How can we delay IVR input so extensions work?

[RustBoy]

When a caller goes into our IVR they are not able to dial our staff extension numbers because the IVR is immediately trying to direct them to one of the options in our call tree.

How can we insert a delay so the caller can go to "extension 216" without be immediately routed to IVR option "2" for our sales department?

 

[jgutierrez]

On the IVR setup there is an option that asys something like: "Enable direct dial", that will let you dial on the IVR your internal extensions.

 

[RustBoy]

On the IVR setup there is an option that asys something like: "Enable direct dial", that will let you dial on the IVR your internal extensions.

Yeah, that's the problem, I had already had that option checked and it's still not working.

 

[RustBoy]

Does anyone have any suggestions? We are supposed to go live with our Elastix server in 12 hours and it's going to be a major problem for us if callers cannot dial extensions.

 

[RustBoy]

I found a temporary solution. I manually entered all of the extension numbers as options within the IVR.

 

[RustBoy]

I came across this post in the Asterisk forum:

Unable to dial extensions from IVRs

Wed Sep 23, 2009 4:45 pm - You need to navigate to the actual extensions you wish to dial, click on "Click to show advanced options" under section 1, then make sure the "This extension can be dialed from an IVR" option is enabled.

This information is a couple of years old. I cannot find this option anywhere. Does anyone know if this option still exists?

 

[jgutierrez]

Are you sure that the extensions that you try to dial through the IVR are internal extensions? And not extensions that are being dialed from your outbound routes into another destination?

 

[RustBoy]

Are you sure that the extensions that you try to dial through the IVR are internal extensions? And not extensions that are being dialed from your outbound routes into another destination?

No, I am not sure. I am able to dial the extensions and ring phones in the office, so I assume that they are internal.

 

[RustBoy]

After some more testing I have discovered that all of our extensions are now working with the IVR. I guess the lesson learned is that whenever something is not working, try rebooting your system before spending hours trying to troubleshoot the problem. I can only assume that this is what corrected whatever was causing the original glitch.

Okay, so now that the original problem is resolved, how can we block direct dialing to only some extensions from specific IVR's? For example, let's say we are running multiple companies and we only want the callers to be able to reach the the extensions associated with that company.

I guess one way to do this is to turn off "Enable Direct Dial" and manually enter in only the extensions that we want to pass through. Does anyone know of a better way to implement this?

 

[alang1]

I have similar project for my client last year, here's my notes:

http://www.osslab.org.tw/index.php?titl ... F%E8%83%BD

Hopefully it is helpful to you.