New Response Group Application Features

Topic Last Modified: 2011-10-31

With the Response Group application, you can route and queue incoming calls to designated persons for special purposes, such as customer service, an internal help desk, or general telephone support for a department.

The following Response Group application features are new in Microsoft Lync Server 2010.

• Anonymous calls

  You can configure a response group so that agents can accept incoming calls and make outgoing calls on behalf of the response group without revealing their identity. When anonymous calling is enabled, callers cannot call agents directly unless the agent expressly offers a direct number. During an anonymous call, the agent can see that the call is anonymous. The agent can put the call on hold, make both blind and consultative transfers, and park and retrieve the call. Anonymous calls cannot start from an instant messaging (IM) or audio/video session, but the agent or the caller can add IM and video after the call is established.

  Anonymous calls do not support conferencing, application sharing, desktop sharing, file transfer, whiteboarding and data collaboration, or call recording.

  Warning

  A consultative transfer is where the agent who received the call first (that is, the "transfer initiator") talks to the agent or user that they want to transfer call to (that is, the "transfer receiver") before they actually transfer the call. Consultative transfers are supported when the transfer receiver is not anonymous. If the transfer initiator consultative transfers a call to a PSTN or a Lync user and uses the anonymous option, the call will appear to transfer properly to the receiver. However, the transfer will fail and the transferred caller is disconnected. The transfer initiator can be either anonymous or known, but the effect is the same if the transfer receiver is anonymous.

• Attendant routing method

  With the new attendant routing method, all agents who are signed into Lync Server 2010 and the Response Group application are called at the same time for every incoming call, regardless of their current presence status. With attendant routing, Microsoft Lync 2010 Attendant users who are designated as agents can see all the calls that are waiting and answer waiting calls in any order. When a call is answered, the other Microsoft Lync 2010 Attendant users no longer see the call.

• Integrated manageability

  In Lync Server 2010, Response Group manageability is integrated with Lync Server 2010 manageability: Lync Server Management Shell cmdlets support all Response Group management tasks, and Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Control Panel supports common Response Group management tasks.

• Caller experience improvements

  In Lync Server 2010, Response Group supports more flexible interactive voice response (IVR) configurations and prompts, such as for invalid or no response to IVR questions and messages before music on hold or queue timeouts.

• Web service

  In Lync Server 2010, the Response Group application provides a more robust web service that supports customized agent consoles. You can use the web service to retrieve information about agents, agent group membership, agent sign-in status, call status for groups, and the response groups that support anonymous calls.