If your radios are portables with tone receive normally enabled, then no, different user groups won't be able to initiate conversations between themselves. Once a user(s) is aware that another group is trying to talk to him, he/they can open his receiver. Then they can talk normally. But the problem is how to alert him. So unless your portables are in carrier squelch all the time, it's cumbersome to talk cross-group. But then, why have a community tone panel in the first place?
*Maybe* some of the newer panels have unique methods of getting around that problem. Or, maybe some radios can now be programmed to respond to more than one tone without switching channels. (I always wished for that option back when...) But that still somewhat negates the advantages of a tone panel. I built and programmed a repeater with tone panel some years ago with the exact same scenario as you are proposing--different groups within the same company. Many of the users ended up wanting to talk cross-group, so they just kept their radios in carrier squelch. It worked fine operationally, but it's not so fun listening to a carrier squelch radio... Laryn K8TVZ
