Rotating After Hours Service Tech

[jbbts]

System is going to be a Mitel 250/5000 with 8 Pots lines and 8528 and 8568 phones.  Right now (in legacy system)  they have after hours rotating service techs and  they pass a cell phone around on a nightly basis.    Call comes in, caller navigates via dial options and leaves a message in  a mailbox, which then notifies to the cell phone.   The mailbox also send s a copy to the Admin mailbox, so dispatch can check to make sure the Service Emergency messages get handled. 


They want to get away from this nightly passing of the cell phone and use the cell phones the techs already have.

What is the best way to allow the customer to easily change where the Service Emergency dial option goes to.   

Would the following work?  Set up a Phantom Service Emergency DN as a dial option and also Phantom DNs/Mailboxes for each on call tech?  I can then manually forward the Phantom Service Emergency DN to the Phantoms On call Tech Mailboxes based on the On call Schedule. 

The key is for the client to be able to control the forwarding to the correct mailbox easily.

Thanks in advance.

[DND ON]

I have several sites that do exactly as you described. The added bonus is they can change the on-call remotely by calling into the Configuration Assistant via auto attendant. This is useful for split coverage, especially on holiday weekends.

[Tech Electronics]

jbbts,

Why wouldn't you want to use Dynamic Extension and then just have them to change the Mobile Destination based on which technician is on call. This way there is only one mailbox to check and if they Unified Messaging it can be emailed to someone in Dispatch so they can make sure it was handled.

Thanks,

TE

[jbbts]

Didn't think about DDE. 
 
We have always used DDE for external pairing (Cell or House Phone) never think about for other internal extensions. 

[dwayneg]

Also if it's a simple schedule you could build a STAR app to automatically go through a list.  Especially easy if it's by day-of-week.But could be based on anything, up to 20 dates.

[DND ON]

DEE doesn't meet the stated goal of voice mail remote message notification. Using the DEE mobile destination will result in the on-call person's cell phone  being called directly by the customer. When the call is pulled back into voice mail, there is no notification to the cell phone that a messasge was left. For rotating remote message notification, you need to either change the mailbox where the message is being left, or change the mailbox cascade if a single mailbox is used.

Experience tells me that an end user can easily change a phantom call forward destination via the Configuration Assistant. Changing the mailbox cascade without screwing it up is beyond the ability of the average end user.

STAR leaves you with zero flexibility, and requires constant technician intervention to keep it up to date.

[Matt_Womack]

What about Cascade levels? This still takes care of the VM box and just points it to a different phone to notify. You could just activate each specific tech's cascade level.

Edit: Just read DND ON's post, please disregard mine

[Tech Electronics]

DND ON,

I do not think your statement is very accurate on what customers are able to be taught, but to be fair and honest it can sometimes be difficult for them in the beginning.

As for DEE not being able to support remote notification I can only assume that you have not used the mobile email address function. Of course they do need to be able to get texts on their phone or that functionality is lost. I also think that remote notification can be adjusted when calling into the mailbox as the user and changing it; although the mailbox has to be setup for that.

To set up Remote Messaging:
1. Access your mailbox as the user.
2. Press 4 to select the Personal Options Menu.
3. Press 5 to select Remote Messaging.
4. Press 1 to set up a primary cascade, or press 2 to set up an alternate cascade.
5. Press 1, and then enter the number (1 to 9) of the level that you want to program. Then
select one of the following options:
To send notifications to a phone number:
• Press 2, and then select one of the following options:
- Press 1 for an extension number, and then enter the number.
- Press 2 or an outside number, and then enter the number.
To send notifications to a pager:
• Press 1.
• Press 2.
6. Press 1 to save the setting.
7. Press 3, and then select one of the following:
• Press 1 for Monday through Friday.
• Press 2 for all days.
• Press 3 to select individual days. You are prompted to press numbers 1 to 7, which
correspond to the days Sunday through Saturday.
8. Press 2. Then enter the times you want the message notification to start and stop. Enter
the times as two digits for the hour and two digits for the minutes (for example, 0900 = 9:00
A.M.). If you are entering the time in a 12-hour format:
• Press 1 for A.M.
• Press 2 for P.M.
If you want to have 24-hour notification, program the starting and ending times to the same
time (for example, enter 0900 for the starting time and 0900 for the ending time).
9. Press 4. Then select one of the following options:
• Press 1 for all messages.
• Press 2 for priority messages only.
10. Press # or hang up to save the settings and exit.

All I am saying is not to overlook an option because it may not seem like a perfect fit for the solution to a problem.

Thanks,

TE

[DND ON]

My experience with on-call is based on what I do every day, at many locations.  I’ll agree that there are several ways to accomplish this, some more complicated than others. I can guarantee that if you require end-users to change a mailbox cascade on a daily basis, they will screw it up. You will need to fix it, probably after hours. Once other options became available, we stop using cascade levels for this very reason.

The OP asked for “best way to allow the customer to easily change” the on-call. I’ve commented on some pros and cons for ways to accomplish this, based on many years of experimenting with it. I like to keep things simple and bullet-proof wherever possible, and not have to deal with call backs.