Multi-Office Integration - Multi-Office Routing (MOR) Configuration
The Multi-Office Routing (MOR) configuration, serves a very different purpose than the Virtual Office configuration described elsewhere. Whereas the VO configuration allows callers to interact with company personnel in a very general way, MOR is used by a company to send callers to any extension at a particular office. So, if a company has a need to route particular callers to a specific office without worrying about which employee actually answers the call, MOR can be used.
The Virtual PBX® can have as many as eight ACD (automatic call distribution) queues associated with a single Virtual PBX®. This allows a company with up to 8 separate offices to use the MOR configuration to route calls.
A company defines as many extensions for each local office as they want to be able to take simultaneous calls. Each extension is logged into the ACD queue associated with a particular office. When a caller calls the company's Virtual PBX® toll-free number, the auto-attendant gives the caller the opportunity to select the office or function that they want to be connected to. As many extensions for the office as are logged into the ACD queue for that office, the Virtual PBX® will route simultaneous calls for. Once there are more callers than there are available extensions in the ACD queue, then the Virtual PBX® will queue the callers in the holding queue for that office and play music-on-hold or information-on-hold for the callers. At set intervals, the caller is allowed to transfer to the operator defined for that ACD queue, or to the operator's voice-mail if the operator is unavailable.
Multi-Office Routing Configuration Examples
In order to further help understand the implications of the MOR configuration, let's set-up some concrete examples.
Example 1 - Acme Computer Technical Support Corporation
The Acme Corporation provides contract operating system technical support to other companies. They have separate offices that handle MS-DOS, Windows 98, Windows NT, Sun UNIX, and SCO Unix technical support. Each office has multiple OS system experts on call.
Acme Corporation wants to be able to handle 5 simultaneous callers to each of their technical support centers. A Virtual PBX® is created with the following assignments of ACD queues and extensions to offices:
As you can see from the table above, there are 6 extensions assigned to each office and ACD queue. Extensions 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 are defined as the operator extensions for ACD queues 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 respectively. Each operator extension can be defined without a contact phone number insuring that whenever a caller transfers to the operator from a particular ACD queue, they are automatically sent to the operator's voice-mail. The operator extensions are not logged into the ACD queues, insuring that no callers will be transferred to them, except when the caller specifically requested it.
The other 5 extensions are defined with contact phone numbers that ring phones at that office. When the Virtual PBX® is created, all of the extensions for an office except the operator extension are logged into the ACD queue assigned to that office.
When a caller calls the toll-free number and asks to be transferred to technical support help for Windows NT, the Virtual PBX® sends the caller to ACD queue number 3. If there are any available extensions in that ACD queue, the caller is transferred to the extension that has gone the longest without taking a call. If there are already 5 callers talking to Windows NT support specialists, then the system queues the caller to wait for the next available Windows NT agent. Callers are queued in a first-in-first-out manner to insure that the caller that has waited the longest to speak with a technical support representative, is the first one to be transferred when an agent becomes available. While the callers are waiting, they hear music-on-hold or information-on-hold that is specific to the ACD queue. If the caller gets tired of waiting, they can transfer to the operator for the ACD queue, and leave a message.
One person at each office is designated as responsible for the operator extension. The have a pager whose phone number is stored as the pager contact phone number for the operator extension for the ACD queue. Whenever a caller transfers directly to the operator extension out of the ACD queue, or calls in after hours, when the system is in night mode, and leaves a message, the person responsible for the operator extension gets notified with a page, and can check the voice mail for the extension.
If Acme Corporation wanted to, they could define multiple toll-free numbers that terminated at their Virtual PBX®. Then, they could use different toll-free numbers for each client that they contracted with and track the calls for technical support that were associated with each client. All of the toll-free numbers would terminate at the same Virtual PBX® and would use the same defined extensions and ACD queues, but because the calls came in to separate toll-free numbers, Acme Corporation would receive detailed call logs grouped according to the toll-free number.
Example 2 - Spanish Language Community Services Center
The Spanish Language Community Services Center (SLCSC) provides community service spanish language information for callers from offices in San Diego, Los Angeles, Bakersfield, Fresno, Modesto, San Francisco, and Sacramento.
SLCSC wants to be able to handle 3 simultaneous calls to each office, and defines the following ACD queues and extensions in their Virtual PBX®:
SLCSC records a spanish language auto-attendant for their callers that when translated into english says:
Thank you for calling the Spanish Language Community Services Center. For services in the San Diego area, press 1. For services in the Los Angeles area, press 2. For services in the Bakersfield area, press 3. For services in the Fresno area, press 4. For services in the Modesto area, press 5. For services in the San Francisco area, press 6. For services in the Sacramento area, press 7. To be connected with an operator, press 0.
Again, as with the Acme Corporation example above, all of the extensions for each office are logged into the appropriate ACD queues with each extension having contact phone numbers that map to phones in the office, etc.
When the caller is transferred to the particular area, they are connected with a spanish speaker who is local and knows how to help them in that area.
Because every SLCSC office is accessed through the same toll-free 800 number, SLCSC can advertise a single phone number in multiple locations and insure that their callers are served by the appropriate office. In addition, since all calls are routed through the Virtual PBX®, SLCSC will get a detailed call log showing them all of the calls to each office, allowing them to determine how best to allocate their agents, etc.
As can be seen by the two examples above, Multi-Office Routing provides a very powerful way for companies to control their call routing and integrate their separate offices.