Lync PBX Feature overview
I call it call “feature fucking” but every time you are in discussion about PBX replacement you need to answer Lync call preocessing or Lync PBX features. I tried to consolidate an overview in the following table:
Call Processing Features
| Feature | Supported | Notes |
| ADD-ON CONFERENCE (6 party or more) | Yes | |
| AUTOMATIC CALLBACK | No* | Equivalent functionality is achieved via presence state tagging. The calling party is alerted when the called party’s presencestate changes from “On a Call” to any other state, and may then call or contact the called party via IM other means. |
| AUTOMATIC INTERCOM | No* | Instant Messaging may be used to send non-obtrusive, immediate messages to all users logged into Office Communicator, both at and away from their desk phones. In addition, third party analog overhead paging system may be used. |
| BRIDGED CALL APPEARANCE | Yes | Via Team Call and Delegation |
| CALLBACK LAST INTERNAL CALLER | Yes | |
| CALL COVERAGE (PROGRAMMED) | ||
| INTERNAL & EXTERNAL CALL PROGRAMMING | Yes | Via Exchange 2010 personal auto attendant. |
| TIME OF DAY/DAY OF WEEK CALL PROGRAMMING | Yes | Via Exchange 2010 personal auto attendant. |
| ANI/DNIS/CLID CALL PROGRAMMING | Yes | Via Exchange 2010 personal auto attendant. |
| INTERNAL CALLER ID PROGRAMMING | Yes | Via Exchange 2010 personal auto attendant. |
| CALL FORWARDING – ALL CALLS | Yes | |
| CALL FORWARDING – BUSY/DON’T ANSWER | Yes | |
| CALL FORWARDING – FOLLOW-ME | Yes | Simul-ring may be set from Office Communicator, browser (using Communicator Web Access), or from a Windows Mobile phone. |
| CALL FORWARDING – OFF-PREMISES | Yes | |
| CALL FORWARDING: RINGING | Yes | Users may re-direct the incoming call during the ring period to voice mail, IM, or one of their define phone numbers |
| CALL HOLD | Yes | |
| CALL PARK | Yes | |
| CALL PICKUP – INDIVIDUAL | Yes | Via Team Call |
| CALL PICKUP – GROUP | Yes | Via Team Call. |
| CALL TRANSFER | Yes | |
| CALL WAITING | Yes | |
| CONSECUTIVE SPEED DIALING | Yes | This is possible using normalization rules, but not recommended. Identity-based dialing using contact lists and corporate GAL search simplifies reaching any contact. |
| CONSULTATION HOLD | Yes | |
| CUSTOMER STATION REARRANGEMENT | Yes | No administrative action is required. Users may either physically move their endpoint or login to a different endpoint. |
| DIAL BY NAME | Yes | |
| DISCRETE CALL OBSERVING | No* | Not provide by Office Communication Server, but can be added with third party contact center solution. |
| DISTINCTIVE RINGING | Yes | |
| DO NOT DISTURB | Yes | |
| ELAPSED CALL TIMER | Yes | |
| EMERGENCY ACCESS TO ATTENDANT | No* | A specific emergency access key is not provided, but users may call any Attendant or other user and specify high priority. Audio and visual call indications are given. |
| EXECUTIVE ACCESS OVERRIDE | Yes | |
| EXECUTIVE BUSY OVERRIDE | Yes | |
| FACILITY BUSY INDICATION | Yes | |
| GROUP LISTENING | No* | Users may take advantage of built-in recording to enable post-call group listening, or may create an ad hoc conference to enable real time listening. |
| HANDS-FREE DIALING | Yes | |
| HANDS-FREE ANSWER INTERCOM | Yes | |
| HELP INFORMATION ACCESS | Yes | |
| HOT LINE | Yes | |
| INCOMING CALL DISPLAY | Yes | |
| INDIVIDUAL ATTENDANT ACCESS | Yes | |
| INTERCOM DIAL | No* | IM may be used in place of intercom functions to reach users both at and away from their desktop phones. |
| LAST NUMBER REDIALED | Yes | |
| LINE LOCKOUT | Yes | |
| LOUDSPEAKER PAGING ACCESS | Yes | This can be done via integration of third party (e.g., Valcom) paging system as an analog device. |
| MALICIOUS CALL TRACE | Yes | |
| MANUAL INTERCOM | No* | IM may be used in place of intercom functions to reach users both at and away from their desktop phones. |
