Accurate voice service location information is necessary for health and safety as well as effective incident resolution, but ENCS will allow trained IT staff to move voice services for their unit within a telecommunications room.
This policy impacts units who wish to have their own IT staff move voice services.
Having accurate information as to the location of a telephone is very important for two different reasons. The first is this information (telephone location to a room number) is necessary in order for health and safety professionals (e.g., fire department and police services) to be dispatched to the correct location in the event of an emergency. The second is TNS needs this information in order to offer prompt and timely resolution in the event of an outage or other service problem.
TNS recognizes that due to the current policy and process to move a telephone or other voice service device (e.g., fax), efficiencies may be gained if the moves are performed by the customer's IT staff. Therefore, this policy and process has been developed to allow TNS trained IT staff to move voice services for their unit within a telecommunications room.
Administrative and academic voice customers who receive voice services from TNS are not authorized to move any TNS supported telephone or telephone devices (e.g., fax machines) unless (1) the administrative or academic unit IT staff performing the move are trained and certified by TNS or (2) an exception has been granted by the Senior Director of ENCS.
Customer units are permitted to move voice telephone and devices on their own if they meet the following criteria:
- The IT Director and Budget Administrator of the appropriate area has approved the IT staff to do the moves
- The customer's IT staff has completed this training - Phone Move Training
The customer's IT staff must register the phone move through the Telephony Request Fulfillment form prior to move (in the case of Non-University Park campus locations) or within one business day (in the case of University Park).
At no time should the customer's IT staff move a patch cord on any of the VOIP switches. These are controlled to only work with one phone and changing any phones by moving the patch cords on the switches will cause a phone to not function, requiring a trouble call which would be billable to the department.
Quality control and workmanship is a must. The customer's IT staff will remove unused patch cords, utilize only violet patch cords, and use all available cable management with the appropriate length of patch cord so that there is not excessive cable on the floor or in the cable trays.
In the event the customer's IT staff, or any other staff, does not abide by the policy, and a subsequent audit of the telecommunications closet reveals unrecorded moves, the customer will be assessed a T&M fee to have TNS perform and audit and correct all records. Repeat offenders will lose their ability to move phones under this policy.
- University telecommunications rooms are facilities owned, leased and/or under the control of The Pennsylvania State University that also has a permanently assigned Penn State IP address.
- Voice services may be fiber-connected or copper-connected.