CICS 6.1 + 7 POTS + No Receptionist = $#%@

[ingenia]

Where to start? We have a CICS with 7 POTS coming in. There are 6 people in our office, each with our own 'line'(except the owner has two). The problem is that there is no busy call handling. Since we have POTS lines if I am on my line and someone tries to call me they get busy from Telco. We do not have a receptionist so we can't just have Telco 'hunt' it to our main number. Any ideas? We have thought about getting one additional POTS line to be the dedicated 'hunt' from Telco to our CCR, but it wouldn't go straight to the users mailbox, but to the general menu right? And if two people were on the phone and two more called them, only one would get through to the CCR and the other would get a busy signal right?

Is there a way to straighten this out? Are we better off ditching the POTS lines so that we can handle our own busy call handling rather than Telco?

Please help!

Thanks in advance...

 

[tcwinont]

Ingenia:

You should really get a vendor to help you.

That being said, I'll try and help out though. Assuming you do not have any Norstar Voice Mail System (I think the CICS has a built-in Auto Attendent), either Call Pilot, Startalk, Flash, NAM, etc., you should get one of these machines to handle your calls. You can then use the built-in Auto-Attendent in one of these machines to pick up calls on say the 'main' line with the other 6 being on a same hunt group. That way, when the main line is busy, calls from the outside will be rolled onto the other six and the caller wouldn't get a busy signal from the Telco. When the Auto Attendent picks up the line, the caller can then punch in the extension number of the person they're trying to reach. If this person is busy or not available, then it can go to the users VM box. The only downside is that if you say 'your' line with your own telco billing for each of the 7 lines, I don't think they can all be in the same hunt group. What I mean by this is you have, in your office, people running their own businesses on these lines but collectively pool their resources together (i.e. Architect and Engineer, like in my office) and be transparent. Depending on the voicemail system, there are 4 greeting tables to record 4 company greetings for the voice mail system to work with.

So...it can be complicated. Everybody has their own issues and requirements for communications requirements and not all Norstar Systems are compatible with the different Norstar Voice Mail Systems. You're best to spend some money on a vendor that can personally sit down with you, see your working environment and come up with a solution for you.

Hope this helps.

 

[TWOWAY]

Ingenia,

One solution would be to simply use your CCR/Auto Attd. as your receptionist, build a tree, (since you have a small office) and and assign each person to a path. Have Telco hunt lines 1 to 4, keep 1 line as a possible "back door line". You could cut down how many lines you use.

Twoway

 

[ingenia]

Thanks for all the suggestions. We do have a Call Pilot 100. All of us work for the same company. My boss wants each of us to have our own DID (he thinks that this will eliminate the need for a receptionist). I think I see what you are getting at:

Use Line 1 as main line to a CCR
Hunt Lines 1-4 to handle many incoming calls

Should I create a line pool with the remaining 3 lines to handle all the outgoing calls?

Thanks again for your help so far- I will present your suggestions to my boss (especially the one about getting a vendor).

 

[TWOWAY]

Ingenia,

Sorry, what I meant was that you could possibly get by on less lines, use 1 thru 4 in hunt and use line 5 as a backdoor line to retrieve VM messages, etc. Your boss may give up the DID idea if he could save a monthly charge on lines and make your system operate as intended. And yes, you could pool your lines for out-going. If you feel your traffic warrants 7 lines, keep 7 lines. Good luck!