Lucent Technologies 5 manual Feature Descriptions, Covering Calls

MERLIN LEGEND Communications System Release 5.0	Issue 1
System Manager’s Guide 555-650-118	June 1997

4Features and Applications

Features	Page 4-32
Feature Descriptions	4

This section provides more detail about certain groups of related features, so that you can gain additional insight when it is necessary to match features with changing business needs. Here, the focus is on the differences among your choices, and not all system features are described. In addition, features that affect security receive special attention. The Feature Reference includes complete information about all the features, including their interactions, modes of operation, and the ways that features work on different system equipment.

Covering Calls 4

The system provides numerous methods for covering calls, allowing one or more users to handle incoming calls for others. In many systems, operators direct calls to groups and individuals. In others, automated attendants perform all or most of this function. When a person is not available, voice mail is often used, and the system allows voice mail, too. There are also several ways that two or more people can work together to personally handle one another’s calls, and that is primarily what we describe here.

There are several factors you should keep in mind when you plan for covering calls:

■How heavy is the call volume of the people involved? Can the covering person(s) handle the volume, and is there a backup alternative when they cannot?

■When should calls be covered? Should they be covered all of the time, some of the time, or only when the covered person does not answer immediately? Have you decided how to set ringing delays for each extension (Release 4.1 and later systems only) that is part of a coverage group and/or is covered by Primary or Secondary Cover buttons at co-workers’ telephones?

■Are programmed line buttons required for the method you have chosen? Do the phones at the extensions have these buttons available for programming?

■Is a voice mail system providing coverage? Do users need programmed buttons to turn this coverage on and off?

■Should you set Night Service to work with your voice messaging system (Release 4.1 and later systems only), so that telephones’ programmed Coverage VMS Off buttons are set centrally to turn voice messaging on during Night Service and turn it off again during normal business hours?

The system includes a group of capabilities called coverage features, which are

described in ‘Coverage’’‘ on page 4-34. However, there are several other features that also help people cover calls, and a discussion of these follows.