vm pro direct extension transfer 2

[Telecomboy]

Anyone know a work-around for this: I have an IP Office R2.0 with VM Pro R2.0 answering all calls. Extensions are in the 4000 range so I have 4??? as a touchtone in the main menu set to transfer to extension (specific $key). The issue is they only have 20 extensions, but if you put a fake extension into the VM Pro Auto-Attendant menu (say 4361), it still tries to tranfer the call but instead drops the call when it doesn't know where to send it. Is there an easy way to specify which extensions are valid to transfer to and which one's should get an "invalid entry" message? I figured the vm pro would recognize there was no user/extension associated with an invalid number and not try to put the call through. any suggestions are welcome.

 

[sizbut]

It is a strangely obvious oversight. The key reason I can thik off is that assisted transfer actions can be set to numbers other than extension numbers, for example short codes and external numbers.


You could use the conditions editor and the compare element within it to check whether $KEY is less than/greater than the range being used for extension numbers. Then use Condition actions in your callflow.

The plus is if false you can immediately reroute the dialer to an alternate service or to redial again. The minus is that if you add another user/group your going to have to remeber to also alter the range conditions.

 

[IPGuru]

you could also try an assisted transfer, this will enable you to route back to the menu if the call fails.

 

[Morrack]

telecomboy, if you're in north america (and thus likely not using a '?' shortcode for external dialing) the easiest solution is to add the following shortcode on the IPO:

SC: ?
TN: *99 <or anything you're not already using>
F: VoicemailNode

Then create a short code call flow in VMPro named *99. Anyone transferring to an invalid extension from your main AA will be redirected to your *99 callflow where you can tell them that extension does not exist and goto back to your main AA callflow (or do whatever).

Works great, easy to implement, and no ongoing maintenance!

Peter

 

[Telecomboy]

Thanks for the responses. Morrack, I am in north america and the ? short code worked great. I knew there had to be any easy way to accomplish this. Thanks again.

 

[sizbut]

Morrack, very very neat.

To my mind its the first time I've seen any advantage to US marketing's insistence that users really really want to dial a prefix on outgoing calls rather than just dialing and letting the switch work out where the call needs to go. (semi-skimmed rant over)

Now how do we get that working on a non-US system. I suspect we need to add a "0N/./Dial" shortcode. It means that external calls must include the area even if local. Then "?/./Dial" can be reassigned as you suggest to capture dialing that does match any extension ID or other short code.

 

[Morrack]

That sounds logical, but not being familiar with non-nanpa dialing can't speculate too much. One of these days I'll get around to taking a world class routing course.

And take if from a user in north america, we DEFINATELY want to dial that 9 first. Would seem bizarre to just pick up and start dialing. Especially if I want to dial 1416xxxxxxx and the CEO's extension number was 1416 on my system... I'd be afraid to be accidentally bugging him all the time... ack!

Peter

 

[IPGuru]

What is bizzar about picking up a phone & just dialing?
Isnt that what we all do at home?

However you are correct that if extn numbers are simmilar to local numbers it can be a pain (fortunatly national calls in uk start 0 so it is only local calls that can be a problem).

to ease this porblem make sure the Dialed Digit Count & Dialing Timeout are set to sensible figures.

Dialed Digit Count Should always be greater then the maximum number of extn digits.
Dialing time out is a bit more tricky, in the states because numbers need dialing en block 2-3 seconds is normal, for most of the rest of the world 1 second is usualy suficent. if this timer is set to high you will get complaints that internal calls take too long to connect.

( I know you do not need instruction on this Peter but I though it may be usefull for any novices out there)

In the original scenario to route no existant exts back to VM follow peters instruction but change the short code to 4XXX, internal extn No.s will take priority over short codes.

 

[sizbut]

Cheers IPGuru (and Morrack for the original idea). I'll try that on my system tommorrow.

 

[Morrack]

I was considering suggesting that solution, but had never tried creating shortcodes that conflict with extension numbers. Good to know you can overlap and have the X take priority over the SC - other applications for that I'm sure.

Peter