Telephone Features Explained by Opus

I am happy to to say that everything happened when it was scheduled to do so and the [Opus] staff are a pleasure to deal with.- Helen Anslow, Lionel J Wiffen Ltd -
Opus Business Systems provided us with an excellent service when we recently upgraded our telephone system.- Helen Anslow, Lionel J Wiffen Ltd -
'I am happy to recommend Opus and the telephone equipment they supply and feed that companies in the travel industry would greatly benefit from their expertise.'- Ramadan Ozdemir, Direct Traveller -
'Service people were brilliant, prompt and cheerful. Please feel free to quote me on that!'- Penny Dash, Deeper Media -
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Telephone System Features

We understand that there is a lot of jargon associated with telephone systems and whilst we do our best to keep it to a minimum on this website, we have added a brief explanation of some of the key features of a telephone system.

ACD

Automatic Call Distribution allows all incoming calls to be distributed equally amongst a group of people. Typically used in a call centre where operators (agents) log in to make or receive calls. ACD systems provide facilities for monitoring the agent’s performance and the performance of the Call Centre as a whole. An incoming call will be automatically routed to the first available agent, whether that is an agent that has been free the longest, or an agent that has just become free.

Alpha Tagging

The assignment of an alpha-numeric name to a telephone number. For example when called by an extension your phone can display the name of the caller rather than the extension number. When an incoming DDI call is received a name can be shown which relates to the number that was dialled, enabling one person to answer calls in a variety of different ways, e.g. in the names of different companies.

Auto-Attendant

A voicemail feature that allows callers to be automatically transferred to extensions or departments by dialling specified numbers. A tone dialling phone is normally required to do this.

Call Barring

The prevention of calls to certain destinations, e.g. overseas calls or calls to premium rate numbers may be barred.

Call Forwarding

Also known as call diversion. By dialling a code an extension user can divert incoming calls to another destination. The destination may be another extension, a group of extensions, the operator, or an external number, for example a mobile phone. Different types of diversion are usually possible, e.g. Diversion of All calls, Diversion on Busy, Diversion on no reply.

Call Logging

Data recorded about calls made or received through a telephone system. This data can then be used for reporting. See Call Management. See also Station Message Detail Recording.

Call Management

The use of specialist software to analyse and report on call records which are output from a telephone system and recorded on computer disk. The results can identify misuse, allocate costs to departments and verify the adequacy of resources.

CLI

Calling Line Identity is the capture of the caller’s number. There are two types of CLI, a Network CLI is used by network operators to identify the source of the call. It is available whether or not the caller is ex-directory but is never passed on to the called party. The user CLI is passed on to the called party, providing that the caller has not withheld it. By default it is the same as the network CLI but can be changed by the caller’s equipment. For example in a firm a salesman might want his direct dial number to go out but the Managing Director might want his secretary’s number to go out when he makes a call. CLI is used for the “1471″ service where you dial 1471 to find out who called and can also be used to display the number on a phone or computer. CLI is not available on some networks (particularly from overseas) and is usually an optional feature from the network provider (the subscriber has to pay to receive it).

Conferencing

The joining together of more than two telephone users in a single call. Typically a call will be established between two persons, one will then hold the call, call a third party and then press a button to join all three parties in one call.

Hunt Group

A means of finding a free extension to take a call. Calls are directed to a Hunt Group and will search for a free extension to take the call. Various hunting types are available, First Free or Terminal Hunting will search for the first free extension in the group, so this person gets most of the calls. Circular or UCD (Uniform Call Distribution) Hunting will share calls equally over the group.

Tone Dialling

Also known as MF (multi-frequency) or DTMF (dual tone multi-frequency). A dialling method which generates audio tones when digits are dialled. These tones are sent down the line and can be detected by telephone systems or other devices.