[VoiceOps] Is call forwarding in Polycom phones fundamentally broken?

[JD]

  I've encountered this problem in the past, many years ago, when 
working with Asterisk farms. I'm encountering it again now working with 
the Broadsoft platform:

Polycom Soundpoint IP phones can do call forwarding in two ways: 
client-side and server-side.

In client-side mode, the phone itself does the forwarding. If the phone 
is unreachable for any reason, the call forwarding never actually 
happens. That is because the call server doesn't know to forward the 
call and the phone isn't reachable to do the forwarding. By default, the 
call usually goes to VM, which is not what the user wanted. So, it works 
most of the time, but not predictably. So, it is broken by design.

(Plus with the half-broken NAT support on the Polycoms, any forwarded 
calls needlessly burn two audio streams because the call is not likely 
to transfer off the handset. But, I'll refrain on Polycom NAT commentary 
for the moment...)

So, we go with server-side...

In server-side mode, the phone refuses to show that the phone is 
forwarded anywhere on the screen. It is not uncommon for the user to 
"wonder why they aren't getting calls" if they forget to cancel the 
forwarding. So, it is also broken by design. (Albeit, not as badly as 
client-side, since at least it will always function.)

This does not appear to be a bug, since it is well documented by Polycom.

The only work-around I've come up with is writing a customized hack that 
modifies the idle screen, but that is far less than ideal. :)

In general, I really like Polycom phones, but may have no choice but to 
switch to cisco/aastra/etc.

But, before I do, has anyone come up with a better work-around?

John