Traditional console

Communication Manager contains many features that provide easy ways to communicate through your telephone system attendant (operator). Additionally, attendants can connect to their console (switchboard) from other telephones in your system, thereby expanding the attendant capabilities.

• Attendant backup: With the attendant backup feature, you can access most attendant console features from one or more specially-administered backup telephones. Consequently, you can answer calls more promptly, thus providing better service to your guests and prospective clients.

• Attendant room status: With the attendant room status feature, you can see whether a room is vacant or occupied and the housekeeping status of each room.

  Note:

  This feature is available when enhanced hospitality is enabled for your system.

• Attendant functions using the Distributed Communications System protocol:

  • With control of trunk group access, an attendant at any node in the Distributed Communications System can control any outgoing trunk group at an adjacent node.

  • With direct trunk group selection, the attendant can press a button assigned to a trunk group to directly access an idle outgoing trunk in that local or remote trunk group.

  • With Inter-PBX attendant calls, attendants for multiple branches can be concentrated at the main location.

• Call handling:

  • Attendant intrusion: Using this feature, An attendant can intrude to an existing call. This feature is also called as Call Offer.

  • Attendant lockout - privacy: This feature prevents an attendant from re-entering a multiple-party connection held on the console unless a telephone user recalls them.

  • Attendant split swap: With this feature, the attendant can alternate between active and split calls. This operation can be useful if the attendant needs to transfer a call but must talk independently with each party before completing the transfer.

  • Attendant vectoring: Attendant vectoring provides a highly flexible approach for managing incoming calls to an attendant. For example, with the current night service operation, calls redirected from the attendant console to a night station can ring at that station and do not follow any coverage path.

  • Automated attendant: With an automated attendant, the calling party can enter any extension number on the system. The call is then routed to the extension. Therefore, to reduce cost, you can reduce the requirement for live attendants.

  • Backup alerting: The backup alerting feature notifies backup attendants that the primary attendant cannot pick up a call.

  • Call waiting: With call waiting, an attendant can let a single-line telephone user who is on the telephone know that a call is waiting. The attendant is then free to answer other calls. The attendant hears a call waiting ringback tone, and the busy telephone user hears a call waiting tone. The called telephone user hears this tone.

  • Calling of inward restricted stations: A telephone with a class of restriction (COR) that is inward restricted cannot receive public network, attendant-originated, or attendant-extended calls. You can use this feature to override this restriction.

  • Conference: With the conference feature, an attendant can set up a conference call for as many as six conferees, including the attendant. Conferences from inside and outside the system can be added to the conference call.

  • Enhanced Return Call to (same) Attendant. Communication Manager provides individual queuing functions for each attendant supporting a multiplicity of waiting calls at a time.

  • Listed directory number: Outside callers can access your attendant group in two ways, depending on the type of trunk used for the incoming call.

  • Override of diversion features: With this feature, to bypass diversion features such as send all calls and call coverage, an attendant can put a call through to an extension even when these diversion features are on. This feature, together with attendant intrusion, can be used to get an emergency or urgent call through to a telephone user.

  • Priority queue: Priority queue places incoming calls to the attendant in an orderly queue when these calls cannot go immediately to the attendant.

  • Release loop operation: With this operation, the attendant can hold a call at the console if the call cannot immediately go through to the called person. A timed reminder begins after the call is on hold.

  • Selective conference mute: With this operation, user can mute a conference call participant, who has a display station, to mute a noisy trunk line. Selective conference mute is also known as far-end mute.

  • Serial calling: The serial calling feature enables an attendant to transfer trunk calls that return to the same attendant after the called party hangs up. The returned call can then transfer to another station within the switch. This feature is useful if trunks are scarce and direct inward dialing services are unavailable.

  • Timed reminder and attendant timers: Attendant timers automatically alert the attendant after an administered time interval for certain types of calls.

• Centralized attendant service: Centralized attendant service enables attendant services in a private network to be concentrated at a central location. Each branch in a centralized attendant service has its listed directory number or another type of access from the public network. Incoming calls to the branch and calls made by users directly to the attendants are routed to the centralized attendants over release link trunks.

• Display: The display feature shows call-related information that helps the attendant to operate the console. This feature also shows personal service and message information.

• Making calls

  • Auto Start and Do Not Split: With this feature, the attendant can make a telephone call without pushing the start button first. If the attendant is on an active call and presses digits on the keypad, the system automatically splits the call and dials the second call.

  • Auto Manual Splitting: With this feature, attendant can announce a call or consult privately with the called party without being heard by the calling party on the call. It splits the calling party away so the attendant can confidentially determine if the called party can accept the call.

• Monitoring calls:

  • Attendant control of trunk group access: With this feature, the attendant can control outgoing and two-way trunk groups.

