Night Service

[jskinner97]

Hi,

How many night service states are there on 3CX, I am finding it hard to believe there is just one?!

example....

the sales team work 9am to 5pm, so when the leave they press night service and it puts night service group 1 into night service
the accounts team work 10am to 4pm so when the leave they press night service and it puts night service group 2 into night service
on a friday they all leave at 3pm, so another key puts both groups into night service

the is standard usage on siemens, panasonic, lg, samsung, BT HVS, Wildix and so on

So are we saying the 3CX isn't up to scratch?

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Hi @jskinner97

There is just one Force In/Out of office mode for the whole PBX (would not call this a night mode).

We don't have a night service concept in the way you describe, but there are automatic schedules both Global and for DIDs. You can also use a dummy routing extension for internal scheduled-based routing per separate RG or Q (if these departments don't have a DID).

 

[jskinner97]

Hi @jskinner97

There is just one Force In/Out of office mode for the whole PBX (would not call this a night mode).

We don't have a night service concept in the way you describe, but there are automatic schedules both Global and for DIDs. You can also use a dummy routing extension for internal scheduled-based routing per separate RG or Q (if these departments don't have a DID).

So I cannot even change the call queue hours, unless I put a DDI on it?

Okay, so there is no way of pressing a button on one phone and making all calls for one group to be diverted to a mobile number either?

 

[JohnS_3CX]

Do you mean for example when a call reaches the Accounting Dept. via an IVR coming from your main DID?

 

[jskinner97]

Do you mean for example when a call reaches the Accounting Dept. via an IVR coming from your main DID?

Yes, so if it reaches accounts (which is closed) it will re-direct calls to a mobile number, or if they press a button on the phone (before they shut to put them into closed state). Does that make sense?

thanks

 

[JohnS_3CX]

When the caller selects Accounting from the IVR, you can send the call first to a dummy routing-extension.

You can use the Status "Available" to send the calls to the real Ring Group

You can use the Status "DND" to send the calls to a mobile number

You can use the Status "Away" to send calls to a message "We are out for lunch call back at 14 or leave a message"

To switch between the statuses of the routing extension (and hence different routing destinations) you can control this in various ways:

1. From the Webclient, with sufficient rights you can change the status of the routing extension
2. From the voicemail menu, you can change the status of the routing extension
3. Via CFD you can create your own IVR with custom options to change the status

 

[Alphabetic]

We discussed this already.

https://www.3cx.com/community/threads/global-divert-key.71088/#post-315407

 

[jskinner97]

When the caller selects Accounting from the IVR, you can send the call first to a dummy routing-extension.

You can use the Status "Available" to send the calls to the real Ring Group

You can use the Status "DND" to send the calls to a mobile number

You can use the Status "Away" to send calls to a message "We are out for lunch call back at 14 or leave a message"

To switch between the statuses of the routing extension (and hence different routing destinations) you can control this in various ways:

1. From the Webclient, with sufficient rights you can change the status of the routing extension
2. From the voicemail menu, you can change the status of the routing extension
3. Via CFD you can create your own IVR with custom options to change the status

Thank you! I will give this a go

 

[Clément Rousseau]

Yeah once again you have to use status and dummy extension workaround, this is really a big limitation for 3cx compare to others ipbx. This is why 3cx is perfect for small clients we have but out of question for big structures (sadly for them we have to use others solutions).

furthermore 3cx is well designed for webclient but is not great for phone only solution and "press a button" options like the classic "forward all calls to this other extension/phone" where sda/ext where you want to forward cant be set on the phone...

last thing, limitation of 5 status wich don't act the same and only 3 status change depending schedule is sometimes painful.

 

[VoIPTools]

Clement, while I hear your concern about using a dummy extension for routing purposes, is it really that big of a deal? If using a "dummy" extension sounds like a hack, why not call it a routing point. Under the covers, isn't this simply a configuration setting? One could argue that your heartburn is more about perception than functionality.

And suggesting 3CX is only appropriate for smaller implementation is... open for debate. I have customers with close to 2000 extensions on a single instance of 3CX running as a VM on commodity hardware (rather than hugely overpriced proprietary hardware) and they love it.

I would also argue that you can almost always find a way to get 3CX to function as needed. True, it may require some creative thinking, but when you look at everything you get for the price, you must agree a little extra effort is well worth it. Several years ago I found myself in a bid situation where Cisco came in at $1.2 million, Avaya was $1.1 million, Shoretel was $900,000, and we (much to my embarrassment) did the entire job for $100,000. So, how much is that specific feature worth? For my customer, it wasn't worth 8 times the price.

Having said that, we all agree there are some areas where we would like to see 3CX invest some additional time. Perhaps this is an example of one area where we would like to see some enhancements and I'm sure that is the point you are trying to put forward. But let's consider, that you will always find features missing from one PBX to another.

To address jskinner97 lament that 3CX doesn't have all the same features as siemens, panasonic, lg, samsung, BT HVS, Wildix and so on, we can say the same thing when comparing them to 3CX. Do they all have the awesome web meeting features we get for free out of the box with 3CX? No? I use that feature of 3CX every day and in my view that's a must-have capability for any PBX I'll be using.

And how about administring LG for example? Oh-my-gosh hundreds upon hundreds of numbered menu options to memorize to perform the most basic configuration tasks? True, LG has 40+ years of experience building PBXes and it has a ton of features, but would I EVER go back to that? NO WAY. 3CX has always put a premium on streamlined administration and I would NEVER want to go back to the clunky interface of a Cisco or LG. I would find a different job first.

I know this thread wasn't really intended to suggest that 3CX isn't a feature-rich solution, and was more about lamenting one or two features that could be stronger, but let's not forget that lots of people read these forums and looking for solutions should be the focus. If there is a need to extend a feature, the Ideas forum is the best place for that.

Let the flames begin.