External calls to extension forwarded. Internal calls to extension allowed

So, I need a solution to use find me follow me for all external to be forwarded however, internal call should go to the extension dialed. This is a head scratcher for me. How can I make this work?

1 – If an outside call comes in and they dial the extension of Keith Howard (we’ll say he’s 201, I don’t remember without looking) then the call doesn’t go to 201, instead it goes to 220 which is his assistant Penny Polk.

2 – Internal users should be able to dial 201 without getting redirected to 220.

3 – Absolutely no external calls should get through to 201, whether its from the directory or directly dialing the extension, they all need to go to Penny Polk (220)

Set the directory entry for Keith to point to 220. Add an IVR option for 201 that routes to extension 220. This will take precedence over extension dialing.

However, you’ve only scratched the surface. Should unanswered external calls for Keith go to his voicemail or Penny’s? Should Keith’s wife and kids be able to reach him directly? VIP customers? Staff members in the field?

It may be better for Keith to have two line appearances on his phone, a ‘public’ one (filtered by Penny) and a ‘private’ one with appropriately restricted external access. Plan the desired behavior before making configuration changes.

Stewart,

Great thinking. I have discussed this and no external calls need to go to Keith at 201. All external calls need to be filtered by Penny. Family, VIP’s included. **Only ** internal calls/transferes need to go to his extension.

So, how should I accomplish this inside the GUI? And what does “restricted external access” look like as far as the configuration? I am new at this so thanks for your patience!

There is no easy way from the GUI that you’re going to be able to do this. It’s simply too specific and not a typical exploitation of the system. Do you need a solution that can be applied across your enterprise, or is this the only phone set up this way?

If it’s the only one, the “simplest” solution would be to write a custom context. Check the “calling” number and if it’s an extension, allow it to go through. If not, send it to 220 and let the assistant handle it.

If there’s more than one of these, you might want to check with Sangoma sales on this as well. One of the commercial modules might have some pieces that will allow you to do this in a reasonably scalable way.

Thanks for the response. I figured that was the answer but I hoped it wasn’t so. This is really the only requests we have for this. Therefore we will create it ourselves. Thanks again!

Just add it to your IVR like this:


If you have several IVRs that can directly dial extensions (multiple languages, open/closed, etc.), then you’ll have to add this to each one.

I was assuming that you would allow specific caller IDs direct access to Keith, but since you don’t want that, you don’t have to worry about how to do it :slight_smile: