Digital Receptionist

Like most organisations, where possible, we would like to automate the redirecting of all incoming calls. The digital receptionist is very handy for these sorts of things. Unless the calls are non-specific and will need the assistance of the receptionist (in our case also the operator), the system should allow callers to make the selection.

12.1

S

ETTING

U

P

D

IGITAL

R

ECEPTIONIST

In the PBX Configuration tab, click on the IVR option and you will get the following screen.

Click on the Add IVR option on the top right on the screen (see arrow) and the new Unnamed IVR configuration screen will be presented to you.

We will then fill in the following fields:

Name (Change Name): MainOffice (that’s what we shall called the main menu) Timeout: 10 (leave it at default)

Enable Directory: Tick

Directory Context: Leave it at Default Enable Direct Dial: Tick

Announcement: MainOfficeMenu (That’s what we called the IVR recording that was made for this purpose)

(See illustration below)

Then proceed to enter the selection options that you require for this IVR when the caller presses the appropriate option.

If you need more choice options in the IVR, click on the Increase Options button at the bottom of the screen.

In this IVR, we have defined our requirement as outlined below:

For number 1 - 7, we select Extension, and for 8, which we have changed to the letter “t”, we also selected Extension.

For 1, we will select the Reception (Extension 3000).

For 2, select 3001, which is the Manager’s extension.

For 3, select Dr. Roberts (Extension 3002) For 4, select Dr. Forbes

For 5, select Dr. Wong For 6, select Admin Office For 7, select Lab and X-Ray

For 8, (which we shall change to “t”) select extension 3000, which is the reception.

The last extension (which we have changed to the letter “t”) is to capture timeout, if the caller does not press any option or, in case the DTMF tone does not register, the call will be sent to the receptionist.

Once finished, click Save and also click on the Apply Configuration Changes on the top of the screen.

Test it by dialling 7777, (Asterisk will simulate an incoming call) and you will hear your Digital receptionist in action.

12.2

M

ULTI

-L

ANGUAGE

IVR

(This is included in this section as an example only and is not part of this tutorial.

However you can try this if you want to).

Elastix allows multi languages IVR handling by simply telling Elastix what language to use. Naturally you will need to install all the language sets that you wish to use.

See Installing Other Languages in the chapter referring to Customised Voice in later part of this document.

12.2.1 Create Multi Languages IVR

I am assuming that you already have your MainMenu IVR in English set up for selecting various options. If you haven’t done so, lets rename this IVR to MainMenu_EN.

You will also need to create an IVR called MainMenu_ES with options to be presented in Spanish. This is similar to your MainMenu_EN except that it is presented to the caller in Spanish

12.2.2 Define Language Codes

Before you go any further, you will have to define the various languages that you will be using. To do this you will need to choose the following options from Elastix PBX TAB:

PBX Configuration - - > Unembedded freePBX

Once you are in freePBX, select the Languages option from the vertical menu on the left-hand side. You will enter the following screen.

This is where you define your languages codes. The example above shows that I have defined the Spanish code where the following fields were populated:

Description: Spanish Language Code: es

The destination for this code will be IVR: MainMenu_ES You will need to do the same for the English language code.

Description: English Language Code: en

The destination for this code will be IVR: MainMenu_EN

12.2.3 Create Language Choice IVR

You will need to create another IVR for selecting the language options that you want to present to the callers. This will be the IVR that will greet all callers with Select 1 for English, 2 for Italian etc. In this example, we will have 2 language sets, Australian and Spanish. Let us name this second IVR LanguageChoice.

This will be the first IVR that will greet all callers.

In LanguageChoice, we will have 3 options.

 Select 1 for English (presented in English)

 Select 2 for Spanish (preferably presented in Spanish so the Spanish speaking caller can understand it).

 The third option is unannounced as it will be the time out option represented by the letter “t”. This option is the option the IVR will default to if no choice is made or if the caller’s DTMF tone is not recognised by Elastix.

In choice 1, select the Languages radio button and from the dropdown choice, select English.

In choice 2, select the Languages radio button and from the dropdown choice, select Spanish.

The third choice, instead of a number, you will enter the letter “t” in the option box, select IVR radio button and from the dropdown choice, select MainMenu_EN (if your callers are mainly English speaking or you can select MainMenu_ES if the majority of your callers are Spanish speaking).