| MANUAL ORIGINATING LINE SERVICE | Yes | |
| USER CONTROLLED MEET ME CONFERENCING (6-Party or more) | Yes | |
| MESSAGE WAITING ACTIVATION | Yes | |
| MULTI-PARTY ASSISTED CONFERENCE w/SELECTIVE CALL DROP | Yes | |
| MUSIC ON HOLD | Yes | |
| OFF-HOOK ALARM | Yes | |
| PADLOCK | Yes | |
| PAGING/CODE CALL ACCESS | Yes | This can be done through third party paging hardware. |
| PERSONAL CO LINE (PRIVATE LINE) | Yes | |
| PERSONAL SPEED DIALING | Yes | Via Contact lists. |
| PERSONALIZED RINGING | Yes | Users can specify ringing patterns for their own Communicator endpoint. |
| PRIORITY CALLING | Yes | |
| PRIVACY – ATTENDANT LOCKOUT | N/A | Multi-party connections are not held on the Attendant console, and therefore lockout is not necessary. |
| PRIVACY – MANUAL EXCLUSION | N/A | Multi-line appearance functionality is provided for incoming calls via the Team Call and Delegation capabilities, but does not allow users to seize in process calls. |
| RECALL SIGNALING | Yes | |
| RINGER CUT-OFF | Yes | |
| RINGING TONE CONTROL | Yes | |
| SAVE AND REDIAL | Yes | |
| SECONDARY EXTENSION FEATURE ACTIVATION | Yes | Planned to be available via Resource Kit. |
| SEND ALL CALLS | Yes | |
| SILENT MONITORING | No* | Built-in conferencing capability plus mute mode may be used to enable supervisor monitoring. Integrated third party contact center solutions can provide full capability. |
| STEP CALL | No* | Presence indicators allow attendants and other station users to determine that a particular station user is busy before dialing, and to instead choose an available station user. |
| STORE/REDIAL | Yes | |
| SUPERVISOR/ASSISTANT CALLING | Yes | |
| SUPERVISOR/ASSISTANT SPEED DIAL | Yes | |
| TEXT MESSAGES | Yes | Via PC or mobile phone interface. |
| TIMED QUEUE | No | |
| TRUNK FLASH | No | |
| TRUNK-TO-TRUNK CONNECTIONS | Yes | |
| WHISPER PAGE | No* | Instant messaging may be used instead. In addition, integrated third party contact center solutions can provide full capability. |
Attendant Operator Features
| Feature | Supported? | Notes |
| AUTO-MANUAL SPLITTING | Yes | |
| AUTO-START/DON’T SPLIT | N/A | Attendants do not use a console dial pad to activate calls, but instead use a GUI interface on the PC. |
| BACK-UP ALERTING | Yes | |
| BUSY VERIFICATION OF TERMINALS/TRUNKS | No* | User terminal status may be determined via Presence. Trunk status is reported via System Center Operations Manager or other monitoring tool. |
| CALL WAITING | Yes | |
| CAMP-ON | N/A | CAMP-ON is not required for Attendants as calls may be presented for disposition even to called parties currently on a call (there is no concept of “lines” to limit how many active and on hold calls a given user may have). If the Attendant requires greater control of the call, presence state tagging may be used to alert the Attendant when the presence state of the called party changes (from “In a Call” to any other value). |
| CONFERENCE | Yes | |
| CONTROL OF TRUNK GROUP ACCESS | No* | Trunk group access may be restricted based on administrator controlled dialing rules, but not via the Attendant. |
| DELAY ANNOUNCEMENT | Yes | Call forwarding settings or Response Group timeout may be used to direct delayed callers to the SIP URI of a Response Group queue with a delay announcement. |
| DIRECT STATION SELECTION w/BLF | Yes | |
| DIRECT TRUNK GROUP SELECTION | No* | Trunk group selection is controlled by administrator defined routes, not the Attendant. |
| DISPLAY | Yes | |
| INTERCEPT TREATMENT | Yes | Intercept announcement service may be configured to route calls to an Attendant or Attendant Response Group (hunt group) if desired |
| INTERPOSITION CALL & TRANSFER | Yes | Calls are not held on the Attendant, but can be transferred back to the Attendant for additional routing. |
