BCM 50 voicemail hunt group and ring group question 2

[tubdub]

I have a BCM 50 that has just 3 users in a small office.

The theory is this: There are 4 incoming lines, this enables all 3 users to be on the phone and then there is one line spare so that the call pilot can answer an incoming call.

The way I want it to work is:
One mailbox for all 3 users.
Incoming calls ring on all 3 phones.
When all phones are busy the call should be sent straight to voicemail, or after 15 seconds if there if no answer.
For voicemail I want there to be two greetings, one for business hours and one for out of hours.

Now the parts I need help with are ring groups, hunt groups and the auto-attendant.

I can see how to get the phones to ring by using a ring group, but then there does not seem to be options for forwarding to voicemail with a ring group.

I can see how to set up the voicemail forwarding in a hunt group, but I can't work out how to get a hunt group to ring for incoming calls, the BCM won't let me assign a hunt group DN to a ring group.

When the auto-attendant answers I just want it to answer with the correct greeting depending on the time of day, then forward straight to voicemail, without any menu options.

Can anyone explain the best way to go about doing this?

Thanks in advance for any info.

 

[SupportDude]

You're off track with Ring Groups.
Ring Groups provide an alternate ringing location.
For example, if all lines normally ring on the operator phone and she leaves at 5:00 p.m., but your business is open until 7:00 p.m., she could activate a ring group when she leaves so all the lines that normally ring on her phone will ring at a different phone until the ring group is deactivated.

You want to use a Hunt Group.
A Hunt Group allows you to present a single inbound call to many telephones.
You can select one of three methods to distribute the call to the telephones; broadcast, rotary, or sequential.
You assign members (telephones) and lines (trunks) to the Hunt Group.

Assign your telephones and lines to the Hunt Group.
Configure the Hunt Group to queue the calls if all the members are busy, and then set your queue timeout to 60 seconds. Configure the Voicemail Auto-Attendant to answer the lines in less than 10 ringss (before the Hunt Group queue timeout expires) with a greeting table. The greeting table will allow you to play a specific greeting based on time of day.
Configure a CCR Tree with the home node as a VM Transfer to which ever mailbox you want to deposit the calls into, and then attach the CCR Tree to the AA Greeting Table answering the calls.

HTH.

Good Luck!



-SD-

http://www.mysupportguy.net

 

[tubdub]

Thanks for the detailed answer, that all makes sense.

 

[tubdub]

Next question

Thanks to the previous response I've got the system working how I want, there is a daytime "all lines are busy" greeting for when the office is open and there is a "business closed" greeting for out of hours calls.

Currently there is a delay of 4 rings before the auto-attendant answers. I would like to know if there is a way to program a button on one of the handsets in the hunt group so that when it is pressed, calls go immediately to voicemail without ringing the handsets, a sort of "business closed" type feature code?

Also, is there a way to stop the greeting schedule being applied on weekends? For Saturdays and Sundays I'd like it to stay on the same "business closed" greeting until Monday morning.

 

[phoneguy610]

Follow directions in this thread to setup a night button

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1521464

You need to play with the calendar and greetings and times on the greeting table for number 2

ddcommllc.com
Avaya/Toshiba/SyntelSolutions

ACIS

 

[SupportDude]

Glad it made sense.

Now the button thing is a valid use of Ring Groups.
Check out the thread Phoneguy610 posted for you.
When you build the ring group, the only member of the group should be the VM DN.
When the Ring Schedule is active, the VM will ignore the delay and answer the lines immediately ... if its configured correctly.

To play the "Non-Business" greeting all weekend, set the same time across the board for Saturday and Sunday, i.e., 09:00 for morning, afternoon, evening, and non-business. The system will default to the non-business greeting.

-SD-

http://www.mysupportguy.net

 

[Wallysworld]

It is working for him, apparently, but wouldn't it have been easier to just have all 4 lines "Appear & Ring" on each of the phones (or ring only if their small phones).
Have the AA set to p/u after 4 rings and have the CCR transfer it to the 1 mailbox?
Now, if someone wants to have the phones go directly to that mailbox you could just hit F984 (or that would be when you would activate your night ringing).

Just a different way to get around the barn.

 

[tubdub]

OK, I can almost get everything working as I want but there are a couple of bits that are eluding me, rather than go through my problems I'll just post what I'm trying to achieve then I'd be grateful for your suggestions of the best way to go about it.

