Generally a fairly straight forward feature on many PBX systems. The last person to leave the office or the receptionist at a predetermined time, presses a button or code into the phone, and this diverts the phone calls to an after-hours number, or to answering machine / Voicemail.

This same feature is included in the OfficeIPLink™ PBX, but it extends it much further, even to the point that the Day/Night Switch is more of a legacy title. The Day/Night Switch can perform up to 10 different definable functions.

For some businesses, you may not need anything but a simple day/night switch that diverts the calls immediately to an announcement that states your business hours and goes to voicemail.

For other businesses, you may might require the need for separate announcements, and subsequent actions. A small surgery for instance may require a normal day/night switch for after-hours, but also require another day/night switch when the phones are unattended during the day (receptionist required for complex procedures).

Another business may require a one hour meeting each month, where all staff are involved, and the phones are unmanned. You may want an announcement that staff are unavailable at this time and their call will be returned within the hour. Some of the larger corporates who perform regular fire drills, may wish to have a message explaining that there is currently a fire drill in progress and please call back in 30 minutes.

The Day/Night switch is not just limited to announcements either. Like most of the OfficeIPLink™ PBX modular features, they can be used together. You might have an IVR that allows callers to select the sales team. The sales team may have a weekly meeting at 11.00am on Fridays. Before they go to the meeting, they enter the Day/Night Switch option 5, which redirects the IVR back to the receptionist so that calls are still being attended to. When they return from the meeting, They turn this Day/Night Switch off.

The Day/Night Switch can also be used for diverting all calls to a mobile, or diverting a select group of calls to a mobile, which is another well used capability.

The Day/Night switch is very useful in dynamic environments, where there are no fixed hours for staff remaining in the office allowing calls to continue to come into the office, until someone manually turns the Day/Night Switch. If you do have fixed hours for taking phone calls in the office or at an exact time you have the calls diverted, you may find that the Time Condition feature more useful for your business.