# External Hot Desk Agents

## Description

An External Hot Desk Agent (EHDA) is an External Hot Desk User (EHDU) that is also a member of an ACD group. In a typical work-at-home scenario, the user answers the ACD calls on a single-line residential phone and has a MiTAI-based call center application that provides screen pops containing caller information and client account data. Other supported devices and configurations include

- IP or digital phone behind a 3rd-party PBX

- SIP phone connected through a service provider to the 3300 via SIP trunk

- SIP phone behind a 3300 networked to another 3300 that is hosting the EHDA directory number. (If the EHDA directory number and SIP phone are on same switch, you must use loopback trunk routing (IP or PRI) to reach the agent.)

- analog phone behind a 3300 networked as described above for SIP phones. (Also requires loopback trunk routing for co-location scenario.)

- cell phone (provides limited capability since a cell phone cannot be accompanied by a call center application)

To log into MiVoice Business, the EHDA will usually use the MiTAI-based application and its agent number and PIN. The EHDA can also log in using the Hot Desking Access Number and get authenticated by the Call Recognition Service feature. Other ACD-related functions, such as Make Busy and Group Presence status changes, would be invoked from the MiTAI application, although any ACD function that has a FAC
Feature Access Code. A special pattern of characters dialed by a telephone user to turn a feature on or off.—for example, Make Busy Setup and Cancel—can be dialed from the phone.

As with any ACD agent, once logged in and available, the EHDA can begin to receive ACD calls. When the call is over, the EHDA can get a work timer to make them temporarily unavailable for further ACD calls. During an ACD call, the EHDA can also invoke features by dialing DTMF-based mid-call feature access codes.

While logged in, the EHDA can make or receive personal calls (i.e., calls that do not involve MiVoice Business). For the duration of the call, the 3300 continues to offer ACD calls at intervals determined by External Hot Desk - Reseize Timer in the EHDA's Class of Service.

With the exceptions noted in below, an EHDA behaves the same as a Hot Desk ACD Agent with respect to ACD calls and the same as an EHDU with respect to non-ACD calls.

## Conditions and Feature Interactions

### General

- An EHDA cannot be a member of a Ring Group, Personal Ring Group or Hunt Group.

- An EHDA must be a single-line device.

- EHDAs support resiliency when both the primary and secondary controllers are running MCD Release 5.0 or later.

- Feature use from a EHDA device is by feature access code only since there is no support for programmable feature keys on external devices. For a list of supported features, see Feature Access Code Support and Using Mid-Call Features. ACD agent features without an associated feature access code, such as Work Timer, can be accessed through a MiTAI-based ACD application co-located with the EHDA.

- An EHDA is allowed in an ACD Agent Skill group and an ACD Express group (but not both).

- ACD Supervisor functionality is not supported on external devices.

- Each EHDA consumes a User License and an EHDU license plus an ACD license when it is logged in as an ACD Agent.

- The "Hot Desk External User: Permanent Login" Class of Service setting is ignored for EHDAs.

- See also External Hot Desking - Conditions for other conditions and feature interactions and External Hot Desking - Description for important information regarding emergency dialing from an external hot desk device.

NOTE: There are certain risks associated with using an EHDA since large part of each EHDA call is beyond Mitel's control and many external issues can negatively impact the EHDA.

For EHDAs using cell phones, some of the issues are:

- Mitel solution sees the EHDA as idle and sends a call to it, but the call is unable to reach the EHDA endpoint due to:

- cell network issues, such as, phone turned off, cell network congestion

- cell phone application not functioning

- cell not registered to a network due to SIM issue

- cell is on a direct PSTN call, not through the Mitel solution

- Voicemail issue: ACD caller is connected to the cell phone voicemail instead of the agent.

- Call waiting issue: ACD caller camps onto busy agent instead of being sent to an idle agent.

For EHDAs using landlines, some of the issues are:

- If the EHDA landline stays off hook after the caller hangs up, the Mitel solution sees the agent as idle and attempts to send a new call.

- ACD calls are sent to EHDAs that are not reachable due to PSTN network congestions or outages.

- Voicemail issue: ACD caller is connected to the voicemail instead of the agent.

- Call waiting issue: ACD caller camps onto busy agent instead of being sent to an idle agent.

### ONS and SIP

The conditions below apply to the use of ONS and SIP devices as EHDA's in a gateway scenario, in which the EHDA is on the gateway switch and the ONS/SIP devices are on another 3300.

- The agent can only log in using the MiTAI call center application since IP trunks do not support dialing the Hot Desking Access Number.

- ONS/SIP EHDA's can only make outgoing agent calls using the call center application. They can still make outgoing "personal" calls from the phone without the application but it would be coming from the PSTN directory number.

- Once in talk state, ONS phones have access to mid-call features from the phone, whether or not the call center application is present.

- SIP phone in talk state DO NOT have access to mid-call features from the phone, unless a MiVoice Border Gateway is deployed to provide the SIP message-to-DTMF translation or a TDM trunk loopback to the EHDA host switch is used.

- To log out in the absence of the call center application, the agent must initiate an auto-logout by letting the phone ring/no answer

- To enter Make Busy state in the absence of the call center application, the agent must go off hook and wait for the External Hot Desk - Reseize Timer to expire.

