What is Call Whisper ?

Call whisper, also known as call screening, is an advanced PBX feature for incoming calls which allows called party to know in voice which number caller has dialed. During ringing and before call s established, called party is “whispered” or informed in voice about the caller as well as what number the caller has dialed.
After hearing these information, the called party can either accept the call, or reject the call, or transfer the call to any other extension.

In a scenario, where call is routed to a single extension from different phone numbers, this feature is very useful. It allows the called party to know, which number the calling party has dialed, since every number may correspond to different department of the organisation or any other specific type of calls. The dialed number identification help the called party greet the calling party accordingly.

This call whispering can be a built in feature in PABX or this can also be implemented using CTI software. Many advanced PABX comes with Call Whisper or Call screening feature. Matrix Solution, a premium PBX manufacturer in India, offers this feature in their hotel PBX models like ETERNITY GE12S.

Call Whisper is also useful in measuring effectiveness of advertising where one receptionist or extension is receives calls from different brands from different numbers, but terminated in single telephone extension.

The message which is played for the called party in Call Whisper feature can be customised and recorded using telephones. When using Call whisper, there can be many intelligent conditions and message playing as well as call routing.

Call whisper also offers the called party a facility to reject an incoming call and then to transfer the call to voice mail number. This kind of facility will allow receptionist to sort and attend more calls as per urgency of the incoming calls.

Call whispering feature is desired in a PABX where optimisation of manpower usage as well as informed customer care is required. So, it is recommended that while buying an high-end PABX, one should buy a PBX with call whispering feature.

What is call parking ?
Call parking is an interesting feature available in modern EPABX, also known as PBX(Private Branch Exchange), which allows a person to put an active call on hold and then retrieve the same call from another telephone number or extension.

Normally, this is activated by any of the parties, either calling party or called party, by pressing some special button/key available on the telephone instrument or few sequence of keys. After a call is parked, the parked, it can be retrieved or it can be again activated by dialing parked number from any other telephone extension in the same PBX.

Example of how Call PArk feature in PBX is used :-

1. PBX extension 111 calls PBX extension 222.
2. Extension 222 picks the call, dials 7n where n is any digit used for “parking” the call. Extension 111 hears a “call hold” tone.
3. Now, another extension 333 can dial 77n and “pick the call”, it means extension 333 and extension 111 will be now connected.

Many PBX sends back the call to the original extension who has put the call on “PARK” by calling the extension again if the “parked call” is not again picked or activated by some extension again. In the above example, if extension 333 does not pick the call after certain time, 222 will ring again and it will be connected to extension 111.

The procedure for using “Call Parking” feature may vary from one PBX manufacturer to another. But the basic principle remains the same, only the key press sequence may vary.

Almost all modern PBX systems come with this feature. It is useful when a person needs to move from one place to another during a call in a office premise. In that case, instead of asking the caller to call again, on may put the call on parking and then pick up from the location and continue the conversation.

In hotel PBX, it can be a useful feature where front desk may park calls from guest rooms and then ask restaurant or other departments to pick the call. It works better than plain old call transfer, as it can ensure the call continuance. In simple call transfer, the transferred number may be busy or not at the desk.

What is call conference ?

Call conference can be defined as talking three or more people talking on phone after connection. Normally, calling party dials another number after putting the present call on hold by pressing flash (pressing flash button or pressing disconnect button for fraction of second, mobile phones normally have hold function) and adds to the existing call. The called party can also add new calls.

Call conferencing is also known as Auto Tele conference (ATC). Conference facilities are now a days offered free of cost in PSTN. This facility is also available in many all modern PBX systems. Group calling is similar to Conference calling except that in group calling, caller only adds other parties.

Usage of Conference Call:
Call conference is very useful for conducting tele-conference with remote parties. It is now a days widely used in business as well as by friends.

Conference facility is used for entertainment where many people can call in to listen to live music from remote places.

Barge is facility, where a third party can listens to existing voice chat between two parties. This is very useful in call centers to monitor live chat between a customer and live agent.

Conference calls bridges distance and people from anywhere in the world can participate in a conference.

Conference call facility is an important feature for any PBX system. Normally, PBX systems come with capacity of the conference in which number of maximum concurrent connections in a conference call is specified.

Conference call uses special “call bridging” for adding up new connections. In mobile phones, setting up call conference is easy as mobile phones provide menu driven system for dialing and adding new calls. Conference facility is provided free in India where number of concurrent participants are fixed and vary from operator to operators.

Call conference in on premise PBX systems are important to have similar call conference as in any PSTN or mobile networks. If someone is buying a high end PBX system, one should opt for any with conference call facility.

Auto attendant ( Automated Attendant) feature, also known as digital receptionist is smart feature in a digital PABX systems. This works like IVR system where it plays a recorded message for dialing extension number when some one calls any line connected to the trunk ports of PABX system. This feature helps call transferring to known extension without help of any human operator or receptionist.

