Looking for Suggestions - need ability for 20 concurrent inbound calls

[MitelInMyBlood]

One of my managers is asking to have a dozen phones set up to handle up to 20 simultaneous inbound calls (total combined) from 4 different toll-free numbers. Their requirement is to be able to see the callerID as well as see which of the 4 numbers was dialed by the caller so that they can answer these lines appropriately. They do not want a call center. They want all phones to be able to answer any incoming call.

My idea was to build a single 20-member line group with 4 different Hunt Pilot numbers (1 for each of the 4 toll free numbers) so I can tag these with the Alerting Name for the individual service name. Then set up 12 (7965) phones each with a 7916/24 sidecar with the 1st 4 lines of the 20-memnber line group appearing on lines 6, 5, 4 and 3 respectively (reverse order) of the main instrument then lines 7 thru 20 on the sidecar with a "BROADCAST" distribution algorithm, reversion timeout of 60 secs and stop hunting on BZ/NA (since it's highly unlikely any line would ever go unanswered for more than 30 secs. - then clone this onto each of the 12 instruments.

I've tested this and am satisfied it'll work, now I'm just looking for suggestions for any better or cheaper way to do it, i.e., something that might eliminate the need for the sidecars but without confusing the agent.

The agents do need the ability to put calls on hold and possibly have them retrieved by other agents. Call Park came to mind, but I wouldn't need that if there was a dedicated line appearance on every phone for all 20 lines (which again requires sidecars)

Ideas welcomed!!!
Thanks


Original MUG/NAMU Charter Member

 

[pndscm]

I'm a little confused as to how you are wanting this to work. So you want each of the 20 lines on all 12 phones to ring at the same time? If so your Line Group setup should work.

Why not use a 7931 phone instead of a 7965 + sidecar? It has 20 buttons to use for what ever you want. Much cheaper than a 7965 + sidecar. It has some limitations such as reduced screen size and it uses a paper DESI strip. But if all the phones will be the same with 20 shared lines, DESI strips are a one time shot.

One thing I'm not sure of is if you are off hook on a call on the 7931 and a second button/line is ringing if the display changes to the ringing info. I think it does which limits you to putting the first call on Hold. The softkeys change to a 'ringing' setup taking away Transfer, etc..

A second idea is to use a 7965 and set the 4 button/lines Busy triggers to 5. That way 20 calls can come in on each of the 4 buttons, 5 per phone. This would put your Line Group down to 4 DN's. I'm not sure on using shared line appearances in a Line Group though. That would impact your solution and my solution. I don't have a system in front of me to see if that works. Sounds like you already tested it though.

I'm not sure what management is thinking if they want 20 calls to ring to 12 agents with no queuing going on. Sounds like a Customer Service nightmare. I hope all 12 agents are there every minute of every shift. I wouldn't want to be the only agent that showed up one day during bad weather.

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

Thanks.

We have the 7965s and 7916 sidecars in inventory whereas we'd have to spend money to buy 7931s, but thanks for that idea.

I agree the requirement sounds strange to me too. Basically what this is for is a disaster recovery location that hopefully will never be needed, but will be equipped and ready to go if it is. Naturally they'll want to periodically conduct readiness test exercises to prove the concept.... (pull the trigger and have the LEC failover the pilot numbers to the alternate location)

Yes, all 12 phones will all ring concurrently with the presentation of each incoming call and up to 20 calls total. The client recently came off a large Mitel TDM system which had phones that offered 14 native shared line apps per device and up to a total of 62 lines with installation of a single PKM48 sidecar (!) Buttons, buttons, buttons.... (a receptionist's phone resembled a church organ)

95% of their call traffic is inbound hence they never want to return a busy and their intent is to have all calls answered, even if they have to place some on hold. ***ANSWER THE PHONE*** is their battle cry.

I had thought about 7965s without sidecars, and setting busy triggers to 5 but that makes it a cluster**** for someone else to pick up a holding line... which line - where? I don't see it? It's obscured by another call. Where is my customer? Call Park would have addressed that, but then the question of "where is so & so holding"?? They timed out & rang back! Awkward.

Give 'em a button - they know what to do with the button.

In reality their mgmt has always had visions of grandeur about the potential number of simultaneous incoming calls. I've even given them a 12-month traffic study from the old system's SMDR showing that their maximum concurrency has never exceeded 10 and the average is 4. (a lot of people sitting there polishing their nails and playing Farmville). The current (production) system is front-ended with a call handler that branches into 4 more call handlers to steer the caller to the specific acct. manager group. In the D/R scenario they want a boiler room full of people fighting to grab each call. (Texas A&M grads mostly - other A&M grads would probably understand)




Original MUG/NAMU Charter Member