Incoming calls with fallback to multiple frontdesk-colleagues while still ringing extension

[jklin]

I am fairly new to configuring a PBX, so please forgive me if the answers are obvious. I am trying to figure out a good strategy for incoming calls for our small (8 ppl) organization.

The basic idea is as follows:

1. incoming external calls should be routed to the corresponding colleague’s extension first.

2. When the call is not picked up within x seconds (e.g. 10 secs), the call should be forwarded to one or more colleagues being on duty for picking up such calls (called “front-desk”), but continue to ring on the original extension.

3. Colleagues shall be able to “book” into front-desk duty. While they are booked in, they get the calls not being picked up by their colleagues. When they are not booked in (e.g. not yet or no longer in the office or busy with something else), their phone shall not ring.

4. I am not entirely sure on how to handle internal calls (a colleague calling another colleague). My thinking is that we would not want these to be forwarded to the front-desk.

5. Colleagues shall be able to connect multiple devices to their extension - e.g. their desk phone, a PC softphone, a VoIP mobile app, …

I can do a simple inbound route to go to the extension for (1), I am totally lost how to approach (2) and (3). A simple ring group does not to be sufficient and I am not sure if I need to look at follow me or queues or something else.
The solution to (4) presumably depends on (2) and (3).
Item (5) seems to be doable with PJSIP. Do I simply set the ‘max contacts’ to 2 or more and use the exact same credentials for each device on an extension?

Any help would me much appreciated.

[Stewart1 (Stewart)]

Try this to start:

Inbound Route goes to extension. Extension has Follow Me set up with Ring Strategy ringallv2 or ringallv2-prim, depending on whether you want to ring front-desk if the extension is busy on another call. Follow-Me List includes the original extension, the mobile app and a Queue. The queue has Queue No Answer set (so the original extension continues to ring and the call goes to its voicemail if the front-desk doesn’t answer). The queue would have only dynamic agents.

If your desk phones have multiple line appearances, it’s probably easiest for each to have a secondary extension number that avoids the queue, which internal users could call.