Call Que Log in / out

[russell]

A feature we find indispensable on our asterisk server at our main office ... is to be able to log in and out extensions from a customer call Que.

I guess the Quadro comparison might be allowing extensions to log in and out of a many ring group or a hunt group. this allows staff to not only decide when they are talking customer calls BUT also to do after hours and call routing when no staff are logged in.

Any chance this might be feature put on the Quadro units ?

[AramK]

Russel, please describe your request a little bit more and better bring an example I have some guesses only regarding your suggested option, but if you are talking about including/excluding extensions to the MER or Hunt group by dialing some service code on the phone, then it is not possible right now - this can be done only from Quadro GUI. Maybe we can achieve the same result with the mix of other features of Quadro.

[russell]

In a normal Asterisk setup or the commercial versions of asterisk such as Switchvox which is what our main server runs off.

Staff can arrive and dial a code , their phone is then logged ON to a customer call Que (or multiple queues) so they start getting customer calls.

When I say a call que I mean customers call in , they choose an IVR option and are directed to a call que which has member extensions. I guess for Quadro this is the same as a virtual extension with a MER or hunt group and by dialing a code the extension would be become active in their MER or hunt groups.

In Switchvox when you add an extension to a call que you choose if it is

1) a permanent member (always gets calls)
2) a optional member (only gets calls if logged in)

instead of distributing calls blindly , it sends calls only to staff who are actually working and then when all members are logged out you can have a rule to send calls to elsewhere ie. when no extensions are logged in

[KSComs]

Aram....

What he is describing is being able to allow or not allow calls to ring a MERg telephone by the use of a code.

Ie .. Log in / Log out code function on an extension by extension basis that is part of the MER

Now if we combine that with monitoring MERGs Id be very happy : )



Regards

Kevin

[russell]

I could be wrong here but could you not send your customers to a virtual extension , changing the caller ID of that extension to accounts, bookings etc would this not work on a Quadra ?

[KSComs]

Russell it does work that way but...

You have a user that is part of 2 groups... accounts payable and accounts receivable.

The person needs to take the receivable callers as a priority over the payable callers...

lets say that user is already on a phone call... which is displayed on the telephones screen...

They have received an accounts payable inquiry and there is an accounts receivable caller just ringing into that group...

Your telephone may not necessarily ring due to how SIP telephony works, but you wish to see that an accounts receivable caller has hit the MERg so you want to see what the call is about before you place the call that youre currently engaged in on hold and answer the accounts receivable caller.

The above situation will not show up using the current firmware at all and I am not sure if it will show up with the 6L with Key Phone Emulation either.

What I would like to see is for the Monitoring of a MERg using BLFs on IP Handsets.

You can do it with an Auto Attendant being mapped under a BLF key of SNOM handsets or even AASTRAs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The alternative might be to monitor Virtuals and providing that Epygi were able to configure the telephone behaviour to ring a virtual, there fore you should be able to map to the virtual and because it would never be busy on the phone so to speak, the only time a call would be present would be when it is call routed via that extension...

Aram... is that possible...

MERg with a virtual within it.. and map a blf key from a SNOM/AASTRA handset to the virtual... ?

I will do some testing... but this may be the answer to some of my problems....

Regards

Kevin

[KSComs]

Oh well, all tested and no banana at the end of it...so if Epygi can make a setting to allow a Virtual extension to ring even if there is nothing connected to it and allow the mapping of the same that would be super.

Regards

Kevin

[AramK]

In a normal Asterisk setup or the commercial versions of asterisk such as Switchvox which is what our main server runs off.

Staff can arrive and dial a code , their phone is then logged ON to a customer call Que (or multiple queues) so they start getting customer calls.

When I say a call que I mean customers call in , they choose an IVR option and are directed to a call que which has member extensions. I guess for Quadro this is the same as a virtual extension with a MER or hunt group and by dialing a code the extension would be become active in their MER or hunt groups.

In Switchvox when you add an extension to a call que you choose if it is

1) a permanent member (always gets calls)
2) a optional member (only gets calls if logged in)

instead of distributing calls blindly , it sends calls only to staff who are actually working and then when all members are logged out you can have a rule to send calls to elsewhere ie. when no extensions are logged in

You can use Quadro DND feature (*72). If DND is enabled on the phone then it will not take any calls even if it is included into MER or hunt group. Pressing *72 again on the phone you'll disable DND and it will start receiving calls. You need also set the "Expire Timeout" for DND to "Never" on each extension.
When DND will be enabled on all the phones in MER or Hunt Group, you can redirct the calls using Busy/No answer Forwarding.

[AramK]

Kevin, actually it is possible, but we need to do some changes in our SW.

[russell]

You can use Quadro DND feature (*72).

Lots of people suggest this BUT then staff who activate DND so they dont get customer calls also get cutoff from all other staff calls and cant work

ie. logging on and off a call Que. (MER or hunt group) allows people to stop customer calls but still be part of the office and receive staff calls or calls transfered direct to them by other staff.