Cisco Intercom ?? 3

[DogsInSpace]

We are looking at moving to Cisco Call Manager 400 and have one feature on our current (Avaya) system that we cannot live without: if a user is on the phone talking on the handset, his/her assistant can talk to them through the phone speaker to announce waiting calls etc.

I cannot seem to get a straight answer on whether the Cisco System supports this feature (I am sure there is a more elegant name for it than the description I supplied above)

Thanks in advance for any help !!!

 

[HmmG3]

I don't believe CallManager can do that. You can normally configure a second line (with a unique extension) that will auto answer with the speaker phone, but it won't do that while the phone is currently in use. There might be a 3rd party application that may do this, but I can't say for sure.

Keep in mind the CallManager system is very "young" in the telecom world, so it still lacks several features that more "mature" systems have. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that they will soon offer EC500 as it really sucks not having it on my Cisco phone.

 

[DogsInSpace]

HmmG3--
While I don't like the answer, I DO appreciate the quickness of the response..........

a big thanks !!

 

[Maugwa]

Look at product by Syn-Apps called Syn-Announce. I believe it may have what you're looking for or close to it.

http://www.syn-apps.net/

 

[iptuser]

You can set the busy trigger to 2 so that the PA or indeed anyone else can still call the manager. The manager will see the "second" call and who it is from and put the first caller on hold and answer the second- toggle between the two.

 

[IPTnewbie]

the product is called LITESCAPE Enterprize. installing it now around the country.

 

[CSExplorer]

I have recently implemented that Intercom feature you just described w/o any add-l apps like PA etc.
Basically you need to add one more line to each phone, enable the line to auto pick up, set it in CSS matching PT of the line of the second phone, and configure second phone vice versa. Plus you need to add both partitions to Translation Pattern so they "dial out" as soon as line is picked up.
Feel free to PM me if you need any add-l info.
Good luck.

 

[HmmG3]

How did you get the speaker to answer when the other line was in use? When I tried something similar, the phone would just start ringing when it was already in use.

 

[CSExplorer]

if I understood your question correctly

Auto Answer
Choose one of the following options to activate the Auto Answer feature for this directory number:
Auto Answer Off <Default>
Auto Answer with Headset
Auto Answer with Speakerphone (Intercom)
Note : Make sure that the headset or speakerphone is not disabled when you choose Auto Answer with headset or Auto Answer with speakerphone.
Note : Do not configure Auto Answer for devices that have shared lines.

 

[whykap]

If the phone is busy Auto answer on another line will only ring the phone. No work around to this as this is normal functionality.

If the phone is idle then yes it will work.

If this feature is a must when the phone is busy then Barge is the feature you are looking for.
Extremely intrusive and annoying but so is intercom as you describe it.

IPMA is the other way of doing it which is CISCO's answer to intercom between an assistant and an executive.

 

[jneiberger]

This is probably irrelevant, but I know that ShoreTel offers this feature. They call it "Whisper Page".

 

[frankbil]

Intercom is a "new" feature to Cisco CCM. It will be released this May/June with CCM 6.

 

[TheMitelGuy]

What's wrong with Avaya's solution?

 

[HmmG3]

Nothing is wrong with Avaya's solution, it's just hard to implement on a Cisco platform. Sadly, it's usually not the techs that have to support the system that get to say which platform is used. I'm pretty sure our decision to go from Avaya to Cisco was made at a golf course!

 

[TheCardMan]

Isn't wisper page available in Call Manager 5.1?