Using Queuing - Manager 5.2- Avaya IP Office

Avaya IP Office

The Avaya IP Office platform is the ultimate in converged voice and data technology. IP Office brings a combination of voice and data applications formerly reserved for only the largest corporations. Cutting edge customer service with easy to use tools is now available to the smallest of businesses.

Using Queuing

Summary: Queuing can be used when the number of calls to be presented exceeds the number of available hunt group members.

Hunt Group Queue Avaya IP Office

Additional Calls
Once one call is queued, any further calls are also queued. When an available hunt group member becomes idle, the first call is the queue is presented.
How Many Calls Can be Queued?
Calls are added to the queue until the hunt group's Queue Limit, if set, is reached. When this occurs, any further calls are redirected to the hunt group's voicemail if available, or otherwise receive busy tone.
Queue Announcements
If the IP Office system has a Voicemail Lite or Voicemail Pro server, this server can provide announcements to the queued calls. Two announcements are available to each queue, an initial 'Queued' announcement and then a repeating 'Still Queued' announcement.
The first 'Queued' announcement is played to the caller when they have been in the queue for the Queue Ring Time (default 10 seconds).
Following the 'Queued' announcement the 'Still Queued' announcement is played to the caller every 20 seconds.
The delay used for the still queued announcement can be altered by adding ACD_QUEUE_DELAY=nn to the Source Numbers tab of the NoUser user. Replace nn with a time between 20 and 180 seconds.
Between announcements the queued callers hear the IP Office's hold music if installed, otherwise they hear silence.
Queue Monitoring
There are several methods of displaying a hunt group queue.
Group Button
On phones, with programmable buttons, the Group function can be assigned to monitor a specified group. The button indicates when there are calls ringing within the group and also when there are calls queued. The button can be used to answer the longest waiting call.
Phone Manager and SoftConsole
Both these applications can display queue monitors for selected hunt groups, 2 using Phone Manager, 7 using SoftConsole. This requires the hunt group to have queuing enabled. These queues can be used to answer calls.

Hunt Group Queue Settings

Manager

Hunt group queuing is enabled using the Queuing On option on the Hunt Group | Queuing tab. When enabled, the icon is used for the hunt group.

Controls

The following short code features/button programming actions can be used:

Feature/Action	Short Code	Default	Button
Group

Phone Manager

Phone manager Pro can be used to monitor up to two hunt group queues. This is configured by clicking and then on the Queue ID tab selecting the two hunt groups. During normal operation the Phone Manager user then has access to a Queue tab which is automatically given focus when calls become queued.

SoftConsole

SoftConsole can display up to 7 hunt group queues (an eight queue is reserved for recall calls). They are configured by clicking and selecting the Queue Mode tab. For each queue alarm threshold can be set based on number of queued calls and longest queued call time. Actions can then be selected for when a queue exceeds its alarm threshold; Automatically Restore SoftConsole, Ask me whether to restore SoftConsole or Ignore the Alarm.

Within the displayed queues, the number of queued calls is indicated and the time of the longest queued call is shown. Exceeding an alarm threshold is indicated by the queue icons changing from white to red. The longest waiting call in a queue can be answered by clicking on the adjacent button.

Voicemail

Voicemail Lite and Voicemail Pro can be used to provide announcements to queued calls. The default prompt for the queued and still queued announcement is "I'm afraid all the operators are busy at the moment, but please hold and you will be transferred when somebody becomes available." For Voicemail Lite and Voicemail Pro in IP Office mailbox mode, the announcements can be changed through the hunt group mailbox by selecting option 3.

Using Voicemail Pro, the greetings and options available to callers during the queued and still queued announcements can be customized. Callers can be prompted to leave messages or played their queue position of expected time to answer. Refer to the Voicemail Pro Installation and Maintenance manual for full details.