What is the Parking Module used for?
This module creates and configures parking lots, sometimes referred to as parking orbits, where calls can be transferred in order to allow another extension to retrieve the calls. This ability is a form of putting a call on hold so that the intended party can retrieve the call from elsewhere. The standard module allows for the configuration of a single parking lot available to all phones on the system while the Parking Pro module allows multiple parking lots to be configured as well as other features discussed below. When a call is parked, by transferring that call to the configured parking extension, the call is placed into one of the parking slots configured by this module and announced to the ‘parker.’ The slot can be dialed from other phones to retrieve the parked call or if the call times out and is not retrieved in a timely manner, the parked call can be configured to ring back to the parker or sent to other destinations configured in the system. Parking can be greatly enhanced by programming a phone’s BLF buttons to the configured parking slots as well as when used in conjunction with visual tools like XactView operator panels and modules like Phone apps.
When combined with Paging Pro, Parking Pro offers a Park and Announce capability that provides a very powerful and automated way of parking a caller. Park and Announce allows for a call to be parked in conjunction with an automatic announcement sent to the configured Page Group. The parked call can then be announced to that page group with a configured message, the parking slot that the caller is parked in and an optional recorded message or name by the caller being parked. This ability can be manually triggered just like normal parking, by transferring a caller into a Park and Announce extension, or can be fully automated by directing a call flow, usually from an inbound route or IVR, to a Park and Announce destination.
Parking is used in conjunction with extensions to hold callers.
Overview
This module creates and configures parking lots, sometimes referred to as parking orbits, where calls can be transferred in order to allow another extension to retrieve the calls. This ability is a form of putting a call on hold so that the intended party can retrieve the call from elsewhere. The standard module allows for the configuration of a single parking lot available to all phones on the system
When a call is parked, by transferring that call to the configured parking extension, the call is placed into one of the parking slots configured by this module and announced to the ‘parker.’ The slot can be dialled from other phones to retrieve the parked call or if the call times out and is not retrieved in a timely manner, the parked call can be configured to ring back to the parker or sent to other destinations configured in the system. Parking can be greatly enhanced by programming a phone’s BLF buttons to the configured parking slots as well as when used in conjunction with visual tools like XactView operator panels and modules like Phone Apps
Configuration
Configuring a parking lot is substantially the same whether using the standard Parking module or with Parking Pro installed. The most important items to configure with parking are
- Parking Lot Extension
- Parking Lot Starting Position
- Number of Slots
- Parking Timeout
- Destination and Come Back to Origin configuration
Parking Lot Extension
This is the extension where a call is transferred to in order to send it to the parking lot.
Parking Lot Name
This is a user-friendly name that will show up in the right navigation bar. With Parking Pro it allows you to identify different parking lots and is used in other parts of the system that may refer to parking lot information such as the Print Extensions module.
Parking Lot Starting Position
The extension or slot number of where the parked calls will be parked, in conjunction with the Number of Slots it will create a range of extensions for your parking lot. That range is displayed to the right of this extension number based on the configuration of Number of Slots.
Number of Slots
The total number of parking slots in this lot. If your extension is 70 and you put 8 here you would have parking slots 71-78
Parking Timeout
The duration of time in seconds that a parked call will remain in the parking lot after which, if not first retrieved, the call will be automatically sent to the timeout destination configured in the Alternate Destination section.
Parked Music Class
This is the music class to play to callers while waiting in the parking lot. If a specific music class has been previously set for the caller prior to being parked, such as if the call came through a Queue that set the music, then this selection will be ignored in favour of the music class that was previously set for the call.
BLF Capabilities
Each parking slot can have an Asterisk BLF “hint” associated with the parking slot. This allows a phone to have buttons programmed to the parking slots and when a call is parked in that slot the BLF light will illuminate. If you want the hints generated you must enable this.
Use Next Slot
The typical behavior is to park the call in the first available slot. This might be particularly useful if you have 8 slots available but most phones only have BLF buttons programmed to the first couple of slots. This would maximize the frequency that all calls are parked in the first few slots. If you have a specific application where you would prefer that calls are parked into the ‘next’ available slot, such as you want to try and visualize the order that the calls were parked, you can change this value.
Returned Call Behaviour
If a call is not retrieved from the parking lot after the configured timeout duration, then the system will attempt to return the call either directly to the device that parked the call, or to a configured Destination as described below in the Alternate Destination section. The options configure both capabilities of the returned call, such as whether or not it can be parked again, as well as conditioning of the returned call such as Caller ID pre-pending that may help identify the call as a timed out parked call.
Pickup Courtesy Tone
Whom to play the courtesy tone to when a parked call is retrieved.
Transfer Capability
Enables or disables the DTMF based transfer capability, usually configured as ‘##’, once the call has been picked up. This does not control the transfer capability of a phone’s transfer button unless that phone is programmed to send the DTMF code when transferring.
Re-Parking Capability
Controls whether or not either side is able to re-park a call after it has timed out.
Parking Alert-Info
Alert-Info to add to the call prior to sending the call back to the originator or alternate destination. Please see our wiki on Alert-Infos for more information on how they work and the options for different phones.
CallerID Prepend
A string to pre-pend to the current Caller ID associated with the parked call prior to sending the call back to the originator or alternate destination. This is often used to identify where a call came from such as PRK to show us it was a Parked Call. If used in conjunction with the Auto CallerID Prepend below, this will be placed first followed by the configured Auto Caller ID.
Auto CallerID Prepend
This will automatically prepend specific identifying information about the parked call after a timeout.
The options are:
None
Do not auto populate a CallerID Prepend.
Slot
The parking slot where the parked call was parked prior to the timeout.
Extension
The user extension number who originally parked the call, if parked by a local extension on the PBX
Name
The name associated with the user extension number who originally parked the call, if parked by a local extension on the PBX.
Announcement
A message that can be played to the caller prior to sending them back to the originator or alternate destination.
Alternate Destination
When a call times out, we need to configure where it should be sent. We can choose to have the call sent back to the device that parked the call, or we can choose to have it sent directly to a final destination. If we choose the former, and the device does not answer or is otherwise un-reachable, we will always resort back to the configured destination as a fall back plan and thus this should always be set to a reasonable target such as a receptionist, ring group, voicemail or similar. All the settings configured in Return Call Behavior (above) will be applied to this call prior to routing it.
Come Back to Origin
Whether to send the call back to the device that parked the call (Yes) on a timeout, or whether it should be directed straight to the configured destination (No). If the call is being sent back to the origin, and that device is not available or does not answer, the Destination will ultimately be used. When choosing Yes, returned calls are sent direct to the device that parked the call and do not run through the normal PBX dialplan. This assures that the calls will not end up in an extension’s voicemail box or other undesirable behavior but instead will ensure that the Destination is used if the device is unresponsive.
Destination
This is the destination where a timed out call will be sent either directly configured as such, or if a device is unreachable or not responding. This can be any configured destination on your PBX.