Carnegie Mellon University

ChemE Computing

Chemical Engineering Computing

February 14, 2018

IT Office Call Center Operations

Only a small percentage of requests are submitted by phone. Even so, the phone-in method is an important method when email and network operations have been affected.

Historically, phone in operations came to my direct line, 8-7993. After 8 rings the call would automatically forward to my cell, and eventually my voicemail. This method had many shortcomings. If the office was closed or not staffed, most users would not wait for the forwarding to occur. Additionally, if they did wait and left a voicemail, other office staff would not have access to this voicemail causing additional delays.

In order to improve this method we have enabled the call center operations available under the new Unified Communications system. The 8-7993 extension rings all three office phones. At the same time, during extended business hours (8am-6pm Mon-Fri) a feature called "Single Number Reach" allows my cellphone to ring at the same time as office phones.

Instead of "SNR", outside of business hours after 4 rings the caller is prompted to leave a message or (if calling from a campus office***) to press #1 to forward to "the manager".

*** "campus office", is restricted to offices that have voicemail boxes on the Unified communication system. This includes all faculty and staff offices as well as most student and research offices. This does NOT include lab phones

All vendor contact info has been moved to unpublished direct line. This keep the call center line, 8-7993 only for IT requests. Student Empployess have access to this voicemail box. We are also working to have "voice-to-text" enabled on this line to allow automatic helpdesk submission.