Hunt Group / VoiceGate VMail issue

[alycera]

I have a hunt group issue and not a lot of experience in the area.

Current config: New MICS 6.1 with 10 CO lines in Pool A. The three (soon to be 5) receptionists’ phones have all of the CO lines set ring only. This results in them coming in on their intercom keys. They are set up with six intercom keys each and are able to juggle several calls at a time.

We are now trying to integrate a VoiceGate voicemail system with an auto attendant that will answer all calls first and bounce them out according to the callers’ selections. This is where the hunt groups come in.

I’m testing hunt group configs, but it appears that these calls come into the sets on a single button. Since the receptionists almost always work with more than one call at a time, is there a way to make the hunt group calls come in to the sets on more than one instance?

I’m hoping to emulate the current setup where even while on a call, additional calls appear on the next intercom key and can be grabbed by whoever is available (since all of their sets have ring only appearances for all of the CO lines). It doesn’t look like I can do that with the HG appearance.

I can set the HG appearance to ring only and it will come in on one of the intercom keys. But if another call hits the hunt group, the set is seen as busy and the new call will not show up on another intercom key like it does in the current config.

I’m trying a few things with target lines and ring only appearances, but not getting anywhere. I’m not sure how to get the VM to ring the target lines.

I’m also thinking about ringing groups and/or routes and destination codes but not sure whether I’m headed too far out into the wilderness . . .

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance for whatever help you can provide!

 

[luv2ski]

shoulda bought a call pilot...what does manufacturee say to do

6 months until ski season starts...sadly i must resign myself to the warmer weather"this will include a normal 8-5 work day, 5 days a week"

 

[nortelnorstar]

Voicegate with Norstar integration...

I have experience with this voicemail you'll have to explain how you want the integration to function. IE: full time auto attendant or overflow, how "0" calls are handled etc.

Marv

http://www.telemarv.ca

 

[alycera]

Well, I got it together on Friday. It wasn't the VoiceGate that was the problem. This was actually a Norstar question. VoiceGate routes the calls just fine. I inserted that info to make sure people could see the system config and hopefully comment on a potentially unknown VoiceGate capability that might allow an end run around the HG issue.

As noted, I thought I could only get one HG appearance on the sets. However, I found that when sets are members of multiple HGs, multiple appearances are possible, even when ringing to the I/C keys. So I ended up nesting several HGs. Here's how the HG membership and overflow config looks now:

HG# DN OverFlow Members
HG01 707 708 221,232,222
HG02 708 709 221,232,222,224,245
HG03 709 710 221,232,222,224,245
HG04 710 711 221,232,222,224,245,223,225,230,236
HG05 711 712 221,232,222,224,245,223,225,230,236
HG06 712 Queue 221,232,222,224,245,223,225,230,236

(I know they say you shouldn't overflow a HG to another HG, but it's working and I'm not asking questions!)

The main three DNs are members of six HGs. They also have six I/C keys, so they can juggle up to six concurrent calls. DNs 224 and 245 begin ringing when the first three are busy. Then the remaining four sets begin to light up.

I have several identical HGs programmed in order to allow more appearances on each set. This lets the receptionists put a call on hold to answer another call -- even though the existing call makes them look busy. If the HG has not overflowed and is simply ringing on one of the other DNs, they can use call pickup to grab the call. By placing the last HG overflow to queue, we keep the phone ringing until picked up. (Note: this is a Dr. Office and this particular HG is for Urgent calls that must be picked up by a person.)

BTW -- VoiceGate is working fine and is capable of working in the Medical Office vertical. Among other things, this means it can read the patient appointment list and automatically call tomorrow's patients to confirm appointments. Call Pilot can't do that . . .

Marv, Thanks for attempting to take a stab at it. It turns out that the VoiceGate config is pretty standard except that I redirect the "0" calls to a Norstar HG instead of a set. We've also deployed a VoiceGate logging server at this location doing quality assurance recording on eight sets.

This was kind of an interesting puzzle. I hope this solution helps someone else that may be searching the posts.

 

[nortelnorstar]

I like the voicegate product. As you say it does things the Norstar voice mails don't do. i like your use of hunt groups to ring multiple sets coming off the auto-attendant as this prevents the call from returning to voicemail via cfna/cb settings

Good work

Marv

http://www.telemarv.ca