call handler scheduling design w/o changing settings in call manager

[MRoberto]

Hello, I need to figure out a way to make the following changes.

My current setup:
My organization is currently not using a call handler to take all incoming calls. All calls coming in to our mainline(***-8000)are picked up by our receptionist. After 5:00, our receptionist, who uses a 6 line 7960, manually transfers all incoming calls to one certain extention (5882).

The 6 line receptionist's phone is configured to handle extenstions 8000-->8005. In Call Manager, 8000 is configured to foward busy or foward no answer to 8001, and the same all the way up to 8005, where the foward is then set back to 8000. This is to have a "switchboard" effect. Where multiple calls can come in without getting a busy signal and can talk directly to someone.

The new plan is to implement a call handler for after hours. I have the handler all set up, ready to go, but need some design tips.

In order for the call handler to work (using a closed schedule), the problem I am running into is that since the call fowarding settings are set in call manager, the phone will constantly foward and foward and foward going through the "loop" of switchboard phones before the call handler will pick up.

I need to preserve the "looping" during normal business hours, but need to implement a call handler for after hours.

The only way to make my 8000 extenstion go directly to the call handler is to foward all calls to voice mail....

Any ideas how to manipluate either settings in call mgr or unity??

any questions please ask

 

[jerake75]

What version of CallManager do you have? If you have 4.1.X, you can configure Time of Day routing. It's a neat little feature where you can set certain directory numbers to be "dialable" during, say, business hours, and then during off-hours you can set up a CTI Route Point to forward straight to your call handler. You'll have to set the 8000-8005 numbers up into a hunt group (again, only if you have CCM 4.X, before that, hunt groups weren't available). I've had this set up at one of our switchboards, and it works fantastic.

TMH

 

[MRoberto]

I am running Cisco Call Manager 3.1 . That 'Time of Day Routing' sounds like exactly what I need, but I don't see anything like that in 3.1. Unity is 3.1 Build 3.1(2).

In call mgr 4.1, in the Time of Day Routing, is that feature similar to the fowarding settings (busy, no answer, foward all), but assignable to time of day? We are considering upgrading call mgr and unity and that would be a nice feature. I don't think I know anything about Hunt Groups either.

Thanks for the reply, let me know if you have any other ideas and any responces to the above.

Mike

 

[jerake75]

No, you won't have anything resembling it in CCM 3.1.

For the Time of Day Routing, you'll still have DN's 8000-8005 on the phone itself, but what you will do is add them to a line group, which is part of a hunt group (features also found in CCM 4.X and above, not in 3.X). You can set the routing on the line group - circular, broadcast, top down, longest idle, etc., sounds like you would do circular. There wouldn't be any forward settings on the lines themselves; all the forwarding would be done by the line group config.

You would then put DN's 8000-8005 in a special Partition configured for Time of Day Routing - this has the hours set up the CTI Route Point, set it to forward to your call handler, and that's it.

It's hard to envision, if you haven't seen it, but it works remarkably well. I would highly recommend upgrading both your CallManager and Unity - they have made huge improvements in both sets of software since 3.1.

The only other thing I can suggest, and that shipped with 3.1, is the WebAttendant (they call it Attendant Console now). I've been using that since 3.1 for some of our operators, and it's also a neat little program. Here's the info on it:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/voicesw/ps2351/index.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products...pport_install_and_upgrade_technotes_list.html

TMH

 

[jerake75]

I should add that the WebAttendant is very useful for what you want to do. You simply assign the extension of the call handler you've created to 8000-8005 in their voicemail box configuration (under line settings), and then when the operators are done for the day, they simply "Go Offline" in their WebAttendant app, and all calls go straight to voicemail.

Operators will have to use the PC to answer calls, but it does achieve what you want.

TMH

 

[MRoberto]

Thank you for your help, i really appreciate it. It looks like we've tried to use the WebAttendant before and it was frowned upon so we created the switchboard effect. Looks like we are going to be upgrading Call Mgr and Unity. We have 3.3(3)available for Call Mgr, but from there we can only go to 4.0(1). Maybe we can have Cisco send us 3.3(4) or 3.3(5) so from there we can do directly to 4.1(2) or 4.1(3). Also I cant tell which 3.1 version we are using --- (4a) or (4b). Under details in mall mgr it says 3.1(4)es54 for sys ver. and 3.1(0.35) for admin ver. I havent even looked at the Unity compatibility upgrades. Thanks again, I'll post back when I get some more info.

Mike R.

 

[jerake75]

Sounds like you don't have 4a or 4b - you have the base 3.1.4 plus an engineering special (es54).

If you have a service contract on the callmanagers, you should be able to order 3.3.5 from Cisco via the Product Upgrade Tool on their web site. And yeah, it sounds like you will have to do a staggered upgrade...if you need help, let me know (we started with CallManager version 3.1.2, upgraded to all major revisions execept 4.0, we went straight to 4.1 from 3.3.4).

TMH