Author Topic: hunt group 'is busy'  (Read 8045 times)

Offline WallIT

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hunt group 'is busy'
« on: October 08, 2013, 11:05:39 AM »
Hi,

I have a user who wants his calls forwarded to his secretary when busy/no answer. If she is busy or does not answer, then call should go back to his voicemail.

I'm not a telephony guy, so there may be a better way of doing it, but this is what I have come up with...

I setup a forwarding path to a hunt group and made her the only member. The Recall for this Hunt Group is an Application, the timeout of which transfers to his voice mailbox. This works fine if the secretary is away as after a few rings it goes to his voicemail. The only problem with this setup is if she is busy you get an busy tone and see 'HUNT GROUP BUSY' on the display.

Can anyone offer a solution?

Thanks in advance.


Offline NTEDave

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Re: hunt group 'is busy'
« Reply #1 on: October 08, 2013, 11:20:58 AM »
I think you would be better off with a System Forwarding path that goes to his Secretary then the Voicemail Extn (usually 2500) as the second step.

Offline WallIT

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Re: hunt group 'is busy'
« Reply #2 on: October 08, 2013, 12:19:12 PM »
Thanks NTEDave,

I tried your suggestion, but still get the same problem. System forwarding path set to...

Forward Point 1 = 725 (secretary)
Forward Point 2 = 2500 (voicemail)

This works fine if the secretary's phone is not in use. But when her phone is busy, the caller see's the following message on their phone 'CALL FORWARDING to <SECRETARY NAME>' and hears an engaged tone. I think the call is waiting for the secretary to be available.

Is there a work around?

Offline DND ON

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Re: hunt group 'is busy'
« Reply #3 on: October 08, 2013, 01:08:59 PM »
That is normal behavior for an intercom call. You cannot enable forward conditions for the forward point within the original station’s forward path.

Try making the forward point a CRA that times out to the secretary’s extension.
« Last Edit: October 08, 2013, 01:11:42 PM by DND ON »

Offline WallIT

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Re: hunt group 'is busy'
« Reply #4 on: October 09, 2013, 04:50:10 AM »
Hi DND ON,

Quote
Try making the forward point a CRA that times out to the secretary’s extension.

Is this what you mean?

Forward Point 1 = 2550 (CRA) timeout to secretary's extension
Forward Point 2 = 2500 (voicemail)

In the 2550 CRA, I have...

Timeout going to secretary's extension
Transfer Recall Destination set to 2550 (this is the default)

The problem with this setup is if the secretary does not pickup, her phone continually rings. How do I get it to go back to the voicemail for her boss?

Offline WallIT

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Re: hunt group 'is busy'
« Reply #5 on: October 09, 2013, 05:11:42 AM »
OK, I tried something else with partial success...

System Forward from bosses phone to a single forward point (2550 - CRA).

2550 timeout set to a Hunt Group (2020)
Hunt Group has 1 member (secretary), The Recall for this HG is another CRA (2551)
2551 timeout set to Bosses mailbox

This works fine, except for the scenario where the secretary is already on another call. On her phone, she gets a message '1 Call waiting for HG'. This isn't a big deal and I could ask the secretary just to ignore this message.

when calling internally the caller also sees on their phone 'waiting for HG'. This is a problem because I'll get asked a million times what this means and is there a problem and what's up with Laura's phone.

when calling from outside, its obviously not a problem.

Again, is there a better way of doing this?
Thanks in advance.

Offline mem5449

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Re: hunt group 'is busy'
« Reply #6 on: December 01, 2013, 10:11:40 PM »
Is this for a big company? If not, has the client tried telling the users not to call this person directly but rather call his/her secretary first instead? This way they would not be perplexed by the LCD info. The LCD is always going to display/uncover the 'work-around' used on internal calls and subsequently confuse the callers.

The only way I could see a 'smooth' solution for the callers, is if you used the Intelligent Router software (option) on the 5000. It has a powerful DIVERT function that can trigger when the person in question is called internally and can send the call to the secretary (and subsequently, mailbox) without the cryptic LCD info.

Offline WallIT

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Re: hunt group 'is busy'
« Reply #7 on: December 02, 2013, 04:49:02 AM »
Thanks Mem5449,

Is this a big company? What is a big company 50+, 100+, 1000+?

I think this setup was requested more so for external callers as the boss didn't want calls going unanswered. I'm pretty sure we don't have the Intelligent Router option, but useful to know it exists if we ever require a more complex setup.

Thanks again.

