Call Pickup Group Audio Notification

[jeremiah88]

Hi All, I have the following scenario.  User A and User B.  Let's say User A is an Attorney, and user B is the Attorneys Admin Assistant.  I want The Admin to be able to get a Visual And Audio notification that their Attorney "User A" is getting a call, and to be able to pick up the call.  I created 2 Call Pickup Groups.  One for User A (Attorney) and one for User B (Admin).  Within User B's CPG, I added User A's CPG #, since I want the Admin to be able to answer the attorney calls, but I do not need the Attorney to have to answer the Admin's calls of course.

On the Admin's phone, I configured the Attorney's DN as a BLF Speed-Dial with Call Pickup Enabled.

So it is working, but it is not working like it did when I first set this up as a Proof of Concept for my customer.  What is happening, is that when User A (Attorney) gets a call, User B's (Admin) phone will BEEP once and the the BLF button will flash silently.  You can then press the BLF button, and then it shows the call that is inbound to the Attorney and you can then answer it, and it is ringing at this point.   So, it seems like it is working, except during my proof of concept,, and what my customer is expecting, is that when the attorney is called the Admin phones actually RINGS, not just a single BEEP.  It is a distinctive ring, but it was a ring none the less.  I set this up right after building the CUCM and it worked exactly in this way.  I don't know what has changed, and why it is giving me a SINGLE BEEP all of a sudden, versus a unique ringtone, as it did originally.  I have read the excerpt on this in the Features and Services guide multiple times, and I cannot figure out what is controlling this.  Here is what it states in the F&S Manual:

The Call Pickup Notification feature provides an audio or visual, or  both, notification on Cisco Unified IP Phones when other members of a  pickup group receive a call. Call Pickup Notification gets configured in  three configuration windows for three types of settings: system, call  pickup group, DN/phone.

•Service  Parameters Configuration—The type of audio notification (beep or ring)  to be heard when a phone is idle or busy gets set from the Service  Parameters Configuration window. This setting becomes the system  default.  (I have not changed this parameter, nor could I find the exact Parameter that this doc is referring to.  The options that are in the Service Params for 8.6.2(a) code that I am using, basically lists these options: 

-Call Pickup Group Audio Alert Setting of Idle Station

The only option is "Ring Once" or Disable", the default is 'Ring Once" and this is still set

-Call Pickup Group Audio Alert Setting of Busy Station

The only options are "Beep Only", or "Disable", the default is "Beep Only", and this is what I have it set to.

Nowhere do I see a setting for CPG Notification, to simply choose "Ring" or "Beep"...The documentation is at least misleading or blatantly incorrect, unless I am just overlooking this somewhere?

•Call  Pickup Group Configuration—The type of notification for each call  pickup group gets configured from the Call Pickup Group Configuration  window in Cisco Unified Communications Manager Administration. In  addition to configuring the type of notification, you can configure the  time, in seconds, to delay the audio and visual alerts after the call  comes into that group. This allows the original called party a chance to  pick up the call prior to the audio and/or visual alert being sent to  the pickup group. See the "Call Pickup Group Configuration Settings" section.

–To  configure whether the notification will be audio or visual, or both,  use the configuration settings in the Call Pickup Group Notification  Settings section of the Call Pickup Group Configuration window. The  notification gets sent only to the primary line of a device.

This step is completed, I have Audio and Visual notification selected

–To  configure the visual notification on the Call Pickup Group  Configuration window, use the configuration settings in the Call  Information Display For Call Pickup Group Notification section. This  setting allows the administrator to have detailed calling party and/or  called party information in the notification message. The display will  contain the name of calling/called party if available. If not, the  number will display. The visual notification comprises a message on the  phone status line.

•Directory  Number Configuration—This window provides fields where you can  configure the audio alert setting for each phone. Configure the type of  audio alert for phones by using the Pickup Audio Alert Setting. This  lets users configure the type of audio alert to be provided when phone  is idle or has an active call. See Directory Number Configuration Settings in the Cisco Unified Communications Manager Administration Guide. 

This step is completed, I have the Directory Number configuration Page set to the defaults, or to basically inherit these settings from the Services Parameter.  I have also manually set these settings while troubleshooting, but the end result was the same, I am hearing the "Beep" instead of the "RIng"

This isssue is driving me crazy, and I think it has to be something simple stupid, but I simply can't figure it out.  I want the Audible Alert for CPG's to be the distinctive RING, not a Plain Old BEEP!  Anyone got any ideas?

Jeremiah

[Andrew Skelly]

Why not use a shared line instead?

Line 1 on attorney phone is his number.

Line 1 on admin is her number and line 2 on her phone is attorney's number.

This will let the admin know not only when a call comes in on the attorney's line, but also if he is already on the line and if he has VM.  Plus, she can choose whatever ringtone she wants to set for his phone, so she can tell the difference in the ring.

[Rob Huffman · Accepted solution]

Hi Jeremiah,

I'll just add this note to the great ideas from Andrew (+5 "A" )

I think the thing that may be throwing this off is that the BLF - Pickup

has been set for the Admin to monitor the Attorney line. If you have

just a straight Call Pickup (single Pickup Group like 111) with Audible/Visual notification

(no BLF Pickup) you can get the Distinctive "Splash" ring back

for the Admin. The Admin and Attorney will need to be in a single

Pickup Group.

