Two departments, different closing times, one night service button

[1Jumbo]

In a nutshell, client has older MERLIN LEGEND, 007 Voice Mail. They have one attendant console with a night service button. There is another department moving in to the same building but they have different hours of operation. Also, the two departments want to use night service (separately) for meetings, etc. They have an old school T1 set as wink/wink tie trunks and DNIS for routing. Both departments have their own DNIS.

Any thoughts on setting up two departments with separate control for turning on night service?

Thanks!

 

[HiDesert]

I'm sure the guru's will have a different take on this, but I
would think about upgrading the MM007 to a Merlin Messaging 4.0.
The Messaging VM has 4 attendants, each with its own time schedule.
Beyond the 1st AA, which would use the NS button, the other AA's don't
need this feature.
What version is the Legend????

 

[Telecomboy]

If you are dealing with DID's, you can do this utilizing DND buttons for the second phone. The main operator can still use the night button for their calls. Then, make the extension of the second station AA2. Using the DND will make it cover immediately to the AA.

 

[1Jumbo]

This is a non-profit so capital expenditure is out. I have a printout of the full system but can't find version information in there but it is a discolored plastic cabinet so it is not Magix.

Since all calls come in on a T1, I came up with a thought that we could isolate the new department trunking by creating a pseudo trunk group using loop arounds. Then that department could work independently of the night button as long as the new trunk group is assigned to auto attendant 2 only. That is what we will probably be trying soon.

Thanks for the response.

 

[Telecomboy]

You should be able to route the second DNIS to the second business operator and utilize the DND option I mentioned. I did this at a client a long time ago with a straight T1.

 

[1Jumbo]

In this case, the second DNIS is the lead number to a group of agents that log in and out. There is no operator for the second group. Good thought though.

 

[Telecomboy]

I could be wrong, but if the DNIS is pointed to a hunt group you should be able to set-up the hunt group extension in the 007MLM as AA2. Then, when all agents are logged out it will cover directly to AA2.

 

[1Jumbo]

That is how it is set up now and it covers to AA2. The problem came in when the main operator manually pressed the night service button for meetings, lunch, etc., This small group ended up in night service when they did not want to be. If we isolate them by giving them their own trunk group, I am hoping to make the night service button become a non-issue. Day and night recordings will be determined by the time of day as will their day/night auto attendant prompts (which are unique to day and night operation). Thanks again for your time and responses.

 

[merlinman]

Here's my 2 Cents:

Have the Main Operator use DND for Meetings & Lunch and that type of things.

If she just covers to AA then it should work, if not, we'll have to figure something else out.

http://home.comcast.net/~merlinman

-merlinmansblog.blogspot.com

 

[1Jumbo]

Here is what we are going to do. We won't know that the solution is acceptable until they port the number over and there is some soak time.

We created four loop around circuits using open analog extensions 7160-7163 and trunk ports 8/1-8/4. We created trunk group 892 using trunk ports 8/1-8/4 (which corresponds to trunks 857-860). We modified DGC 2010 to auto login and put in the new analog extensions 7160-7163. We added trunk group 892 to the stations that will be answering calls for the new department. All calls end up going to the lowest numbered station's voice mail. We made that station the owner for trunk group 892.

Now calls can be picked up by anyone in the department, they know that it is a business call and not a DID call because it comes in on a unique button. All calls go to one mailbox that everyone will need to check. They are not affected by the main console night service button and they can control the new department's night service/office closure by call forwarding the controlling extension to an offsite answering location like they wanted.

Thanks for everyone's input. Now we wait and see what happens once they go live.