12.2.4 Change inbound route

Now you will need to change your inbound route to point to the LanguageChoice IVR. All calls will then be greeted by the LanguageChoice IVR and when the caller select 1 (or 2), the IVR will call the appropriate extension. If the caller selected 1, point it to the Language option English and the MainMenu_EN will be selected as defined in the Define Language Code section above and the language will be set to English or Spanish if you pointed to MainMenu_ES (Naturally, you must also have recorded the call options announcement in the various languages).

Save it and re-read the configuration change and you are done.

12.3

M

ULTI

-T

ENANTS

IVR

(This is included in this section as an example only and is not part of this tutorial. However you can use this if you want to).

While freePBX is a very versatile GUI front-end for Elastix it does not have the facility to configure a PBX for multi-Tenants application. However, Elastix (Asterisk) has the ability to do it with a little creative manipulation.

In the chapter above we covered multi languages IVR handling by simply telling Elastix what language to use. We are going to use the same principal to handle the Multi-Tenants requirement.

In this example, I will use a Medical Centre in Malaysia, that I have the privilege of installing the Asterisk PABX for. There are 3 tenants involved – a General Practitioner, a Dental Practitioner and a Pathology representative. Each has separate incoming telephone numbers with their own receptionist but using a common PABX.

I have picked this organisation as an example because it is small enough to write about.

If I choose one of my bigger installations, this book will never see the light of day  The main requirements are pretty straightforward:

 Calls that come in through the different tenants should be directed to the appropriate IVR. One IVR for each tenant.

 12 extensions - 4 for Dental Practitioner, 3 for Radiologist and 5 for General Practitioners.

 Voicemail for each receptionist.

There are other requirements such as multi language prompts, after-hours ring groups, time conditions, Interlinking 2 Elastix boxes between the Medical Centre and the Pathology Main Office in Kuala Lumpur etc., but I have only listed the major requirements.

In this example I will only highlight the Multi-Tenants incoming route handling and restricting outgoing calls to the appropriate telephone lines only.

My first task was to install the base Elastix as per the chapter on Installation. In this installation, there is no VOIP trunk involved. All telephone communications are through PSTN lines apart from the Elastix inter-connect between the Medical Centre and the Pathology Main Office in Kuala Lumpur, which will be done via a DSL connection.

PSTN Interface

2 x TDM400 were installed in the PC designated for the PBX

 3 ports allocated to the General Practitioners (ports 1-3)

 3 ports allocated to Dental (ports 4-6) and

 2 ports allocated for Pathology (ports 7-8).

IVR Prompts

3 x IVR were created, one for each of the different tenant.

 MedicalIVR

 DentalIVR

 PathoIVR

Each IVR will act as a traffic cop to direct calls to the appropriate extensions belonging to each tenant.

Inbound Routings

 ZAP channels 1,2 and 3 (3 PSTN numbers for GP) routed to MedicalIVR

 ZAP channels 4,5 and 6 (3 PSTN numbers for Dentist) routed to DentalIVR

 ZAP channel 7 and 8 (2 PSTN numbers for the Pathology representative) routed to PathoIVR

Extensions

1. Extensions 2000 to 2004 allocated to GP

 2000 for Receptionist/Clerk with voicemail

 2001 for Doctor A

 2002 for Doctor B

 2003 for Surgery Room

 2004 for Dispensary

Change the context of these extensions, from [from-internal] to [from-internal-medical]

2. Extensions 3000 to 3003 allocated to Dental

 3000 for receptionist/clerk with voicemail

 3001 for Dentist A

 3002 for Dentist B

 3003 Spare extension

Change the context of these extensions, from [from-internal] to [from-internal-dental]

3. Extensions 4000 to 4002 allocated to Pathology

 4000 for receptionist/clerk with voicemail

 4001 for Radiographer

 4002 for Assistant

Change the context of these extensions, from [from-internal] to [from-internal-pathology]

Outbound Calls Handling context

Create 3 different call handling contexts in the extensions_custom.conf configuration file.

 [from-Internal-medical]

 [from-internal-dental]

 [from-internal-pathology]

The purpose of these contexts is to restrict extensions belonging to each tenant to be confined to telephone lines belonging to that particular tenant when making external calls.

See How to restrict outgoing calls in the Calls Handling Notes chapter of this document.

You also install the Custom Context Module and use this module to do this. Actually it is much simpler using the custom context module.

All of the basic set up requirements above are explained in the various chapters of this book and should not present any difficulty to complete.

Once the basic is completed, the rest of the variations and extras can be handled as per the individual requirement.

In document Elastix Without Tears (Page 76-82)