Queues

A Response Group queue is used to hold calls while waiting for an agent to answer. A queue can contain a single agent group, or administrators might add multiple agent groups to a queue. The following options are available when creating a queue:

• Enable queue timeout—Determines whether a time limit is enforced when callers wait for an agent.

• Time-out period—The number of seconds a caller can remain in the queue before timing out.

• Call Target—The action taken when a call reaches the time-out period. The options for call targets are discussed in greater detail later in this section.

• Maximum number of calls—The number of calls that can be in the queue at any given time.

• Forward the call—Determines whether the call is forwarded when the queue reaches a maximum number of calls. Administrators can choose to forward either the oldest call in the queue or the newest call.

In a situation where either the time period elapses or the maximum number of calls is reached, an administrator has a number of choices for how to route the call:

• Disconnect—Drops the call.

• Forward to voice mail—Forwards the call to a voicemail address, which must be a SIP URI.

• Forward to telephone number—Forwards the call to a telephone number in the sip:number@domain format.

• Forward to SIP address—Forwards the call to another user account in the sip:username@domain format.

• Forward to another queue—Forwards the call to another queue defined previously.

To create a new queue, use the following steps:

1. Open the Lync Server 2010 Control Panel.

2. Click Response Groups.

3. Click Queue.

4. Click New.

5. Select an application server and click OK. This is typically just a Front End pool.

6. Enter a Name for the queue.

7. Enter a Description for the queue.

8. Click Select to choose existing agent groups that belong to the queue.

9. Highlight any groups to add and click OK.

10. Check the box for Enable queue time-out if required.

11. After selecting queue time-out, enter a Time-out period.

12. After selecting queue time-out, select a Call action and enter an appropriate SIP URI if required.

13. Check the box for Enable queue overflow if required.

14. After selecting queue overflow, enter a Maximum number of calls.

15. After selecting queue overflow, click Forward the call and select an option.

16. After selecting queue overflow, select a Call action and enter an appropriate SIP URI if required.

17. Click Commit when completed.

Alternatively, the Lync Server Management Shell can be used to create a new queue:

New-CsRgsAgentGroup –Parent ApplicationServer:<Application Server ID> -Name
<Queue Name> -AgentGroupIDList <Collection of Agent Groups belonging to the
queue> -Description <Queue description> -OverflowAction <Overflow Action>
–OverflowCandidate <NewestCall | OldestCall> -OverFlowThreshold <Number of
simultaneous calls in the queue> –TimeoutThreshold <Number of seconds a call
can be in queue before timing out> -TimeoutAction <Timeout Action>

Setting the OverflowAction and TimeoutAction parameters involves an extra step. Save the action into a variable, and then pass that variable to the appropriate action parameter:

$Action = New-CsRgsCallAction –Action <Terminate | TransferToQueue |
TransferToQuestion | TransferToUri | TransferToVoiceMailUri |
TransferToPSTN> -Uri <SIP URI>

After completing the queue configuration, continue the response group setup process by creating workflows.