  • Attendant direct extension selection: With this feature, the attendant can keep track of extension status - whether the extension is idle or busy. The attendant can place or extend calls to extension numbers without dialing the extension number.

  • Attendant direct trunk group selection: With this feature, for direct access to an idle outgoing trunk, the attendant presses the button assigned to the trunk group. This feature eliminates the need for the attendant to memorize, look up, and dial the trunk access codes associated with frequently used trunk groups.

  • Crisis alerts to an attendant console: Crisis alert uses audible and visual alerting to notify attendant consoles when an emergency call is made. Audible alerting sounds like an ambulance siren. Visual alerting flashes the CRSS-ALRT button lamp and displays the caller's name and extension (or room).

  • Trunk group busy/warning indicators to attendant: This feature provides the attendant with a visual indication that the number of busy trunks in a group has reached an administered level. A visual indication is also provided when all trunks in a group are busy. This feature is particularly helpful to show the attendant that the attendant control of the trunk group access feature needs to be invoked.

  • Trunk identification by attendant: With this feature, the attendant or display-equipped telephone user can identify a specific trunk being used on a call. This capability is provided by assigning a trunk ID button to the attendant console or telephone. This feature is helpful for identifying a faulty trunk. That trunk can then be removed from service and the problem quickly corrected.

  • Visually Impaired Attendant Service: Visually Impaired Attendant Service provides voice feedback to a visually impaired attendant. Each voice phrase is a sequence of one or more single-voiced messages. This feature defines six attendant buttons to aid visually impaired attendants.

Avaya Workplace Attendant

Key features of Avaya Workplace Attendant are as follows:

• Customizable welcome and attendant greetings.

• Supports multiple topics: A topic is a call queues for a location or department.

• Incoming calls are queued and presented in a Call Preview panel.

• Attendants can cherry-pick the most important incoming calls in the queue from the Call Preview window.

• Topics can be prioritized up to five levels to show important incoming calls first.

• The operator can provide a more personal touch using the Contextual information. This includes call history for the incoming caller and taking notes against each caller, which are visible to other attendants or marked private to an individual attendant.

• Dynamically created suggested users display a list of recommended transfers based on previous calls of callers.

• Dynamically created favorites display a list of users to whom the attendant frequently transfers calls.

• The attendant can “Look Ahead” and see the status of the destination user, including calendar status using the integration with Presence Services.

• Busy display based on destination user’s presence: This can be organized by multiple tab views consisting of a range of numbers, a list of individual numbers, or a combination of both. You can create location or department views using this.

• Customizable screen layout supporting multiple monitors: Busy display window, call preview, call detailed, and target user panels can be undocked, repositioned within the Avaya Workplace Attendant window, or placed on other monitors.

• Integration into multiple databases can be synced by time into the Avaya Workplace Attendant phone book. Avaya Workplace Attendant supports the most common databases, including Active Directory, Open LDAP, IBM Domino, Progres, Oracle DB, My SQL, Sybase, CSV files, Communication Manager, and System Manager.

• Attendant can update a database and instantly sync the result into the Attendant phone book.

• Unified search shows comprehensive information of user search results. Additionally, you can search using the multiple fields in the phone book.

Avaya Workplace Attendant also supports the following features:

• Status: Set the status to Available to receive distributed calls. When you set the status to Busy, calls are not automatically presented to the attendant. The attendant can cherry-pick a call from the Call Preview window when their status is Busy.

• Supports computer mode: Calls are managed on Windows PC, and media is presented to PC.

• Desk phone modes: Attendant manages calls on PC, but media is presented to users on 96x1 or J Series desk phone.

• Make outgoing calls.

• Answer calls: Calls are distributed based on the longest idle or cyclic (in the order the Attendant logged in) rules.

• Attendants can cherry-pick from the queued calls.

• Transfer calls to users, after consulting users or directly doing a blind transfer.

• Transfer to the voice mail of destination users.

• End calls without transferring the calls to the user.

• Hold calls.

• Retrieve calls put on hold.

• Park calls on a topic or attendant.

• Park calls on a busy destination user.

• Un-park a call.

• Recall to attendant due to time out on transferred or parked calls.

• Recall to the attendant where the internal caller hangs up before the external caller. A timer can be programmed, which defines the period between an internal caller hanging up and a time for the external caller ending the call. If this period exceeds, the call is recalled to the attendant. Setting this timer to Zero disables this feature.

• Start conferences by adding users to existing calls.

• Use DTMF digits to navigate IVR systems.

• Add callers to a Speed dial list.

• Create personal contacts for an attendant.

• Transfer out-of-hour calls to a Night service number or a Night Service IVR.

• Overflow from one topic to a second topic based on call duration or the number of calls in the queue.

• Comprehensive list of attendant statics by attendant and topic.

• Support for a web-based dashboard.