Auto attendant feature may work in many ways. Here are the few call flow it may follow :-

1. When a call lands on the trunk lines, it will greet the caller as per time of the day. For example, if it is before non, it can greet the caller with a pleasant “Good Morning” and ask for either dialing the extension number or speak the name of person.

2. The Auto Attendant feature can also detect if the extension is busy or not. Accordingly the call could be forwarded to either a human operator or a voice mail system (VMS).

3. Auto Attendant feature can also do all routing based on time. It can even forward a call to any PSTN number depending on time.

4. Auto Attendant or Digital receptionist can work 24 hours a day. So, with auto attendant feature, an office can be online and open 24 hours a day, just like an website.

Now a days, any modern PABX are bundled with this useful feature. In many many auto attendant features in PBX systems can be configured, managed remotely giving very easy access for configuring it.

With recent development of many IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems, auto attendant features are implemented in them. Auto attendant features in IVR systems gives more flexibility as well as more options for call routing, call transferring, message options.

Auto attendant feature is an important feature for any PBX system. One should always look for this feature while choosing a PBX system.

What is call hunting ?
Call hunting is a feature when enabled, incoming call could be programmed so that it would ring more than one number sequentially as per priority without the caller knowing about it! It is called call hunting, as the PBX systems hunt for the person to whom an extension number is assigned, by calling up different numbers stored in a group.
Hunting number should not be confused with Call hunting feature of an EPABX system. Hunting number is totally different and t can be termed as one number many lines!

Now a days, almost any modern high end PABX comes with this useful “Call Hunting” feature. Now a days, this call hunting feature has been extended in many ways mainly because of introduction of “Hosted PBX” systems which are very intelligent.

Legacy PBX systems implement Call Hunting features in traditional way. When incoming call to a particular extension number which has “Call Hunting Feature” enabled, it rings the highest priority number in the group first. The number of rings after which it will try for the next can be programmed. When it tries out everything ( normally it does not happen, as anyone who uses “Call Hunting feature” would surely enable voicemail in one of his numbers in group.), then it would give ring out or no answer reply to the caller.

In Hosted PBX systems, normally, a number is associated with a person, but not a phone line, so call hunting can be easily implemented as well as more logic and intelligence can be programmed. For example, after 8PM at night, the home phone of the person would be called as soon as his office extension is dialed by some one!

Most probably, with deep usage of mobile phone recently, the significance of “Call Hunting” has decreased, but it is still an important feature of a PBX system either legacy or hosted PBX. Call hunting can be programmed to route to home number provided the PBX has external call forward facility.

Few benefits of Call Hunting feature:

1. One can change the top priority number dynamically. For example, if a person does not want to disturbed, he can simply put his voice mail on the top of the priority. This is specialy useful, as there is no call disconnect facility for called party on land line.

2. Calls could be redirected to IVR system or receptionist without caller knowing! This will ensure that no important call would be missed.

3. One can add many numbers in the Call Hunt group. One can even use his cell phone. This gives control to the call hunt feature user about the call accepting depending on his availability.

Conclusion
With advent and overwhelming increase of mobile phone, Call Hunting feature has lost it sheen and has ceased to be USP(Unique Selling Point) for any PBX (Private Branch Exchange). So, now a days it has become one of standard features.

Least cost routing (LCR) has become a very desirable and popular feature in PBX Systems in India. This is because of differential charging by telecom operators for making outgoing calls to land line fixed phone, mobile phone or cellular phone. In India, normally one pays higher while making a call from landline to a mobile phone than making a call from land line number to another land line. Apart from this, there is another, there is also another charge, known as inter-connectivity usage charge. Here, if a call is made from a number of one telephone company to a number from another telecom company, they charge higher than calling a number of the same telecom company.

So, there is a differential charging for making calls to different numbers of different operators. PBX systems can make intelligent decisions of routing the call according to the dialed number. For example :-

1. One PABX system has CO (Call Office) connection or PSTN ( Public Switched Telephone Network) connections with all telecom service providers. One office in Delhi will have its PBX connected with all telecom operators in Delhi, like Airtel, Aircel, Vodafone, MTNL, IDEA, MTS, Reliance. Now if some one in the office calls to a Reliance number, his call will use Reliance CO lines to place the outgoing call. Similarly, for any outgoing calls to Airtel, it will use Airtel CO connectivity. This kind of intelligent routing is called least cost routing and it can reduce cost of making outgoing calls for a company.

In order to have CO connectivity with mobile telephone operators, one will have to use either PRI lines or will have to use GSM modem/ Fixed cellular terminals. Many PABX systems are coming with built in GSM terminals which can be used for LCR.

There are also few manufacturer who provide such equipment which can have multiple SIM cards to make and receive calls and ISDN interface to connect to PABX system for call routing.