Ring Multiple DNs for Designated Operator 5

[dkpruett]

How (or what's typical, if anything) do I set up my Voice Mail V4.x to ring multiple DNs when a caller presses 0? We currently don't employ a receptionist, but instead have many people listening for the incoming lines and any one of us answer the phones.
E.G I have 5 incoming lines under a CO Hunt Group. My current set up is Line Appearances for these 5 lines at 8 DNs throughout our facility. The operator DN is set to Appear&Ring at these 8 DNs; DRT is at 2, at which time the AA answers. During an incoming call, these 8 DNs ring and we ignore it; When a caller presses 0, these DNs ring again and one of us picks up. The problem is we can't tell the difference between a direct internal call and an external caller looking for an operator, plus we'd like to eliminate the initial incoming ring. Is there a way to set up the NAM/MICS in this way? Or at least have a different ring when the external caller presses 0?
I'm running an MICS 6.x w/NAM II Voice Mail V4.x

 

[Arr]

0 could be directed to ring a single set whith answer DNs assigned to the sets you wish to 'answer 0 calls on' and then assign distinctive ring to that key. You can keep line appearances under this condition.

PhM

 

[Sphoneman]

If you have the 5 lines set in AA at "0" rings that should eliminate the initial incoming ring. Then when the caller presses for the operator the ANS DN buttons for that extension would ring at your 8 sets.

Steve
tele-dataservices.com

 

[telemarv]

Another way to do it is put all the phones you want to answer "0" calls in a hunt group and then set the attendant DN in the voice mail to be the hunt group DN.

 

[dkpruett]

Thanks all for the help; let me check tomorrow. I may have to try the distinctive ring, though that's not my preference. Setting AA a "0" rings loses my Caller ID, though if we forgo that nicety I think that would be the best solution. Unless I misunderstand Hunt Groups (DNs ring consecutively from one to the next until one isn't busy?) I don't want that option since any one of us may answer at any time, though maybe I need to look at that option a little further. A simple Ringing Group similar to what's available under the CCR tree would do it though unless I'm wrong that's not an option.

 

[mroberts]

The Hunt group scenario is your best option.
Hunt groups can be programmed to Broadcast ring which would ring all the members in the groups simultaneously.

The members wouldn't be able to have outside lines on their phones at all, in order for it to work properly.
Not having the outside lines on their phones would also do away with the Ring on their phones before being answered by AA. Then you could set the AA to pick up in 2 rings. This way you could have your caller ID too.

MRoberts

http://www.a1teletronics.com

 

[telemarv]

You don't necessarily have to remove line appearances but set the the lines to appear only. As MR said make the hunt group broadcast and all phones will ring "0" is selected.

 

[mroberts]

If you set the lines to appear on the phone then the calls will NOT ring the phones, they will simply continue to flash on their designated line buttons.

Lines must be removed in order for the call to follow hunt group programming.

MRoberts

http://www.a1teletronics.com

 

[telemarv]

No true MR I've done it with line appearance still on the set. The line flashes and rings

 

[mroberts]

Just bench tested it to make sure I wasn't losing my mind....
I built hunt group 2707 with three members, 2221, 2229 and 2240. All members were set to Appr&Rng. Exts 2221 and 2229 had line 063 assigned to Appear only on the sets.
Line 063 was assigned to the Hunt Group.

When line 063 was called, only ext 2240 rang. And it was the only one to ring on the hunt group button.

The other two extensions, flashed the LINE indicator for Ln063 but did NOT ring. And the indicator was on the line button itself not the hunt group button. Therefore it would not follow hunt group programming.

This is from the Nortel manual itself:
"Lines assigned to line buttons on individual telephones take precedence over the lines assigned to Hunt group buttons. Therefore, we recommend that you do not assign
lines to individual telephone DN records for telephones that are part of a Hunt group."

MRoberts

http://www.a1teletronics.com

 

[telemarv]

Oh ok I think we're talking about 2 different scenerio. I was talking about accessing a hunt group through AA or CCR (as in the original post). No HG button need be assigned to the sets (but sets have line appearance without ringing) the line should flash and sets should ring. I may be mistaken though (don't remember)it may have been the intercoms ringing, but I'm pretty sure it was the line buttons.

I have a customer setup this way as a poor man's call centre on CICS 4.1 and a Flash 2.0. 3 sets in an sales HG "Press 1 for sales" and all sets in HG ring.

Set up your HG without any lines being assigned to it. Set CCR path 1 to xfer to your HG DN. or as in the case above attendant DN set the HG DN.

 

[mroberts]

Ah HA!

So we're both right, in our own way.
I did it both ways, off the CCR tree and doing a 0 out to the hunt group DN. Same result.

If the vmail does the transferring to the hunt group DN and the line in question is NOT assigned in hunt group programming and IS assigned to appear only on the member phones, it WILL ring the phones on the Line appearance.



MRoberts

http://www.a1teletronics.com

 

[telemarv]

The only problem I've yet to resolve with the above client is if the call goes unanswered I'd like it to go to a mbox. I tried creating an mbox for the HG DN so that when it recalls to the VM it would go to a mailbox. What happens instead is the call ends up back in the CCR greeting. in the mean time I've set the ovrflow to the receptionist but that's not ideal. Also when it recalls the msg lights on the phones start flashing like there's a msg waiting. I've yet to figure out how to clear the msg lamps. There's no "msg waiting" indication on the screen just flashing lamp. F#65 won't clear it. Any suggestions?

 

[mroberts]

It's going to have to follow the HG programming in order to get to the right mailbox. Create mailbox to match the HG DN and assign the mailbox to the HG DN, then set the overflow in HG programming to be the first port of the vmail.

So, you'd have to take the line appearances off the member's phones.

Don't really know about the flashing lamps. Haven't heard that one.

MRoberts

http://www.a1teletronics.com

 

[telemarv]

So i should overflow to VM DN instead of letting it recall? I'll try that. I'll try with and without line appearance.

 

[dkpruett]

Thanks tremendously for all of the help; I never expected this level of detail so quickly. I now have it set up working pretty much exactly as I want (except I still need to look a little further into the Hunt Group overflow for when no one in the Hunt Group Answer the phone).

BTW: So far I am able to have the incoming lines appear on my phones as "Appear" only, with no initial ring, and a distinctive ring set up for each incoming line which rings "distinctly" on the Hunt Group Members when an external caller presses "0" in the AA. The advantage to this for us is it allows us to "Page" someone to "Line 1", Line 2", etc.... I know this is against what is in the manual but it "seems" to be working so far.

In any case, thanks very much for the assistance.

 

[mroberts]

Yeah, that's what we were saying above. If the Vmail does the transfer to the hunt group then the Appearances of the lines on hunt group members WILL ring the phones on the line buttons.

MRoberts

http://www.a1teletronics.com