Offline Tech Electronics

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Re: hunt group 'is busy'
« Reply #8 on: December 19, 2013, 10:33:03 PM »
WallIT,

Did you ever think of using the Secondary Extension Key Feature to solve this problem. The Secondary Extension Key feature is basically used for Executive Secretaries to be able to answer their bosses phone calls. The call remains on the original extension and follows normal forwarding unless the secretary picks it up at their phone by pressing the DSS/BLF Secondary Extension Button. This fixes the issue with Internal Callers seeing "Waiting for HG" and External Callers have no idea that it is a ringing BLF on the Secretary's phone.

Thanks,

TE

Offline WallIT

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Re: hunt group 'is busy'
« Reply #9 on: December 20, 2013, 05:25:30 AM »
Hi TE,

Thanks for the tip. I haven't thought of that. Can you explain a little about how it would be setup?

Also, would the secretary's phone actually ring? or would she just have to be vigilant and notice the BLF lighting up?

If only the latter, then I expect it will be rejected as an option.

Thanks


Offline 619Tech

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Re: hunt group 'is busy'
« Reply #10 on: December 20, 2013, 03:05:49 PM »
Hi WallIT,

In your testing explainations you keep referring to what the caller sees on the LCD display. This tells me you are testing via IC instead of dialing in via an external number. This will give you varied results.

I recommend going with NTEDave's configuration and testing via an external number, that should work.

Your original config would probably work as well if you allow Camp-Ons in the Hunt Group and test via an external number.

Offline Tech Electronics

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Re: hunt group 'is busy'
« Reply #11 on: December 21, 2013, 12:13:01 AM »
WallIT,

No problem, the setup is pretty simple to begin with.

Set one of the secretary's buttons as a programmable button on their keymap, you may want to give them a unique one if it is shared with a lot of users.

System>Station[Phone, Endpoint] Related Information>Key Assignments

Either change their existing one or right-click and add a new one; just make sure to set it to the same style as the one they are using now. For testing I would just add a new one.

Highlight their existing keymap and right-click and select copy

Highlight the new keymap and right-click and select paste

That should make an exact copy of the keymap without phones attached.

Go into the new keymap and change one of the keys to a programmable key that is not being used.

I would also go into the user programmable keys of that keymap and set them all to unassigned. This will ensure that the programmable key number you chose will not come with any default programming. Not important for this test, but it is a good practice to have when creating keymaps in general.

Remember the programmable key number you are using for the keymap as this will be needed for a later step.

Go to the Standard List of the new Keymap and right-click to add the secretary's extension to it. If they only use one keymap on the phone you can also add them to the Alternate later if the test is good or do it now as it won't bothering anything. If you use two different keymaps then do not add them to the Alternate Keymap list.

Now, go to System > Devices and Feature Codes > Station[Phone, Endpoint] <- basically whatever it is called in your version of software to get to the users phone programming.

Open up the secretary's phone programming and go to Programmable Keys. This is where you will need to remember what number you used in the Keymap when you programmed it in.

Go to that number and under the Key Type column highlight whatever is in that row, hopefully it show as Undefined Key.

At this point it should give you a drop-down menu so select Secondary Extension Key.

To the right of that is the Selection and Ring When columns.

In the Selection Column put the extension number of the person you want the secretary to monitor calls for.

In the Ring When Column it should default to 1. This means the secretary's phone will be alerted with an audible tone and flashing BLF when there is 1 call at the extension being monitored.

Now it doesn't matter if you call internally or externally the result will be the same for caller. Internal Callers will see they are ringing the extension they dialed until the secretary answers and external callers will not know they are alerting the secretary. If neither the secretary or the boss answer the phone it will follow the phones standard forwarding already set up.

To answer the call the Secretary will need to press the Flashing DSS/BLF of the Secondary Extension and they will have the call. The nice thing is that the ring is not the users standard ring so they will know that it is a call for their boss and not a directed call to them.

If this doesn't work for you all you have to do is go back to System>Station[Phone, Endpoint] Related Information>Key Assignments

Select the original keymap the secretary was in and add them back to the Standard List and then delete the keymap you created and you are back to where you started; simple.

Hopefully that is not too confusing as it really is easy than it looks. The only thing that may throw you is where I refer to Station[Phone, Endpoint] and that is because I do not know what version of software you are using and Inter-Tel/Mitel seem to like to change the name of phones within it programming. So if it is called Stations in one location it will be Stations in all locations and the same with Phones and Endpoints.

Thanks,

TE


 

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