Shared Call Appearances (external calls)

Administration

UCX Software - Features

USEFUL TIP

Traditional shared line appearances on keys system only work for analog trunks. The SCA feature on UCX works for all trunk types including IP trunks. You can even mix different trunk types in a single shared call appearance group.

Feature Description

Shared Call Appearances (SCA) were implemented to address the request for key system features like call appearances and the public hold (a.k.a. transfer on hold) capability. The Shared Call Appearances feature provides the following functionality:

Presents external calls on programmable keys on XSTIM extensions (SCA keys)
Multiple XSTIM extensions can be configured to have the same SCA key(s)
Once a call is assigned an SCA ID, all extensions with the corresponding SCA key provide indication of the call state via icons or indicators (on XSTIM IP nad/or digital phones)
While an SCA call is ringing, any extension on which the call is ringing or presented to (see Configuration Step 4 on how to configure a non-ringing SCA key) can answer the call by going off-hook or by pressing the Answer softkey or the programmed SCA key
If an SCA call is put on hold, users of all phones with the corresponding SCA key can press that key to retrieve the call

IMPORTANT

Note that the behavior of the physical SCA key on the UCX system differs from the behavior on Norstar and BCM systems.

You cannot originate outbound calls by pressing the SCA key when using UCX based SCA feature.

Incoming calls can also be answered by going off hook or pressing an extension button or the Answer softkey.

Outgoing calls are initiated by going offhook or selecting your extension key and dialing the phone number. The appropriate SCA key is activated if the dialed digits select an outbound route with an SCA tag.

When an SCA call is placed on hold at a set, pressing the SCA key at any set sharing that appearance will take the call off hold and make it active on that set.

When an SCA call is placed on hold at a set and it is not yet picked up at another set you must select an available extension key before making another call.

IMPORTANT

Using the Shared Call Appearance feature with calls routed through queues is NOT supported.

Introduction

From the end user perspective

SCA keys implement call appearances that can be shared by any number of XSTIM extensions
SCA keys provide “public hold” or “transfer on hold” functionality
SCA keys provide visibility of how many SCA calls are active
SCA keys can uniquely identify trunks (configuration of SCA keys is based on inbound and outbound routes – when a unique inbound and outbound route is used for each trunk, one or more SCA keys can be configured to directly correspond to each trunk)
SCA keys can be configured on expansion modules (with SCA, the number of active calls on a phone is not limited by the number of programmable buttons on the phone itself)

From the administrator perspective

Only XSTIM phones can be configured to use shared call buttons, but any phone type can receive and handle shared calls.
SCA can be configured for Inbound Routes or Outbound Routes or both.

Pre-Requisites

None.

Configuration

Step 1 – Configure Ring Group

This step is optional. You need to configure a ring group only if you want multiple phones to ring or be alerted on an incoming SCA call.

Open UCX Administration
From the PBX tab, select PBX Configuration
From the left side column under Inbound Call Control, select Ring Groups
Fill in the following required fields:
- Ring-Group Number – the number to dial to reach this ring group
- Group Description – a description for this ring group
- Extension List – the list of extensions to present the call to
- Destination if no answer – select the destination if none of the extensions in the group answers
Press the Submit Changes button

Step 2 – Create an Inbound Route

To add an inbound route, perform the following steps:

Open UCX Administration
From the PBX tab, select PBX Configuration
From the left side column under Inbound Call Control, select Inbound Routes
Add a new route or edit an existing one
Enter a tag in the Shared Calls Tag field (you will use this tag when you set up SCA buttons on the phones). In this example we are using the tag ‘sales‘ .
Set Destination to the Ring Group created in Step One.
Press the Submit Changes button

Step 3 – Create an Outbound Route

This step is needed only if you want to use the SCA feature for outbound calls.

(See note at the top of the page: the UCX Outbound Shared Call Appearance operation does not behave exactly the same as BCM or Norstar outbound trunk behavior.)

To add an outbound route, perform the following steps:

Open UCX Administration
From the PBX tab, select PBX Configuration
From the left side column under Outbound Call Control, select Outbound Routes
Add a new route or edit an existing one
Enter the same tag used in Step One in the Shared Calls Tag field (e.g. sales)
Press the Submit Changes button

Step 4 – Configure Programmable Keys on XSTIM Devices

To configure an extension for a XSTIM phone, perform the following steps:

Open UCX Administration
From the PBX tab, select PBX Configuration
From the left side column under Basic, select XSTIM Phones
All the configured XSTIM phones will be listed on the right hand side
Select one of the XSTIM phones that you assigned to the Ring Group in Step One
Scroll down to the section labelled Programmable Keys
In the Label field of a shared call appearance key, enter a descriptive label such as “Line 1” or “Call 1”.
In the Digits field, the value MUST start with the letters “SCA” followed by a colon “:“, a call number (1,2,3,…), the “@” sign, followed with the Shared Calls Tag (e.g. sales), and optionally end with “:N” to indicate that the call is presented to the key but does not ring.
- For example (ringing): SCA:1@sales, SCA:2@sales, etc. where ‘sales‘ is the Shared Calls Tag that you used in Steps One and Two
- Non-ringing example of the above: SCA:1@sales:N, SCA:2@sales:N, etc. where ‘sales‘ is the Shared Calls Tag that you used in Steps One and Two.
Press the Submit Changes button and apply your configuration changes (the dropdown selection box will automatically change to Other when you click the Submit Changes button).

In the example below:

SCA:1@sales represents the first call appearance of shared call group ‘sales’
SCA:2@sales represents the second call appearance of the same shared call group ‘sales’
SCA:1@support represents the first call appearance of another shared call group ‘support’