The BLF Pickup has it's own Audible alert settings, but the "On" setting will

only ever give you one beep as you are experiencing

Phone Configuration Settings 

BLF Audible Alert Setting (Phone Idle)

this setting determines the busy lamp field (BLF) audible alert setting when no current call exists on the BLF DN:

•On—An audible alert sounds.

•Off—No audible alert sounds.

•Default—The configuration in the Service Parameters Configuration window determines the alert option.

BLF Audible Alert Setting (Phone Busy)

This setting determines the BLF audible alert setting when at least one  active call exists on the BLF DN, but no call pickup alerts exist:

•On—An audible alert sounds.

•Off—No audible alert sounds.

•Default—The configuration in the Service Parameters Configuration window determines the alert option.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cucm/admin/7_0_1/ccmcfg/b06phone.html#wp1302989

Cheers!

Rob

"Why not help one another on the way" - Bob Marley

[jeremiah88]

Thanks Rob for your reply!  I was actually hoping you would catch this and reply, as your posts have led me down the right road many a time, and I truly appreciate it!  I was thinking that this was going to come down to the way I have this set up with BLF pickups.  I am going to do some testing based on your suggestions, and then I will follow-up on this thread and let you know what I find.  I could have sworn I had this working, even with the BLF configured as a Call Pickup during some initial feature setup and demos I did for my customer, but I may be crazy and imaging things at this point ;).  Also thanks to Andrew for your reply, and yes I 100% agree and would rather make these shaed lines.  My customer however prefers CPG over shared line, even though I tried to talk them out of it!

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Jeremiah,

You are most welcome my friend

Let us know how you get on with this. I'm curious what the customer doesn't

like about shared lines? It makes life so much easier for all involved, both the

Admin and Attorney in this case. But then who are we to argue with the customer

If they could identify what they don't like, there may be a nice workaround.

Cheers!

Rob

"Why not help one another on the way" - Bob Marley

[jeremiah88]

Rob,

You were correct.  The BLF setting was affecting it, but also it was because I had them in different CPGs.  So, I put them in a single CPG, and then I heard the disntictive ring my customer wants.  Problem is, that when it is in a Single CPG, both the Attorney and Admin are alerted to the call on either line.  I can silence the Alert on the Attorney phone, but they still get a visual alert for every call their admin gets-Something that is not wanted.  The second issue that happens, is that in this state, and when a BLF Speed Dial with Call Pickup is configured, the Call Pickup does not actually work.  It flashes like it will let it work, but everytime you press the button to answer you get "Temp Failure" message.  You can answer the call with the regular Pickup softkey however.  These are 9971 Model IP Phones I am using and even if I remove the pickup option from the FCP, the phone is still alerted, so that does not fix the attorney getting notified...  Seems like I can't have my cake and eat it too in this case.  To meet all the requirements of an admin being able to answer the attorney phone, without the attorney being notified or alerted of calls that admin recieves, and to have a pretty little ringtone, Well...I just can't have it all, although, you'd think it would be convenient of CIsco allowed you to control the alert more granularly when you also want to use a BLF SD with Call Pickup ability, but I guess they would just say... "Why don't you make it a Shared Line?" 

[jeremiah88]

Oh, and to answer your question about the shared line Rob...It is all because one high-level director, after seeing a phone with Shared Lines and being confused on how to answer, refuses to let any phone in their entire environment be configured with shared lines...  All because this individual could not quite grasp how to read the display to see which line the call rings in on.  A 100% "ID-10-T" situation here.  Unfortunately, this person is the decision maker.  Oh well, "The customer is always right!" 

[Justin Simmons]

I know it's been 2 years since you've posted this, but this thread helped me quite a bit.  I'm in a similar situation migrating from a Nortel system to CUCM 9.x and the best way that I found to achieve something similar to what they had before was to set up the call group, but as audio only, and disable the audio alerting on the attorney line for the call pickup group.  The secretary still sees the BLF blinking, and gets the pretty tone that a call is coming in for the flashing amber lights, they just don't get the visual caller ID information until they pick up the call.

[George Sotiropoulos]

Hi Jeremiah,

Did you ever got the chance to overcome this?
I am in the same situation where both Attorney and Admin (who belong in the same CPG) get notified of incoming the calls of each other.

Best,
G

[Rob Huffman]

Hi Jeremiah,

You are right my friend...the customer is always right.....after all,

they pay the bills

Thanks for posting back with your actual results here. +5 for this very kind

follow-up.

Just as an FYI.....I had a problem with a similar person who couldn't figure out

how to answer a call on a multi-line setup. Once I tweaked the Always Use Prime Line

setting for them, life was good

Cheers!

Rob

"Why not help one another on the way" - Bob Marley

[jeremiah88]

So, that springs a question about the "Always Use Prime Line" option...When set (on), the way I understand it should work is that when a call comes into a phone with shared lines, when they answer the phone it will be answered on "Their" line that is programmed on button 1, correct?  That's how I think it should work, but I can't seem to get it to work that way.

[Ellen Kennedy]

I ran across this discussion because I guess I am trying to "have my cake and eat it too"..... I need to make my "admin" phone be alerted and ring when a call comes in on the "Attorney" phone wihtout the "Attorney" phone being notified when the "admin" phone is ringing....

I try to stay away from the Shared line scenario because I find BLF Status is affected when using shared lines...

For instance: if i have the "attorney's" DN as line 2 on the "admin" phone, if "admin" would have to answer the "Attorney's" line, then the "admin's" BLF status (say ont eh receptionist's side car) is not accurate!... The receptionnists side car would show attorney as being on the phone and not admin...

~EK