Voicebox answers call despite of call forwarding

NiclasCpm · ‎01-06-2009

A new year, a new question.

Well, this feature might be by design but I'm curious nevertheless.

We're running Cisco Call Manager 4.3 and use the 7961 phones.

Now some users report that their voicebox had received a call although they have had activated call forwarding to another extension line.

But this doesn't make much sense if the person is on holidays for several days or weeks.

So I've checked this behaviour and noticed the following:

1. Extension -123 has an activated call forwarding to -456.

2. An incoming call is correctly forwarded to -456.

3. After several ring tones and no answer at -456 the call comes back to -123 directly being received by the voicebox of -123.

Why ?

The settings for all lines/extensions in the Call Manager are:

Call Forward and Pickup Settings => Forward No Answer External => 88999 (88999 = forwarding to voicebox in Cycos UMS)

So is this behaviour a wanted feature or are our settings incorrect ?

Looking forward for an answer/tip,

regards,

Niclas

Rob Huffman · ‎01-06-2009

Hi Niclas,

Happy 2009!

This is most likely a design issue with the Cycos UMS and is common for most VM Systems. Your Forwarding scheme is just fine but the problem arises because the VM uses the "Originally Dialed Number" when routing calls to the correct VM User account. This is the same in all older Unity, Unity Connection and CUE systems as well as Avaya/Octel systems as well.

So when -123 is on Call Forward to -456 we do see the incoming call ring @ -456 correctly. Once -456 FNA's to the Cycos system it looks at the originally dialed number -123 to route the caller to this mailbox.

In new Cisco VM systems this behaviour can be changed system wide by using the "Last redirecting number" setting instead of the "Originally Dialed number" setting. If this can be similarily changed in the Cycos system then -456 would receive the VM in this scenario :)

Hope this helps!

Rob

NiclasCpm · ‎01-07-2009

Hi Rob,

wishing you a happy new year, too. :)

Thanks for the comprehensive answer.

So it's by design and cannot be changed by us.

Well, maaaaaaybe we're going to upgrade sometime - but this is still written in the stars. :\

Thanks,

Niclas

Rob Huffman · ‎01-07-2009

Hi Niclas,

You are most welcome my friend! You should check out the available options in Cycos to see if this behaviour can be changed. You never know :)

Cheers!

Rob