Update 4 Beta: New Receptionist View & Status Scheduler

[ENCOM-GEFFRAY]

So each and every of your users has time based exception rules? Really? It just seems hard to believe

@Nick Galea
I have hundreds of customers using virtual extensions with multiple routing rules. A simple example is multidestination. Slot 1 destination queue, slot 2 destination on-call cell phone, slot 3 another queue, slot 4 IVR HNO etc... without this it is impossible to do it in the incoming rules because there are only two possible destinations.

This is just one example of the many figuring cases.

I'm just humbly bringing you concrete cases of an integrator who already sees the hours that will be necessary to maintain all this.

3CX features are usually created in internal 3CX APIs and can therefore be exposed in two different web pages.

I also come back to the case of the option to prohibit out-of-hours calls, which is a necessity in French law in relation to the right to disconnect and in general in the management of corporate resources. All our major accounts use it and impose it on users.

 

[Evolute IT]

So each and every of your users has time based exception rules? Really? It just seems hard to believe

We're talking about routing extensions with complex time conditions. We use that a lot too since rules are In/Out only. Using exceptions, we can say "mon-wed 9-3 do that, mon-wed 3-6 do that, etc."

It's actually extremely common. We have at least 1 routing extension per system, sometimes more.

 

[Nico.ipn]

Hi,

The new receptionist view, is good.
There is a way, that in this view, we can have the option of join call initiated with the call action in group menu ?

 

[N_G]

@ConceptsWeb - i believe you could now do that using a group, it will be much easier to configure. Effectively a group becomes a routing extension
@ENCOM-GEFFRAY - I am not sure what you mean by multi destination. Can you please elaborate? Again with groups you can do based on times different destinations no problem
@Nico.ipn Can you elaborate what you mean? You mean transfer or make a conference for example?

 

[Glennonline]

@Nick Galea do the groups replace the need for a dummy user? As far as we know a group is just a collection of users, will it have additional options in the new version?
Regardless, we have customers with employees that are working parttime and we configured the auto switcher for them, as said many users don't use the webclient and will continue to call us for making changes on it, that should be easy and keeping this in both places would really make sense, especially since so many things are already in both places and rightfully so.

 

[dkeethler]

https://www.3cx.com/community/threa...nist-view-status-scheduler.114872/post-532244

We need to drop the discussion Keethler..

Didn't see Nick's response. So sorry I upset you, Glenn.

 

[Bruce Brewer]

I understand moving something like exceptions and auto switch to the users, but taking it away from the admin side is just insane. It's not like we have a "Sign in As" from the admin side. If we did it would still be a extra step that would feel silly explaining it to our customer's IT Admins.


I'm happy we are getting the more feature rich groups which can be the solution for the call routing requirements but the additional overhead added to the partner doesnt make sense.

If this stays - There will be a option in a end user softphone that can effect the routing of calls for a system that a Admin of the system cannot access or change directly.

When you move recordings for Digital Receptions to the desktop app are we going to loose access to that as well in the admin portal?

 

[N_G]

@Glennonline yes groups have all the options in the office settings startup mode which is routing based on time also to custom IVR for example.

 

[Evolute IT]

As i already said, as an admin you will be able to login and manage users from the webclient. Its just a different way to access user settings

If we have a one-click login button (like for local phones), it would greatly be appreciated tho! Much easier than grabbing the password from an email.

Also, in MCM mode, what happens to the operator extension? Does each group have one? If so, that's freaking awesome.

 

[timmbo]

Hi.
In the Webclient i don't see my collegues not anymore. So that means no default group anymore.
I see only other groups where i been too, and all other Bridged groups, but no more the Default groups.

Update:
If i search them, i see not registered, but this is not true. In the MC they all registered.

Bye
Timm

 

[tronic]

@ENCOM-GEFFRAY So each and every of your users has their own extension level, time based exception rules, based on caller ID? In office hours or outside office hours? Really? It just seems very unlikely. A few might be using it yes... Please give me some use cases.....

The group level settings allow you to make rules per group of users, rather than per extension

Another example is a company with office and warehouse departments all with one advertised number.
Office opens at normal office hours 9am-5pm and warehouse is open 0730am-3pm.

IVR has press 1 for office (accounts or reception etc) and 2 for warehouse.

As the system has one office hours you pass the calls to dummy extension and use exception to route calls based on time to group or voicemail.

This is a common use case.

Obviously CFD would work in this case but then it makes the job of the customers admin person loads harder to access a new tool. This way it's part of admin console.

This is more a workaround as the system doesn't do multiple office hours. But with startup it does. But it's more how we as the installer get access to these settings easily.
As an installer in 99% of cases they will ask us to program what they want. So it's great having it in the client end but what's you process for us the installer to access and change the office settings or even see them so we can fix something when they stuff something up.

Maybe it's just us an how we run out business but our clients have no interest in programming anything other then very very basic things like adding and removing a user or changing a name.

 

[tronic]

We're talking about routing extensions with complex time conditions. We use that a lot too since rules are In/Out only. Using exceptions, we can say "mon-wed 9-3 do that, mon-wed 3-6 do that, etc."

It's actually extremely common. We have at least 1 routing extension per system, sometimes more.

But it's really a work around be cause the system doesn't have multiple time schedules. With startup mode it does as you can do it per group.

So the argument is more how we are supposed to administer this as an admin not a user.

