Sequential Ring
John Scarborough: Another popular feature in terms of “find me, follow me” type calling function is sequential ring. In this case, you identify the sequence or order of how a call rings identified destination phone numbers. So for example, the call is first routed to your office phone then after a certain number of identified rings, it rolls over to a secondary phone number or destination such as your cell phone. And even if then, no one picks up, and after a certain number of rings, the call then routes yet again to another destination.
To create a sequential ring instruction, go to Incoming Calls on the left hand column and then select Sequential Ring under Advanced features on the right hand side. The sequential ring page will come up within your portal. The first step will be to assign a schedule for when you want the service to be active. To do this, click on Add at the top of your screen. You will now type in a name for this schedule. If you want this service to be always active, leave the drop down menu at the default setting of All day, Everyday. If you wish to use the custom time schedule that we created in the time schedule tutorial, you will see it available on the drop down box and may select it at this time. By default, these settings will apply to all inbound calls but you have the option of specifying additional parameters below.
Now that we have created our entry, click OK to save our settings and return to the previous screen. You will see that the roll we created is listed below and is now marked as active. In the future, if you wish to disable sequential ring, you will simply uncheck the active box next to each rule and click OK or Apply to save your changes.
We will now begin setting up the call flow for our sequential ring service. The first option you will see is “Use base station first”. This means that all inbound calls will first ring in on your VoIP phone before being routed elsewhere. The radio buttons below allow you to specify how many times the call will ring at this location before being routed to the next location.
The next option you will see is “Continue search process if the base location is busy”. With this option enabled, inbound calls will immediately route to the next specified destination if your phone is offline, “do not disturb” is enabled or if you have disabled call waiting and are currently on a call. Below this, you will see the option to enable the caller to skip the search process. If this option is enabled, the caller will hear an audio prompt to press a key to search the skipped process. This will allow them to go directly to voicemail and leave a message.
In the fields below, we can now identify the numbers we wish to route calls to should you not be available to answer at your VoIP phone. Start by entering a 10-digit number or extension into the text field starting at Location 1 and moving down in the sequential order you wish your phones to ring through. You can then select the number of rings that that phone will ring before jumping to the next phone in line.
After you have specified all phones in the sequential order you want and the amount of rings before going to the next phone, just hit Apply or OK to save your settings. You sequential ring function is now set up and ready for use.