On 20.02.2024, the Extended Rectorate adopted the basic decision to introduce softphones as the standard telephone at TU Dresden. All personalizable telephones are to be replaced by softphones. Exceptions are non-personalizable connections (laboratory, technical, teaching, consultation room, etc.), accessibility and desk phones, the financing of which is secured by the institutions themselves. The Rectorate has also decided to precede the mandatory introduction with a pilot phase until Q3/2024 and to evaluate this at the end of 2024 and make any necessary adjustments.
The softphone is an application (program) to be installed on a PC or smartphone and enables calls to be made with the business telephone number from the devices mentioned (e.g. also in mobile work). The entire range of desk phone functions (call forwarding, voicemail, call transfer, three-party conference, team calls, etc.) can be mapped on the softphone. The softphone is therefore a fully-fledged replacement for the desk phone. A softphone and the corresponding TU telephone number is always linked to a ZIH login, which is also used to log in to the application. A headset is required for the softphone on the workstation PC, just like for video conferences with BigBlueButton or Zoom. The softphone is available for all common operating systems in a supported variant, Cisco WebEx. The use of Cisco Jabber is no longer recommended; existing users are also asked to switch from Cisco Jabber to Cisco WebEx.
There is a series of FAQ articles for the softphone:
Information on data usage
Using Cisco Softphone on a smartphone
data network quality when using the softphone
Software downloads Cisco WebEx
Accessibility support for telephones
Phone number format for contacts in the address book
How many devices can I use the soft client on?
Headsets for Phones
alternative to headsets
Can I hear the phone ringing when the headset is plugged into the PC?
Where does a call ring if several devices (PC, smartphone) are active?
second call with softphone
Call list in Softphone when workstation PC is switched off
Use of contacts (company directory and own contacts)
First login to WebEx (Windows)
Answering and starting calls
Transferring calls
Starting a conference call
Holding a call and switching between two calls
Signing out or exiting
Muting notifications (Do not disturb)
Forwarding calls
Availability, status and profile
WebEx support scope
Notes for using WebEx on Linux systems
Firewall Port Enabling
Notes for using WebEx on Linux systems