 

[tronic]

Hi.
In the Webclient i don't see my collegues not anymore. So that means no default group anymore.
I see only other groups where i been too, and all other Bridged groups, but no more the Default groups.

Update:
If i search them, i see not registered, but this is not true. In the MC they all registered.

Bye
Timm

When you add an extension it goes to default group and you have to remove and add to another group if you don't want it in there.
Remembering you can be part of multiple groups.
This worked fine when I was playing last night.

 

[N_G]

If we have a one-click login button (like for local phones), it would greatly be appreciated tho! Much easier than grabbing the password from an email.

Also, in MCM mode, what happens to the operator extension? Does each group have one? If so, that's freaking awesome.

@ConceptsWeb - i think i get your question now, took me some time You wont need to login separately, if you have rights (be it group admin or system admin) then you will see an office settings button at the left of the webclient and you can go in and make changes.... Did i understandly correctly?

Re operator extension you can make a receptionist (just assign the role to an existing user) for each group yes, plus each group has a kind of "routing menu" with internal IVR so you can route based on office hours per department.

So each group has a built in system extension assigned to it which can do things such as route calls based on time etc etc

@Glennonline See below i believe my answer to tronic answers your question...

@tronic you are understanding it right Do you want extra work writing blog posts for us ?

We dont want to push CFD. The whole idea is to obsolete CFD and dummy extensions with this mode (its not really a good name we have to come with a name, you could also call it an operator extension / operator per group). Basically make overall system admin much easier because now the system has inbuilt multiple office hours which you can route differently based on time.

This was one of the top most requested features btw and one of the top uses of CFD. With group mode you dont need to use CFD anymore or dummy extensions.

Yes everybody is part of the default group so this might be part of the confusion. There is no rule to be in the default group, you just have to be in at least one group so by default when we create a user we put them in default group if there is no other group to create it in. Its not really the correct way, if you have a larger company you must make your users in one group.... Now we have to find a way to make superusers that can see multiple groups but not be part of all. This is not for now but for the future.

The old 3cx admin was such a user which could admin system but not have an extension. Yes we need to allow them to login too.

@TimM - good point you might have found a bug, but this when you enable the startup mode only right?

@ENCOM-GEFFRAY I think if we have in and out of office hours in exception back then we resolve most as you can have separate office hours per extension

The startup mode made the whole system A LOT more powerful but now we have to do some merging in terms of documentation and how things work, so update 4 is a bit akward whilst we finalize this and bring the systems on par with each other? Yes admins and partners have to get used to a few new things but it makes the system much more powerful overall.

 

[Evolute IT]

@Nick Galea I see the API settings section in MCM mode... could I get some docs or ideas to begin trying that? I'm curious to see how we can integrate this in our systems.

 

[N_G]

no we are not ready yet with the documentation.....

 

[timmbo]

When you add an extension it goes to default group and you have to remove and add to another group if you don't want it in there.
Remembering you can be part of multiple groups.
This worked fine when I was playing last night.

Hi that i know, this was not the case.
I figured out, that if my rights is receptionist, that for the default group members i'm locked out. If i go back to Manager or User it works like it should.

Bye
Timm

 

[MidiTélécom]

@ConceptsWeb - i think i get your question now, took me some time You wont need to login separately, if you have rights (be it group admin or system admin) then you will see an office settings button at the left of the webclient and you can go in and make changes.... Did i understandly correctly?

Re operator extension you can make a receptionist (just assign the role to an existing user) for each group yes, plus each group has a kind of "routing menu" with internal IVR so you can route based on office hours per department.

So each group has a built in system extension assigned to it which can do things such as route calls based on time etc etc

@Glennonline See below i believe my answer to tronic answers your question...

@tronic you are understanding it right Do you want extra work writing blog posts for us ?

We dont want to push CFD. The whole idea is to obsolete CFD and dummy extensions with this mode (its not really a good name we have to come with a name, you could also call it an operator extension / operator per group). Basically make overall system admin much easier because now the system has inbuilt multiple office hours which you can route differently based on time.

This was one of the top most requested features btw and one of the top uses of CFD. With group mode you dont need to use CFD anymore or dummy extensions.

Yes everybody is part of the default group so this might be part of the confusion. There is no rule to be in the default group, you just have to be in at least one group so by default when we create a user we put them in default group if there is no other group to create it in. Its not really the correct way, if you have a larger company you must make your users in one group.... Now we have to find a way to make superusers that can see multiple groups but not be part of all. This is not for now but for the future.

The old 3cx admin was such a user which could admin system but not have an extension. Yes we need to allow them to login too.

@TimM - good point you might have found a bug, but this when you enable the startup mode only right?

@ENCOM-GEFFRAY I think if we have in and out of office hours in exception back then we resolve most as you can have separate office hours per extension

The startup mode made the whole system A LOT more powerful but now we have to do some merging in terms of documentation and how things work, so update 4 is a bit akward whilst we finalize this and bring the systems on par with each other? Yes admins and partners have to get used to a few new things but it makes the system much more powerful overall.

It's clear now.
Thank you for the explanation.
Not fully understand how the MCM mode (will) work but we will see.

 

[kent3]

Quick question, If I install the BETA will this void any dummy extension call routing we already having in place on a system?

 

[Evolute IT]

Quick question, If I install the BETA will this void any dummy extension call routing we already having in place on a system?

Not unless you enable MCM. I recommend using your second NFR to try this out.