A group is a collection of users accessible through a single directory number. Calls to that group can be answered by any available member of the group. The order in which calls are presented can be adjusted by selecting different group types and adjusting the order in which group members are listed.

• Call Presentation: The order in which the available members of the group are used for call presentation is selectable.

• Availability: There are a range of factors which control whether group calls are presented to a user in addition to that user being a member of the group.

• Queuing: This optional feature allows calls to be queued when the number of calls to be presented exceeds the number of available group members to which call can be presented.

• Announcements: On systems with a voicemail server (Voicemail Pro or Embedded Voicemail), announcements can be played to callers waiting to be answered. That includes calls that are ringing and calls that are queued.

• Overflow: This optional feature can be used to include additional agents from an overflow group or groups when a call is not answered.

• Fallback: A group can be taken out of operation manually or using a time profile. During fallback, calls can be redirected to a fallback group or sent to voicemail or just receive busy tone. Two types of fallback are supported; night service and out of service.

• Voicemail: Calls can be redirected to voicemail. The system allows selection of whether group calls remain in the group mailbox or are copied (broadcast) to the individual mailboxes of the group members. When messages are stored in the group's own mailbox, selection of who receives message waiting indication is possible.

Group Editing

Changing the name of a group has the following effects:

• A new empty mailbox is created on voicemail with the new group name.

• Records in other groups' Overflow lists will be updated.

• Out-of-Service and Night-Service fallback references are updated.

Modifying the extension number of a group updates the following:

• Group buttons.

• Overflow, Out of Service Fallback and Night Service Fallback group records.

• Incoming call route records.

When a group is deleted, all references to the deleted group will be removed including:

• Records in Incoming call routing tables.

• Transfer target in internal auto-attendant.

• Overflow, Night-Service or Fallback-Service on other groups.

• DSS keys monitoring group status.

Server Edition Group Management

Groups can be stored in the configuration of any system in the network. Groups created at the solution level on Manager and Web Manager are stored on the Primary Server. All groups can include users from anywhere in the network and are automatically advertised to and diallable on any of the systems in the network.

Groups configured on the Server Edition Primary by default fail over to the Server Edition Secondary. Groups configured on a Server Edition Expansion System can be configured to fail over to the Server Edition Primary, the Server Edition Secondary, or another Server Edition Expansion System.

Groups in a Multi-Site Network

In a multi-site network, the extension numbers of users are automatically shared between systems and become diallable from other systems without any further programming.

The following features are available for groups.

Advertised Groups

Each group can be set as being 'advertised'. The group can then be dialed from other systems within the multi-site network. The groups extension number and name must be unique within the network. Non-advertised group numbers remain local only to system hosting the group.

Distributed Groups

Groups on a system can include users located on other systems within the network. Distributed groups are automatically advertised to other systems within the network. Note that distributed groups can only be edited on the system on which they were created.