Reducing incoming lines out of hours...?

[Cenedd]

I've got a slightly unusual request here. IP Office 500 with two ISDN2e BRI lines. Main incoming number rings sequentially over channels 1,2,3,4. I've got incoming call routes set up so that if it rings on channels 1 or 2, it is routed to a hunt group. If it rings on channels 3 or 4 it is routed to Busy and the caller gets an engaged tone. This successfully limits incoming calls to two simultaneous whist still allowing incoming fax calls, DDIs etc.

The problem I've been given is that at certain times they are short staffed and only want to have a maximum of one simultaneous incoming call. Apparently they used to achieve this by taking a phone off the hook and selecting an outgoing line. This doesn't work with ISDN as it doesn't seize the line until you've dialled the number. I looked at incoming call routes but it only allows me to handle a pair of channels, not set a separate route for each of the channels - if it did I could set a different route for the second channel sending it to Busy on a time profile.
I looked at setting night service so that when set, it would only ring the reception phone and if that was busy, it would give engaged. The problem is that they want all the phones on the ground floor to ring as a collective hunt group.

Can anyone suggest any devious and cunning ways that I could limit the number of simultaneous incoming calls (for that number) to just one but still have it ringing a collective hunt group wth multiple members?
The system is an IP Office 500 running 6.1(12)

Many thanks in advance.

Gareth

 

[robboardman]

you could send the incoming call route to a huntgroup with queuing on and set the queue limit to 0 so if there is one call answered the rest will get busy or go to VM

Robb

 

[amriddle01]

You can set individual channels to different line groups, in the Line tab. Then route accordingly in Incoming call route.

ACS - IP Office Implement

 

[amriddle01]

No you cant, ignore me, it's line appearence that's configurable per channel.

ACS - IP Office Implement

 

[Cenedd]

Thanks for the quick replies guys.

Amriddle01: You're right, you can set the line appearance per channel (it's 701,702,703 and 704) but I can't see anyway of routing using that - it's all by line group ID which is per channel pair.

robboardman: Thanks for that suggestion. I'll try it when I get a change. It's just awkward trying to test things as I can't disrupt them during business hours and out of hours they have to have an answerphone giving emergency contact details. Makes it very difficult to test things. *sigh*

I'll let you know the results when I can get it tested but I'm off on holiday - it's long overdue, believe me! - tomorrow so it might be a couple of weeks.

Many thanks for you help.

Gareth

 

[tlpeter]

Never tried but try it yourself

Use user rights for this (i think)

Make a time profile
Attache that to the userright and make a shortcode in the user right
Give it a line id that matches the line appearance id of the channel you want to use and give everybody only a that line appearance

If you have two isdn 2 then those channels have line appearance id's 701,702,703 and 704
Again i never tried but maybe it works !




ACA - Implement IP Office
ACS - Implement IP Office
ACA - Voice Services Management
______________
Women and cats can do as they please and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea!

 

[Cenedd]

Ok, I've just tried and it's not possible to set a queue length to zero. Below one is "No Limit" so that seems to be a no-go. Thanks for the suggestion though.

TLPeter: That sounds like a possibility but unfortunately I don't quite understand enough of that to try it. I can see there are User Rights and potentially I could set them on a time profile - although I'd rather turn it on and off from a programmable button. You're right that the channels are 701-704. 703-704 have effectively been blocked already as that group gets sent to a 'busy' user.
I'm not really sure what to put in for shortcodes to try to limit the incoming calls though. Can you clarify this in a 'for idiots' way please?

For reference:
Currently everyone has "Line Appearance a=" and "Line Appearance b=" buttons.
Incoming calls go to a Hunt Group with just reception as a member and then trip over to a Hunt Group with everybody (including Reception) as members. The reason for this is that it allows reception to press programmable buttons to divert all calls to an announcement answerphone appropriate to the day of the week.

Many thanks,

Gareth