Good morning 3CX brains-trust,
I have a ring group scenario to pose to you all, to see if there's solution rather than a work around. We are a school who have a number of extensions associated with a department rather than a person (IT department, Maths Faculty etc). Working with the IT department as an example, each person in the department also has their own direct extension. The 3CX mobile client is the registered device for each person in the department.
Other people can then call the individual they need to speak to directly or they can call the department. The call flow to an individual is simple, 'if busy or unavailable forward to voicemail' (voicemail messages are sent via email and removed from mbox). The call flow we want (and have achieved) when people call the department extension is as follows: Calls go to the department extension (which is unregistered). This forwards immediately to the department ring group (ring all). If unanswered, calls forward to the voicemail box for the department extension and are emailed to a shared mailbox.
The Problem:
The main problem with this design is that the modern 3CX apps make it obvious to users that the department extension ("ICT Services" in this example) is "Not Registered" which is confusing them when they go to dial the department extension(s).
The work-around:
The obvious work around for this is to register something against the department extension(s).
The problem with this is, in most cases a single shared handset/device for each department in not appropriate (nowhere to put it / departments spread across multiple rooms etc) and we have a couple of dozen departments that operate this way.
Other info for context:
We can't use a department ring group or queue in place of a department extension, because they're not searchable in the directory and there's no voicemail mailbox associated with them.
Approximately 50% of users are registering with a 3CX app, which can only register to a single extension. This precludes us using desk phones and registering them to both the department extension and individual / direct extension concurrently.
What I'm hoping to get from the brains trust is… is there a way to achieve this all flow (call to department → ring all → forward to voicemail, sent to shared mailbox) that I haven't thought of?
We can't be the only organisation trying to achieve this so I'm wondering if there's a '3CX way' to do this that doesn't involve the work-around we've come up with.
All suggestions welcome.
Thanks in advance.
I have a ring group scenario to pose to you all, to see if there's solution rather than a work around. We are a school who have a number of extensions associated with a department rather than a person (IT department, Maths Faculty etc). Working with the IT department as an example, each person in the department also has their own direct extension. The 3CX mobile client is the registered device for each person in the department.
Other people can then call the individual they need to speak to directly or they can call the department. The call flow to an individual is simple, 'if busy or unavailable forward to voicemail' (voicemail messages are sent via email and removed from mbox). The call flow we want (and have achieved) when people call the department extension is as follows: Calls go to the department extension (which is unregistered). This forwards immediately to the department ring group (ring all). If unanswered, calls forward to the voicemail box for the department extension and are emailed to a shared mailbox.
The Problem:
The main problem with this design is that the modern 3CX apps make it obvious to users that the department extension ("ICT Services" in this example) is "Not Registered" which is confusing them when they go to dial the department extension(s).
The work-around:
The obvious work around for this is to register something against the department extension(s).
The problem with this is, in most cases a single shared handset/device for each department in not appropriate (nowhere to put it / departments spread across multiple rooms etc) and we have a couple of dozen departments that operate this way.
Other info for context:
We can't use a department ring group or queue in place of a department extension, because they're not searchable in the directory and there's no voicemail mailbox associated with them.
Approximately 50% of users are registering with a 3CX app, which can only register to a single extension. This precludes us using desk phones and registering them to both the department extension and individual / direct extension concurrently.
What I'm hoping to get from the brains trust is… is there a way to achieve this all flow (call to department → ring all → forward to voicemail, sent to shared mailbox) that I haven't thought of?
We can't be the only organisation trying to achieve this so I'm wondering if there's a '3CX way' to do this that doesn't involve the work-around we've come up with.
All suggestions welcome.
Thanks in advance.