### SIP Only

- The call center application is needed to control ACD calls to and from the SIP phone. The SIP phone is used only to answer calls. Call control features (Transfer, Hold, Conference, etc.,) and ACD-specific features such as Make Busy can only be invoked from the call center application. No indication of feature usage/state is provided on the SIP device's display.

- If the PC goes down and agent loses the call center application, they may have the ability to call into the system, get authenticated, and then enter feature access codes for certain feature invocation directly from the phone. The display on the phone, however, will provide no indication of feature usage/state.

- Supervisors will be able to log an agent into their EHDA without specifying the agent's login PIN (even if agent has password protection). The supervisor can only do this from their call center application not their SIP phone.

## Programming

NOTE: You cannot configure External Hot Desk Agents from the Multiline IP Sets form. You should only configure EHDAs from the User and Services Configuration form. In the Multiline IP Sets form, the "Hot Desk User" field and "ACD Enabled" field are set to "Yes" for the EHDAs.

To program an External Hot Desk Agent:

1. Complete the programming for External Hot Desking except for the "Hot Desk External User “ Permanent Login" COS setting which does not apply to EHDAs.

2. Class of Service Options form

- To prevent ACD calls from going to an EHDA's personal voice mail, enable "Hot Desk External User “ Answer Confirmation"

- Set the External Hot Desk - Reseize Timer as required.

- To automatically log out (default) an agent on no answer, set the "ACD Agent Behavior on No Answer" COS option to "Logout" and enter a value in the "ACD Agent No Answer Timer" field. When a call is not answered and the timer expires, the agent is logged out. If no more agents are available and "ACD Make Last Agent Unavailable on No Answer" system option is set to "Yes", the caller is re-queued to the path. If set to "No", the last agent is not logged out and the caller continues to ring the agent.

- To automatically make an agent absent on no answer, set the "ACD Agent Behavior on No Answer" COS option to "Absent" and enter a value in the "ACD Agent No Answer Timer" field. When calls are not answered by agents and the timer expires, the agents are made absent from all their groups. If no more agents are available and the "ACD Make Last Agent Unavailable on No Answer" system option is set to "Yes", the caller is re-queued to the path. If set to "No", the last agent is not made absent and the caller continues to ring the agent.

3. User and Services Configuration form

- Click Add > Default User and Device.

- Under Profile:

- - Enter the First and Last Name of the ACD agent.

  - Enter a directory number. The number cannot be used anywhere else in the system.

  - Select Hot Desking User.

  - Select Full Service as the Service Level.

  - Select ACD Agent.

  - For Preferred Set, use the default value or No Device.

- Under Service Details, select External Hot Desking Enabled.

- Under Access and Authorization, enter a passcode for the hot desk ACD agent in the User PIN field. PINs must be from 0 to 8 digits in length. Only digits (0 to 9) are permitted. The PIN code is displayed as bullets.

- Click Save.

The system adds a record to the Multiline IP Sets for the hot desk DN with the "ACD Enabled" field set to "Yes"; adds an Agent ID into the ACD Agent IDs form (the Agent ID will be the directory number that you entered in the "Number" field); and adds an entry for the hot desk ACD agent to the Telephone Directory form.

NOTE: An EHDU can be converted to an EHDA (and visa versa) by first deleting the existing EHDU/EHDA entry in the User and Services Configuration form and reprogramming it.

4. ACD Agent Skill Groups ( ) form or ACD Express Groups form ( )

- Add the agent ID as a member of an ACD agent skill group (or ACD Express Group) if the agent is required to answer path calls.

- (ACD Agent Skill Groups form only) If required, set the "Group uses Skill Level" field to "Yes".

- (ACD Agent Skill Groups form only) Set the "Skill" field for the agent to a value between 1 (highest skill level) and 500 (lowest skill level). An agent can appear only once in a single agent skill group. To disable Skill-Based Routing for an agent skill group, clear the "Skill" field of all agents, save the form, set the "Group uses Skills" field to "No", and save the form again.

## Operation

### Logging In and Out

Follow the Logging In and Logging Out procedure for External Hot Desking but rather than entering the Hot Desk User directory number (step 2) enter the Agent ID

### Taking Personal Calls from Other 3300 Users

External Hot Desk Agents can use their Agent ID as their personal contact number and receive direct calls from other 3300 users whenever they are logged into the system:

- If the agent is logged in and not in Make Busy, the agent receives both ACD calls and direct calls.

- If the agent is logged in and in Make Busy, the agent receives direct calls only.

- If the agent is not logged in, the agent does not receive calls.

You can configure agents with the COS option "ACD Make Busy on Login" to allow agents to log in and only take direct calls. The agents don't start taking ACD calls until they press the Make Busy key to exit Make Busy state.

### Using the PSTN for Personal Calls

To use their phone for PSTN calls that don't involve MiVoice Business, the External Hot Desk Agent must first enter Make Busy state. This stops the system from offering the agent ACD calls. The agent can then log out of the system, making their phone able to place and receive personal calls over the PSTN. When the call is over, the agent hangs up, logs back in, and then cancels Make Busy. The agent is now once again available to take ACD calls.