Answer mode ring behavior

[Jan Fricke]

Hi,

we are using sipxpbx as our pbx and are trying to move from the old sipx acd system to openACD which becomes integrated into sipx currently.

 

One point which we like to port is the call distribution mechanism. At the moment OpenACD in sipx routes the calls linear. With the old acd system we were able to choose from circular, linear, longest idle or ring all. For many scenarios it is important to us to have at least the ring all mechanism (all agents ring parallel).

Is this possible with openACD?

 

 

Thanks in advance…

 

Jan

[Michael Picher]

Jan,

I think what you're really asking for here is fancy hunt group functionality and not ACD functionality.  I don't see that what you've asked for is built into openACD but maybe one of the dev's can point me straight.

I don't think the thought was to replace all of the functionality in sipXecs ACD with openACD but to instead build a proper ACD and then build a proper hunt group mechanism.

Mike

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[Jan Fricke]

Hi Mike,

the problem with the hunt group solution is:

Following scenario: All phones in the group ring simultaneous and people have disabled call-waiting (which often is the case).

 

While the group is ringing nobody else can reach the group because it is busy. The public perception of a busy signal is not positive. Of course we could build a complex system of forwards to auto attendants and so on but acd could solve the problem straight forward.

 

Jan

[Michael Picher]

Right, an ACD won't send back a busy signal to a caller...  it will find an available agent.

A properly designed hunt group service will not ring busy to a caller either.

Mike

[Micah]

OpenACD's ring strategy is closest to longest idle. All other things
being equal, with one call in queue, the agent that has been idle
longest is offered the call first. If multiple calls are in queue,
and multiple agents are available, assuming all agents can equally
handle all calls, each agent will ring with a different call.
Implementing ring-all would be significant change under the hood.

Short answer: ring-all is not possible with any current branch of
OpenACD.

Micah

[Tony Graziano]

Thanks Micah. Like Mike said earlier, it important to not confuse one ACD solution with another. The solution Jan is trying to replace is really a "hunt group" system that didn't get much traction as an ACD solution, hence the current ENORMOUS efforts of both eZuce/sipfoundry and OpenACD to see this OpenACD integrated into sipXecs.

Again, it is hoped that once OpenACD is implemented in sipXecs, a more robust Hunt Group solution will follow to satisfy all kinds of appetites in sipXecs.

The current sipx ACD solution is really a fancier overlay to a hunt group solution, and most ACD's dont ring everything at once all the time, it makes reporting, tracking and fairness unusable, which is a core desire of most call centers.

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[Andrew Thompson]

Ring-all feels like you're defeating the purpose of an ACD and
brute-forcing the solution by just calling everyone and hoping someone
picks up quick.

However, if you did it right, you could kind of invert the problem and
say that the first agent to answer gets the first call waiting, the
second gets the second one, etc. Then when you run out of calls waiting,
you can hangup all the remaining ring-all channels, at least that way
you don't block all the phones for a single call. This might be a viable
solution for certain scenarios, like a 911 callcenter, or something.

However, don't hold your breath waiting for OpenACD to do anything like
this :)

Andrew