Avaya CM Coverage to Multiple Extensions with EC500

[MAZZYA]

Hi all,

I am trying to set up a call flow in our Avaya Communication Manager 8.1 to better manage incoming calls to our supervisors. Currently, users call supervisors' cell phones individually, but we want to centralize this process by having a single number that rings up to five supervisors’ cell phones. Additionally, we need the ability to disable ringing for specific supervisors when they are on vacation, which we plan to manage using EC500.

Our Current Setup:
We created a station that routes calls to a coverage path with 5 points. Each point
Each point is an extension with EC500 enabled, forwarding to a supervisor’s cell phone.
The plan is to provide the manager with a remote access number and feature codes to enable/disable EC500 per extension (so they can exclude unavailable supervisors).
The Problem:
After about the 4th call, the call disconnects at around 60 seconds, and the trace shows a 487 error.
We’re looking for ideas or alternative solutions..
Has anyone implemented something similar? Any suggestions for improving the call flow or troubleshooting the call disconnection issue?

Coverage Path

Coverage Criteria

Station/Group Status Inside call Outside Call
Active? Y Y
Busy? Y Y
Don't Answer? Y Y Number of rings: 2
All? N N
NDN/SAC/Goto Cover? N N
Holiday Coverage? N N

Each coverage point has 3 rings

 

[ZeroZeroOne]

Your absolute best solution is to install a softphone app on the users' mobile phones and implement Remote Workers on your PBX. That way they can log into their extension when they are on call and you don't have to worry about EC500.

However, I'm guessing you don't have the budget for that, so we're sticking with EC500.

Your coverage path only has 3 rings on each coverage point. That may not be enough time to ring the phone AND dial out to the mobile phone. EC500 is close, but it isn't exactly simultaneous when dialing out. Try increasing that number first.

I'm not a fan of this method, since the caller may hear ringing at each point before the 4th or 5th supervisor picks up. Other options include:

• VDN / Vector to dial the on-call supervisor. I've set up super-secret menu Vectors (password protected) to select the number to dial. This works great if only one supervisor is to be called but, if I read your request correctly, you want the system to automatically dial each one in turn and skip anyone on vacation.
• Voice boxes can also be used to dial out to a mobile phone. This feature will depend on your VM system.

 

[bignose21]

as the call does not connect I would guess you get the request terminated on a timer expiry (ring no answer) in the carrier, you could probably fool this by connecting the call for instance a Vector playing a second of silence before forwarding it on to the extension may do it.

 

[MAZZYA]

Thanks for the suggestion. We've already tried the VM route with Avaya Messaging, but after the call is forwarded to the first external cell phone, no ringing is heard.

With the current configuration—adding 4 rings to each coverage path point—the call eventually disconnects (fast busy) after the 4th point. The trace shows an "Idle Trunk-group..." error, which seems to indicate that the trunk-group is going idle, possibly due to a timer expiry