Automating Day and Night Modes

[Hershel]

I am trying to figure out if I am complicating things or missing something simple.

I have a system that is setup to be live answer during the day and auto attendant answer in NIGHT mode.  Up to this point the receptionist just uses the Night On/Off feature code to toggle it on and off.  They now want to set it up to switch automatically.  I have made the assumption that this requires the use of  STAR application in the Voice Processor

Here is how I have it programmed on my demo system

Inbound calls are directed to application 2508 (STAR)
  Default Application is 2502... this is the Auto Attendant
 
Within 2508 I have condition #1 setup for M-F + 7:30AM - 5:15PM, with the destination Application 2504.
2504 is Call Routing Announcement that plays no message and immediately times out to the reception Hunt Group.  This is the part that seem weird do I really have to use a Call Routing Announcement in order to send the call to an extension or hunt group

Again it seems to work but also seems to be a lot of work so I have the feeling I am missing a simple way of doing that same thing.

[acejavelin]

Yup, you are doing it correctly... CRA are used extensively in the 5000 (and Axxess, and prior Inter-Tel products) for routing calls in the system, hence the name CALL ROUTING Announcement. Just remove all the greetings and set the timeout to the destination you want. I have systems out there with 30, 40, and even 50 different CRAs for various purposes.

Also remember that STAR applications will always search from the top down and route to the first match, not the "most correct" one... so if you have a Saturday route in position 5 and a April 13 route position 6, on Saturday, April 13, the call will follow the Saturday route. Always put the most specific rules at the top, skip a few lines, then more general rules, and put the least restrictive route towards the bottom.

[NTEDave]

Ace, I can beat your CRA numbers.

I have just put another node in for a company that had hit the 1000 CRA limit! They are using another HX just to do CRA routing

[acejavelin]

Ace, I can beat your CRA numbers.

I have just put another node in for a company that had hit the 1000 CRA limit! They are using another HX just to do CRA routing

LOL... Wow! That sounds like a nightmare...

[wil]

here i thought i was going crazy with 15.. i feel for you.

[Hershel]

Ace, I can beat your CRA numbers.

I have just put another node in for a company that had hit the 1000 CRA limit! They are using another HX just to do CRA routing

WOW! and here I thought setting up one this way was more work then it needed to be.