Changing a user's "forward to" number remotely. 1

[RocketJTech]

I have customer with IP Office 8.1 Essential Edition. They are a HVAC service shop with an on-call tech on the weekends. The techs rotate this responsibility. Occasionally, 2 techs want to split a weekend, creating a challenge in getting the calls to route properly (without coming into the office to change it). Here is the current setup:

Calls are answered by AA. When the caller needs the on-call tech they press 2. This selector code is set to transfer to a phantom extension which is unconditionally forwarded to the on-call tech's cell phone. Is there a way to change this number remotely? I assume not.

My first thought is to set up a second AA, identical to the first, except that it transfers such calls to a different phantom extension (forwarded to the 2nd tech's phone) and using time profiles to determine which AA answers.

Ideas??? GO!!!

Thanks to technology, we can instantly communicate across the world, but it still doesn't help us know what to say.

 

[janni78]

Easiest would probably be to set all techs up in a huntgroup with mobile twinning and route the call to the huntgroup.

The techs could then call into FNE31 and enable/disable themselves from the huntgroup.

"Trying is the first step to failure..." - Homer

 

[Gunnaro]

Leaving the employees in charge of this may not be the best way.
If you get VMPro, you can set up a schedule for each of them.
This will cost you a bit, but it could be worth it as you gain a ton of other useful features.

I've made a few of these, with bi-weekly rotation of whos on call, remote override of the schedule in case a tech gets sick, supervisor alarm if too many calls are lost, etc.

Kind regards

Gunnar
______________________________________
Mille viae ducunt homines per saecula Romam

 

[Westi]

Sounds also like you have analog lines which don't support FNE.
you could prepare it ahead of the weekend and setup 2 groups with 1 member in it each to forward to the 2 cell phones you need to have that weekend. Make option 2 go to group 1 and that calls user 1, create a new option in the AA to set that grote out of service and send the fallback to group 2 when they want to switch.
Problem is that you need to set this up ahead of time every time.

Joe W.

FHandw, ACSS (SME)


"This is the end of the world, make sure to buy your T-shirt before it is too late"
Original expression of my daughter

 

[IPGuru]

As Gunni said, VM pro has lots of options that would improve this setup :-

Possible to remotely change call forwarding on an extn.
Cascaded VM Alerts - cust can leave a message which will keep trying a number of numbers until it gets an acknowledgement


A Maintenance contract is essential, not a Luxury.
Do things on the cheap & it will cost you dear

 

[resicom]

Set up your second AA, put it as your out of service AA. Build your shortcode for turning on out of service for your primary aa. Set a selector code to in your AA to transfer and put in the shortcode to turn on your out of service which is built to go to your other aa. For security you can build a couple more AA's to make it multiple digits to turn on. Like *8#. You need to set the selector code to "normal transfer" to get the short code to work to turn on your out of service.

 

[Mikel82]

We just set up a phantom mailbox in voicemail pro and use the "call out" notification to their cell phones. You can enter different phone numbers for home, office, mobile, etc. We put each techs cell number in one of the locations. You can change which number it calls via accessing the mailbox or if you "right" click on the mailbox in VM Pro.

We always to notify "always".

If your not going to it right don't bother doing it at all!

 

[RocketJTech]

Thanks Mike, but as I stated in the first sentence of my original post, this is Essential Edition, not Preferred.

We have opted to use a second AA with time profiles to change the Incoming Call Route at the appropriate time

Thanks to technology, we can instantly communicate across the world, but it still doesn't help us know what to say.

 

[intrigrant]

Use twinning. Twin the on-call tech to the offline user.
Then the on-call tech can dial in, get dial tone and can change the forwarding number and / or the twinning number.
Use FNE codes to get dial tone for the active twinning user.

 

[RocketJTech]

Thanks, but they have POTS lines and twinning just is not always reliable with them. The issue has been resolved and I won't be pursuing another solution at this time.

Thanks to technology, we can instantly communicate across the world, but it still doesn't help us know what to say.

 

[intrigrant]

POTS lines... it is 2015, we have been on the Moon (they say) and underway to Pluto, the first thing a new born gets is a mobile with unlimited data access (MyFirstMobile) and we can find rotary phones only in the Telcoms museum with a sign next to it "do not touch, very fragile and rare item".
And still there are POTS lines...

 

[RocketJTech]

We are not in the big city. They only have 4 lines and it's a cost thing. 90% of my customers have POTS lines. I cater to the small business, rarely use expansion modules and about 80% digital vs IP phones. It's a different world in flyover country... And we like it that way.

Thanks to technology, we can instantly communicate across the world, but it still doesn't help us know what to say.

 

[amriddle01]

IP Phones and analogue lines are not a good mix with IP Office anyway

 

[derfloh]

The issue has been resolved and I won't be pursuing another solution at this time.

How? If you have a simple new way don't hesitate to share it.

 

[RocketJTech]

Ok... I thought I had... Here are the details:

Incoming call route normally goes to AA with an option (press 3) to reach the on-call tech.

This option goes to a phantom ext which is unconditionally forwarded to the tech's cell phone (trunks must be set up with trunk to trunk transfer).

Now, I set up an alternate AA with a different tech's phantom ext forward to his cell phone in the same manner. All other aspects of the AA are identical to the first AA.

there are time profiles set up for the times in question. The receptionist simply and add those time profiles to the incoming call route destination as appropriate prior to the weekend. The receptionist can also change where the forwarding goes as needed.

Thanks to technology, we can instantly communicate across the world, but it still doesn't help us know what to say.

 

[derfloh]

It is OK if it works but I don't like to give the end use (receptionist) a manager.

I see one AA routing to a shortcode that points to an ARS. Create an ARS for Tech1 another for Tech2 and a third one for Tech3.

Set Tech2 ARS as OutOfService alternative ARS for Tech1 ARS and Tech3 ARS as OOS ARS for Tech2 ARS. Not really nice either.

If you have a my of three techs you can also create three hunt groups (sequential) with a single phantom user forwarded unconditionally to one of the techs. Set group1 in service to reach tech1, set it in night service to reach the second group and tech2 and set it OOS to reach the third group and tech3. So you can set the group status via short codes (secured by AAs following each other as PIN) or by feature keys. That way the receptionist can also see the group status.

Or upgrade to 9.1 and you can setup hunt group fallback destinations to the techs mobiles with feature keys.

 

[Gunnaro]

Sooo..The receptionist has Manager access? I know a few techs here has been burnt badly by that.

"Help! Config automatically rolls back one week every weekend"
(Receptionist keeps Manager open at all times, overwriting techs programing at 16:00 hrs on Fridays)

Kind regards

Gunnar
_______
B.U.B.F

 

[intrigrant]

Nowadays you can set a time-out in Manager...

 

[RocketJTech]

Thank you derfloh. Finally some constructive advice. The setup that we currently have is working well, so I probably won't tempt fate by changing things up. I will keep it on my arsenal for future consideration though. And you also deserve a star.

Btw, I don't normally give Manager access to my clients, but in this case, she is quite capable and has been using it on a weekly basis for about three years.


Thanks to technology, we can instantly communicate across the world, but it still doesn't help us know what to say.