Modifying Group Settings
Topic Last Modified: 2009-05-22
A group is a collection of agents who answer incoming calls routed to them from the Response Group Service. You can change the agents assigned to the group, and other group settings such as the routing behavior, or whether agents must sign in or out of the group.
Modifying a Group
The group settings are configured by using the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Response Group Administration snap-in.
To open the Group Properties window
Log on as a member of the RTCUniversalServerAdmins group to a computer where the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 snap-in has been installed.
Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Office Communications Server 2007 R2.
Right-click the name of the pool, point to Properties, point to Applications, and then click Response Group Service Properties.
In the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Response Group Administration snap-in, expand the pool node, and then click the Groups folder.
Right-click the group that you want to modify, and then click Properties.
Make changes to the group settings, and then click OK.
The following sections describe some of the group management tasks you may want to do from the Group Properties window.
Changing the Group Name or Description
You can change the group name and description.
To change the group name or description
In the Group Properties window, click the General tab.
To change the group name, change the group name in the Name box.
To change the group description, change the description in the Description box.
Changing the Agents Assigned to the Group
Agents are users who handle incoming calls routed to them. You can add or remove agents from the group. You can also change the order in which the agents are listed. Agent order is important if the group is using either serial or round robin routing.
There are two options for defining the agents list:
Use an existing Microsoft Exchange Server e-mail distribution list.
Note
This option has the following conditions:
- You cannot select multiple distribution lists for the agent group. Each group supports only a single distribution list.
- If the distribution list is a nested distribution list, only the first level members are added to the agent list.
- If serial and round robin routing are selected, the server offers an incoming call to the appropriate agent according to the routing method and according to the order in which agents are listed on the Agents tab of the Response Group Service pool-level properties.
Note
The e-mail distribution list must be expanded before the necessary agent information can be obtained and calls can be routed to the agents in the group. When the Response Group Service starts, it loads the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) cache settings, which include the workflow, queue, and group information, before it starts to expand the distribution lists. As a result, there will be a period of time when the Response Group Service will not be able to route calls to groups that use an e-mail distribution list. Calls can be routed to the groups when the expansion process is completed.
- You cannot select multiple distribution lists for the agent group. Each group supports only a single distribution list.
Define a custom list of agents. You can select the users you want in the agent group.
To change the list of agents assigned to the group
In the Group Properties window, click the Agents tab.
To use a Microsoft Exchange Server distribution list, click Use an existing email distribution list, and then enter the e-mail address of the distribution list (for example, NetworkSupport@contoso.com).
To use a custom list of agents, click Define a custom group of agents and then do one of the following:
To add agents, in the Available Agents box, select one or more agents from the list, and then click Add.
To remove an agent, in the Assigned Agents box, select the agent to remove, and then click Remove.
To change the order that agents are listed, click an agent in the Assigned Agents box, and then use the up arrow and down arrow buttons to change the order of the agent.
Changing the Agent Participation Policy
The agent participation policy specifies the sign in behavior for the group.
To change the agent participation policy
In the Group Properties window, click the Policies tab.
Under Agent participation policy, do one of the following:
- To specify that agents cannot sign in and out of the group, click Informal. Agents are automatically signed in to the group when they sign in to Office Communications Server. Calls are routed to an agent when the agent’s presence state is Available.
- To specify that agents must sign in and out of the group, click Formal. Calls are routed to agents if they are signed in to the group and their presence state is Available. Agents sign in and out using a Office Communicator custom tab. For details about the custom tab, see Configuring the Response Group Tab in the Deploying Response Group Service documentation.
- To specify that the group is not active, click Not active. Calls will not be routed to this group.
Changing the Time Period to Ring an Agent
You can specify how long to offer a call to an agent. When a call is offered to an agent, he or she receives a system alert. If the agent does not accept or decline the call in the specified time period, the call is offered to the next available agent.
To specify how long to ring an agent
In the Group Properties window, click the Policies tab.
In the Agent alert time (seconds) box specify how long to ring an agent. Valid values range from 0 to 600. The default is 20 seconds.
Changing the Routing Method
The routing method defines how calls are routed to agents in the group. When a call is offered to an agent, her or she can accept or decline the call. If that agent declines the call or does not accept the call in the predefined time, the call is offered to the next available agent. The following list describes each routing method:
- Longest idle: The server keeps a record of the last time that the agent was available. The call is offered to the agent who has been idle the longest.
- Parallel: The call is offered to all available agents at the same time. Any agent can accept the call.
- Round robin: The server uses the ordered list of agents (the order in which they are listed under the Agents tab). The call is offered to each agent in turn. For example, if the third agent in the list received the last call, the fourth agent (the next agent in the list), if available, is offered the next call. If the fourth agent is not available, the next agent in the list who is available will receive the call.
- Serial: The server uses the ordered list of agents. The call is always offered to the first agent in the list (if that agent is available), followed by the second agent in the list, and so on.
To change the routing method
In the Group Properties window, click the Policies tab.
Under Routing method, select how calls are routed to agents in the group:
- To offer a new call to the agent who has been idle the longest, click Longest idle.
- To offer a new call to all available agents at the same time, click Parallel. The call is sent to the first agent to accept the system alert; the other agents will receive a notification that the call was taken by another agent.
- To offer a new call to each agent in turn, click Round robin.
- To always offer a new call to the agents in the order in which they are listed under the Agents tab, click Serial.
Viewing the Associated Queues
You can view the queues that this group is associated with. If you want to add or remove this group to a queue, you must modify the queue settings. For details, see Modifying Queue Settings.
To view the associated queues
- In the Group Properties window, click the Queues tab.