4 incoming analogue lines, 61,62,63,64
3 Digital extensions, 221, 222, 223
1 Analogue extension (for fax) 233

Lines 61,62 and 63 are main office numbers, line 64 is the fax number

Scenario I want is incoming calls to 61, 62 & 63 should ring on all the digital extensions only.
Incoming to 64 should ring on analogue extension only

The digital sets should have the capability to dial out on all 4 lines, the fax should only be able to dial out on line 64.

For outgoing calls, I'd like the lines selected in the following order: 61, 62, 64 ,63 The idea being that the first two calls go out on the main numbers, 3rd outgoing call would use the fax line and leave the remaining main number line to be answered by AA in the event of an incoming call while all digital extensions are in use.

I'm ok with configuring AA to answer, just not sure how to define the order lines are used to make external calls.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Wallysworld]

punch them down in the order you want on the bix field.

Existing (and typical setup):
Line 1 = 61 (main #)
Line 2 = 62
Line 3 = 63
Line 4 = 64 (fax line sometimes in a different pool)

Line pools start at the bottom and work their way up so punch the lines down in the order you want them, in your case:
61 = Line 1
62 = Line 4 (fax line)
63 = Line 2
64 = line 3

 

[tubdub]

Yeah think that's I'm going to have to do, thanks for the suggestion.

Ideally I wanted to force the fax to have a hotline to only one trunk, but that would mean putting the trunk in a different pool. The problem is I want the other extensions to be able to make use of that trunk. I can't seem to find any way of getting the system to look at line pool B if all lines in line pool A are busy, so assume it can't be done. I know I could use routing and assign a different dialout digit for access to trunk B, but I just want to keep it simple for the users so that only 9 is used for an outside line.

 

[SupportDude]

When using Line Pools, outbound calls always start with the highest line number, 064, and inbound calls start at the lowest line number, 061. This is to avoid an issue known as "glare", created when an outbound and inbound call try to access the same line at the same time.

To achieve your goal of using the lowest line number first, you will need to change the way the lines are connected to the system.
Telco Line 1 = BCM Line 064
Telco Line 2 = BCM Line 063
Telco Line 4 = BCM Line 062 (Fax)
Telco Line 3 = BCM Line 061

Configure Lines 061-064 into Line Pool A.
Make sure 221-223 have access Line Pool A.
Assign lines 061, 063, and 064 to your hunt group to ring all phones.
Assign line 062 to your analog port for your fax machine.
Set the prime line on the analog port to line 062 which will force it to seize only line the fax line when it goes "off-hook"(since you are now getting dial tone directly from the line, you no longer have to input the line pool access code, typically a 9, to make a fax call)

That should do it.

-SD-

http://www.mysupportguy.net

 

[Wallysworld]

At the risk of repeating myself, I think the easiest solution would be to make 3 lines ring and appear on all phones with line 4 just appear only. The 1st 3 lines in pool a, so that the users pick up lines 3 & 2 and then would manually press line 4 (fax line).

"I want the other extensions to be able to make use of that trunk. I can't seem to find any way of getting the system to look at line pool B if all lines in line pool A are busy, so assume it can't be done"
Nope, that is just not available.

Another option would be to duplicate the line before it gets to the system (then there's no need to assign the line), the only trouble with that is you will not see when the fax line is in use.

@SupportDude you can't assign a line to an ata, you can make it inbound "ring only" but not outbound (intercom, pool or route is your only options).

 

[SupportDude]

@Wally
This is a BCM50.
The internal stations do allow you to assign a line to the DN.
The line will automagically assign as "ring only".
Once the line is assigned to the DN, you can select it as the "Prime Line" for the set.

The solution I provided was based on what the user asked for in the original post.
As you know there are many ways to accomplish a given task, but the key is meeting the customers request.

@tubdub
No need to hotline it, although that could be done as well.
Follow my last post and it will work perfectly.

-SD-

http://www.mysupportguy.net

 

[Wallysworld]

Well!
I not only stand corrected but have learned something myself.

I love this forum.

 

[SupportDude]

Me too Wally!
If I learn something during the day ... it was a good day.
Love the forums.

Cheers!

-SD-

http://www.mysupportguy.net

 

[tubdub]

@SupportDude
It's now working exactly as I want. Only thing was that simply setting the prime line to 062 did not make it seize the line, I then had to set the hotline to use the prime line to get it to work that way. Many thanks for the information provided, was about to admit defeat on this one.

@Wallyworld
Thanks for your contributions, I too was of the impression you could not assign a specific line to a set.

 

[SupportDude]

Glad it worked out for you tubdub.
Odd that setting the Prime Line didn't work.
It should immediately seize that line when it goes off-hook.
Good thinking on implementing the hotline as a workaround.

-SD-

http://www.mysupportguy.net