Which feature should I use (long)

[verland]

I need to set up a bunch of phones to ring a certain way and I'm not sure which feature would handle it best or if it's even possible. Here's what we want to happen:

There are several shop phones around that aren't assigned to any one person. The gimmick is that we want a call to someone's extension to ring on a button on the shop phones. The calls would probably be autoattendant transfers, with callers just dialing who they want to talk to. Each phone might have a few buttons for ringing different people.

This way if someone dials "Ron" from the autoattendant it rings all the Ron buttons on the shop phones. If noone answers the Ron button it would go to Rons voice mail after a few rings.

I'm still learning and couldn't come up with a slick way to do this. Sounds like the best way is with coverage, which I did play with but couldn't find a way for it to ring all the phones. I don't think a pickup group is what I want either.

Here's a roundabout method I just came up with, sounds workable but who knows:
Let's say Ron wants to reached in the shop by dialing 36.
Renumber a port on the 012 board to 36. Run an RJ11 wire from that to a gs/ls port, let's say 816. Assign line 816 to buttons on the shop phones and write "Ron" on them. Add 816 to the vm cover (I guess his voicemail box will have to be 816?).
Sounds clumsy but I'm pretty sure I can make that work. Any better ideas? Thanks, Vern

 

[TouchToneTommy]

Renumber Adjunct ports to the desired extension numbers. Put a Primary Coverage button on each shop phone for each adjunct that you create. (You can have up to 8 coverage stations)


Example: Tom, Dick, and Harry work in this shop. Tom is Ext. 201, Dick is 202, and Harry is 203. The actual extensions in the shop are 150, 151, 152, and 153.

Renumber adjuncts 7300, 7301, and 7302 to 201, 202, and 203. Put them in Coverage Group 30 (for Voice Mail), and record you Auto Attendant prompt accordingly.

On Extensions 150-153, in addition to the standard SA-Voice, SA-Ring, and SA-Out buttons, you put Primary Coverage 201-I, Primary Coverage 202-I, and Primary Coverage 203-I buttons, and label them as Tom, Dick, and Harry.

When a call goes to Ext. 201 for Tom, it "rings" at the virtual 201 and covers to Voice Mail if not answered. It also rings on Tom's Coverage button on Ext. 150-153 at the same time.

If Tom is at any set, he can simply pick up on the coverage button to receive the call.

However, it another call comes in while he is on that call, it will ring at the other phones, but not on the phone he is using, because he is using the coverage button. Therefore, depending on the expected call volume, you might train the users to access a SA button, and "pickup" the call from the coverage button, keeping it available for another call.