Since there are so many features in Phoenix,
the easiest way to demonstrate them is by example:

Phoenix acts as the primary receptionist. Calls are routed to specific people by the automated attendant. Personalized voice mail is used if the person is not available. If someone is out back, they can be paged using the overhead pager. Critical calls are forwarded to the president's cell phone transparently - keeping the cell number confidential. While out of town, the voice mails are converted to an audio email attachment and emailed to the president.

The business prides itself on customer service, but cannot interrupt a client consultation because of phone calls. The automated attendant can route incoming calls to several employees in a round-robin or group ring fashion. If no one is available, the call is left in the main voice mail box. Faxes are intercepted and forwarded to a fax machine - saving a dedicated fax line.

The office manager is swamped with a large number of calls in the morning. Inbound calls pop open a Virtual Console window on their desktop PC to show the Caller ID information. It also allows them to have up to seven active phone calls to their phone - at one time (six are on hold with either music-on-hold or a commercial for the school playing in the background). They can transfer and hold calls using two clicks of a mouse. Inbound faxes are intercepted and forwarded to a fax machine - saving the cost of a dedicated fax line.

Many people call for directions or business hours. The system allows callers to select either the restaurant, deli, or listen to the store hours. "To go" orders that are received are routed to the appropriate phone. After normal business hours, Phoenix plays a different greeting indicating that the restaurant is closed, and it allows people to leave a message. Any faxes received are forwarded to a fax machine - saving a dedicated fax line. The three credit card machines are also connected to the Phoenix, saving money on those phone lines as well.

Each real estate agent has their own dedicated extension number for their customer base. These incoming calls are forwarded to each agent. If someone calls the main number, the calls are forwarded to the agents according to their priority. Call durations are logged for broker billing of the agents. There are a lot of faxes received in the business, so the agents use soft-faxes (appear as email) instead of fax machines. Phoenix takes care of receiving the fax and converting it to an email.

Since Phoenix can handle a couple hundred extensions and voice mail boxes, every property listing for the office has an extension associated with it. When a buyer calls about the property, they dial the specific extension and they hear a message about that property's features. If they want to speak to the listing agent, their call is forwarded to the agent. If they want to leave a message, it will forward the voice mail to the agent's voice mail box.

The Phoenix system for the house also has a dedicated line for the business. When a call comes in on that line, it is routed to a specific department with only one member. This will allow Virtual Console to indicate that it is a business call. The department will also have a unique greeting, ring style, automated attendant and voice mail.

The business may be small, but the callers don't need to know that. Instead of having one greeting with an automated attendant to route the call to the appropriate company, each inbound phone line is assigned to a company. When a call comes in on a specific line, it is routed to a specific department using the automated attendant or receptionist for that company. Each department will ring the phone differently to indicate which company is being called. This method will allows one Phoenix system to handle multiple businesses without the customers knowing.

All inbound calls are met with an auto attendant greeting that instructs solicitors to hang up. Faxes are automatically routed to the home office fax machine. Callers can choose to ring everybody or the call can be sent directly to the teenagers room so the adults are not interrupted. Phoenix also allows anyone to answer the call and transfer it to another room in the house. The kitchen extension has a cordless phone on it for convenience. Room-to-room dialing behaves as an intercom system, saving trips upstairs and downstairs.