feel free to submit a Billing Reports and Statements ticket or contact ITS-Telecom@csulb.edu.
Notes
An email was sent to all ASMs and Cost Center Owners on 11/1/23 with information described in this article.