From the recent announcement on Microsoft Tech Community here regarding Auto Attendant and call queues in SfB Online i wanted to give a quick summary on Call queues and Auto Attendant. Ill post two posts one for Auto Attendant and one for Call queues.

I’ve just looked over the Skype Academy slide content slides available for download and wanted to write a quick summary of key points with the Call Queues and Auto Attendant. This ones on call queues. Link to AA post

Definitely check the slides out some great awesomeness coming to SfB Online !

Call Queues

What is a call queue first off ?

Accepts incoming calls and route calls to a group of agents, very similar to Response groups in Skype for Business Server with an on premise deployment but Auto Attendant and call queues have been rewritten for SfB Online.

Key Point – Can handle up to a maximum of 200 Calls

Comparison with SfB Hunt Groups

Key Points

• No Text to Speech or No speech to Text
• Routing options are limited to Attendant routing only so all agents will get the call. There is not currently round robin, least active or priority options as there is on premise
• No Sub Menus in the IVR

Greetings

• Greeting are configurable with pre-recorded greetings
• Callee Experience – If a call is ignored no missed call notification is generated
• MP3, WMA or WAV supported
• Max file size of 5Mb

Music on hold

Configuration Points

• Key Point – Music copyright for music on hold, music music must be royalty free or royalties paid.
• Service Number are required which are different to user telephone numbers
• Service number have limits
• Service numbers can be toll and toll free (Toll free required PSTN consumption billing)

Agent Routing Logic

• Attendant routing only – When calls comes in all available agents will be offered the call, except agents on Do not disturb or offline.

Key Point Maximum 50 agents per Group

Licence , groups and numbers Prerequisites for Call Queues

• Agent must have E5 or Cloud PBX
• Agents must be Enterprise Voice enabled
• Agent must be Skype for Business Online users
• Agents must have Lync 2013, Sfb 2015 / Sfb 2016 clients or Cloud PBX enabled IP Phone
• PSTN calling licence required for agents to forward to PSTN phones
• Agents have to be a member of a distribution of security group
• Maximum of 50 agents in group
• Office 365 groups not supported

Training

• Training of users is important – DND or offline means calls wont be offered to agents. DND could get set when sharing your desktop or presenting for example.

Deploying Queues Order

1. Create Agent group – security / distribution list with max of 50 (May need separate groups for queues if containing more than 50)
2. Creates service numbers
3. Create greetings (optional)
4. Determine limits – 200 max calls which is configurable to set the queue for lower.
5. Overflow options – route to agent or disconnect call (if overflowing to another queue you must configure via PowerShell

Configuration via the Office 365 admin centre via a GUI which makes it super easy for admins to configure. Also configurable via PowerShell.

Testing Call queues

Can be done via Skype for Business admin portal, clicking the button will call it via pstn.

Migration from existing Call queues

• Porting numbers is available
• Inventory and see if your current call queues are fit for purpose or could they be better ?

References

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Skype-Operations-Framework-Skype/New-Call-Queues-Preview-and-updated-Auto-Attendant-Preview/ba-p/35787