We are coming off from Shoretel/Mitel Connect. All users could log into any phone, even if the phone was already assigned to another user. While the changes we are encountering with RingCentral, like setting up limited use phones or phones that are specifically configured for hot desking, will work, we find ourselves very limited in terms of our staff flexibility to log in at any open desk, even if it is a desk that is usually occupied by another employee. A good example would be that a branch manager, which is a static user, who has a private office that is only occupied by them, goes on vacation or takes an extended abscence. In this situation, another manager or an assistant manager from another location would come to this office, and stand in for the abscent manager. Since they would be working from this new location and in the managers office, in our current environment, they would just assign themselves into the phone that is at that managers desk. When the regular manager is back from leave, the substitute would log out of the desk phone in that office, and their phone presence would go back to the phone in their normal office, and the manager on leave would return to their office with their name and presence on the phone like nothing had ever changed.

The Shoretel manner of handling hot desking and staff using phones that they are not normally assigned to is much more ellegant and much more administrator and user friendly than the structure we see in RingCentral.