| INTRUSION (BARGE-IN) | No | IM may be used instead of audio intrusion. |
| OVERFLOW | Yes | |
| OVERRIDE OF DIVERSION FEATURES | No* | Attendants cannot override diversion features set by users. |
| PAGING/CODE CALL ACCESS | Yes | 3rd party add on hardware |
| PRIORITY QUEUE | Yes | Response Group functionality may be used to implement priority queues. |
| RECALL | Yes | Calls are not held on the console, but Attendants may be recalled at any time. |
| RELEASE LOOP OPERATION | Yes | |
| SERIAL OPERATION | No* | The called party can transfer the call back to the attendant console for rerouting |
| STRAIGHT FORWARD OUTWARD COMPLETION | Yes | |
| THROUGH DIALING | Yes | Attendant can place external call, add internal resource to the call, then drop off of the call |
| TRUNK-TO-TRUNK TRANSFER | Yes | |
| TRUNK GROUP BUSY/WARNING INDICATOR | No* | Monitoring and warning indicators are provided by System Center Operations Manager and other tools and handled by administrators rather than Attendants. |
| TRUNK ID | No* | Gateway or SIP trunk ID may be captured in call records, but is not visible to Attendants. |
System Features
| Feature | Supported | Notes |
| ACCOUNT CODES | No | Can be done via third Party Application |
| ADMINISTERED CONNECTIONS | N/A | Administered connections are typically used for connectivity of data endpoints over ISDN DS1 or other circuits. Office Communications Server does not control data networking. |
| ANSWER DETECTION | Yes | Network answer supervision is generally used to ensure the accuracy of call duration information. The use of DSP-based answer detection to accurately reflect duration for calls that do not receive network answer supervision is gateway dependent. |
| AUTHORIZATION CODES | N/A | Office Communications Server relies on identity based authorization, and allows users to login to any IP terminal based on their identity. This eliminates the need for DTMF based authorization codes for most customers. If required, third party solutions available from Enabling Technologies and others enable DTMF-based authorization codes. |
| AUTOMATED ATTTENDANT | Yes | Via Exchange Auto-Attendant |
| AUTOMATIC CALL DISTRIBUTION | Yes | Via Response Groups |
| AUTOMATIC ALTERNATE ROUTING | Yes | |
| AUTOMATIC CAMP-ON | N/A | An incoming DID call is presented to the user for disposition regardless of whether the user is currently on a call. (There is no concept of a “line” to limit the number of active and on hold calls for a given user.) Users may disposition the incoming call in the most appropriate matter: by answering (existing call is automatically placed on hold) or by redirecting to voice mail. |
| AUTOMATIC CIRCUIT ASSURANCE | Yes | Via SCOM alerts and reports based on Monitoring server thresholds at a gateway level. |
| AUTOMATIC NUMBER ID | Yes | Reverse number lookup and Calling Party Name Display are supported. |
| AUTOMATIC RECALL | Yes | Via safe transfer capability. |
| AUTOMATIC ROUTE SELECTION – BASIC | Yes | |
| AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION MEASUREMENT SYSTEM | Yes | Via SCOM alerts and reports based on Monitoring server thresholds at a gateway level. |
| CALL-BY-CALL SERVICE SELECTION | No | |
| CALL DETAIL RECORDING | Yes | |
| CALL LOG | Yes | Via Recent Contacts in Office Communicator and Conversation History in Office Outlook. |
| CENTRALIZED ATTENDANT SERVICE | Yes | |
| CLASSES OF RESTRICTION (SPECIFY #) | Yes | Via policy and user routing profiles with no practical limit. |
| CLASSES OF SERVICE (SPECIFY #) | Yes | Via policy and user routing profiles with no practical limit. |
| CODE CALLING ACCESS | No | |
| CONTROLLED PRIVATE CALLS | No* | Controlled Private Call functionality is not natively provided, but could be added via combination of routing rules and third party IVR solution. |
