Q: You stated in last month’s article that there was no way to redirect an incoming call by pressing a button while the phone was ringing. My company got our vendor to research it, and had a patch installed to do just that. It’s called “Call Redirector” and I think it’s what they were asking for.
A: Yes, I’ve subsequently found that there is such a patch for (I think) Succession 3.0 and later. I also have information that the feature comes standard on 5.0 but haven’t had an opportunity to implement it. Once I have a chance to test the feature, I’ll be glad to detail the process in a future article. Thanks for the correction.
Q: My users complain that calls to their intercom button don’t have names, only intercom numbers. Can I make it display the names for these calls?
A: Intercom names are programmed in LD 95. If you’re used to programming the names when you program the extension numbers, this could be a new experience. On the other hand, if you normally use overlay 95 you probably just overlook the DIG prompt every time. Use the guide below to assign names to intercom members.
LD 95
REQ: new
TYPE: name
CUST: 0
DIG: (Here’s where you give the intercom group and member numbers)
NAME: (Type the name here)
Q: I’m sure I have some digital ports programmed without phones in use. How can I find them so I can re-use the ports?
A: If you don’t already have overlay 30 in your midnight routines, you can add it. Every night, the system will reach out and touch each of your digital ports to see whether a phone is plugged in. If that phone fails the test (a connected phone can fail, too) the port is (usually) disabled and an error code prints out on the terminal and history file to let you know the TN. If you have several on the same card, the error indicates the card instead of the port. In the morning you can look at the history file to see which ports failed. I usually print out the phones for my records before deleting any (they sometimes are in a drawer until they are needed).
You can also manually run the same test. The complete test in overlay 30 is “LOOP ALL.” You have the option to test a lesser portion of the system by testing just one loop at a time or even a single shelf.
Q: I have a department that wants to have a single extension on all 8 of the department phones and give the extension to the helpdesk. When they have a call that needs to be handled by that department, the helpdesk will transfer the call to the new number and it will be answered by one of the people in that department. If no one answers the call, it needs to go to the on-call phone for the group.
Since all of the department phones are set to go to voicemail, I need some way to send the call a different direction. Can you help?
A: There are a few ways to make this work. One depends on your voicemail system (you didn’t specify which brand you have). If you can forward a call using the voicemail system to an outside number, you could set up that forwarding to the on-call phone.
Another way would be to set up the group extension number as an analog phone in the system, with nothing connected (unless you want a loud ringer in the department area). Make the analog extension MARP for the DN. Set the FDN (and HUNT, if you want calls to go out on a busy) to an ACD with NCFW to the on-call number. That should work, with one complication: the analog will cancel privacy on the shared extension. That means if one person is on the shared extension, anyone in the department can join the call by pressing the button on her phone. Your group may want it to work this way, but most people like having the Privacy feature as it normally works in the Nortel system.
If you want to make this work with the Privacy feature intact, do it this way. Program the group extension on key 0 of a digital port, but use a port with unit number 16-31. These ports are not normally used at all, so you should have plenty available. Make the phone MARP for the group extension. Set the FDN (and HUNT) as I described above for the analog method above. In the CLS, set FLXA and VCE. That keeps the set from disabling if you ever run a test in Loop 30 (or if you have the test in midnight routines).
Of course you should always TEST to make sure the programming does what you want before handing it over to the customer. Remember to assign a name to the extension. That provides a minimal level of documentation to the number, so maybe you will remember what you did later.
Reach Phil at philruffin@hotmail.com.
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