| DELAYED RINGING | Yes | Via dialed user call forwarding settings. |
| DIAL PLAN | Yes | |
| DIALED NUMBER ID SERVICE | Yes | |
| DIRECT DEPARTMENT CALLING | Yes | Via Response Group with parallel routing or via Team Call. |
| DIRECT INWARD DIALING | Yes | |
| DID CALL WAITING | Yes | |
| DIRECT INWARD SYSTEM ACCESS | Yes | All features may be access remotely using the Internet |
| DIRECT INWARD TERMINATION | Yes | |
| DIRECT OUTWARD DIALING | Yes | |
| E-911 SERVICE SUPPORT | Yes | |
| EXTENDED TRUNK ACCESS | Yes | |
| FACILITY RESTRICTION LEVELS | Yes | Restrictions are applied at the user level, not the device level |
| FACILITY TEST CALLS | Yes | Scheduled synthetic transactions may be used to test operations at an Office Communications Server pool level, and administrators may also perform manual facility test calls. |
| FIND ME- FOLLOW ME | Yes | |
| FORCED ENTRY ACCOUNT CODES | No* | May be done using third party add-on. |
| HOTELING (/PERSONAL ROAMING) | Yes | |
| HOUSE PHONE | Yes | |
| HUNTING | Yes | Via Response Groups. |
| INTEGRATED SYSTEM DIRECTORY | Yes | |
| LEAST COST ROUTING (Tariff-based, TOD/DOW) | Yes | Tariff-based routing is under control of administrator. TOD and DOW are not supported. |
| MULTIPLE LISTED DIRECTORY NUMBERS | Yes | |
| MUSIC ON HOLD | Yes | |
| NIGHT SERVICE -FIXED | Yes | Via use of Response Group front-end to Attendants with after-hours routing to Night Service Response Group. |
| NIGHT SERVICE – PROGRAMMABLE | Yes | Via use of after-hours forwarding on Attendant Console. |
| OFF-HOOK ALARM | Yes | Tone generated at device level, not system level |
| OFF-PREMISES STATION (OPX) | Yes* | Via Edge Server and Internet connection. |
| OPEN SYSTEM SPEED DIAL | Yes* | May be done via call normalization rules, but identity based dialing, contact lists, and corporate directory search are recommended instead. |
| PASSWORD AGING | Yes | |
| POWER FAILURE TRANSFER STATION | Yes | Media gateway can provide this feature |
| RECENT CHANGE HISTORY | Yes | |
| RESTRICTION FEATURES: | Via user policy and routes. | |
| CONTROLLED | Yes | |
| FULLY RESTRICTED | Yes | |
| INWARD/OUTWARD | Yes | |
| MISCELLANEOUS TERMINAL | Yes | |
| MISCELLANEOUS TRUNK | Yes | |
| TOLL/CODE | Yes | |
| TRUNK | Yes | |
| VOICE TERMINAL (IN/OUT) | Yes | |
| ROUTE ADVANCE | Yes* | Automatic selection of alternate facilities occurs for all calls. |
| SECURITY VIOLATION NOTIFICATION | Yes | Via PC-based security policy enforcement. |
| SHARED TENANT SERVICE | No | |
| SNMP SUPPORT | Yes* | System Center Operations Manager can generate alerts based on SNMP traps from third party equipment. |
| SYSTEM SPEED DIAL | Yes | Administrators may use dial plan normalization rules to define speed dial codes, and users may also dial by name. The latter is the recommended approach. |
| SYSTEM STATUS REPORT | Yes | |
| TIME OF DAY ROUTING | Yes | |
| TIMED REMINDER | Yes | The developer interfaces enable the system to be programmed to automatically contact users at specified times, and to take a variety of actions including but not limited to playing a recorded announcement or music. |
| TRUNK ANSWER ANY STATION | Yes | Yes, via Night Service Response Group configured to ring all stations. |
| TRUNK CALLBACK QUEUING | No | |
| UNIFORM CALL DISTRIBUTION | Yes | Via Response Groups. |
| UNIFORM DIAL PLAN | Yes | |
| VIRTUAL EXTENSION | Yes* | Office Communications Server does not require virtual extensions for secondary extensions on voice terminals since there is no limit to the number of active and on hold calls for a given user or terminal. However, Response Groups effectively present “virtual extensions” in the form of SIP URIs and (optional) DID numbers. |
| VOICE MESSAGE SYSTEM INTERFACE | Yes | |
