Cloning Auto Attendants within OfficeSuite Enterprise Groups

Rob_Marschall

If your OfficeSuite account is created with Enterprise Groups, whereby you manage multiple tenants from a single administrator login to the WE Connect portal, you have the ability in the portal to copy one Auto Attendant to another tenant within your enterprise.

The use case for cloning an Auto Attendant is when you manage multiple tenants within the system, and you want to create exact duplicates of one “source” Auto Attendant to multiple “cloned” destinations at other tenants within your enterprise. For example, you manage dozens or hundreds of retail locations, each provisioned as its own tenant in OfficeSuite, and you want to reuse the same Auto Attendant greeting and menu prompts across some or all your locations.

Verify your account is established with Enterprise Groups

Navigate to the Manage Enterprise Groups page via the OfficeSuite flyout:

At the next page, if you have more than one entry, that means you’re set up with Enterprise Groups. Each row represents one tenant on the OfficeSuite system that you’re able to manage via your single administrator login permission.

If you’ve not yet done so, take the time to nickname each of your tenants on this list. Click the pencil icon and enter a nickname that's a familiar description of the tenant that you’ll recognize when making further changes within your enterprise via the portal.

Cloning an Auto Attendant to other tenants within your Enterprise Groups

To clone an Auto Attendant, navigate to Enterprise-Wide Changes from the OfficeSuite flyout

At the next screen, if you have Enterprise Groups, you’ll have two choices. Click on Auto Attendants. (if you don’t have the Auto Attendants selection then your account is not established with Enterprise Groups and the remainder of this post does not pertain.)

Pick a Source Auto Attendant

The source Auto Attendant is the one you intend to copy to multiple other destinations. Make sure the source Auto Attendant is exactly as you want before cloning. Ensure the menu prompts and their functions are correct. Any destinations of these menu prompts must exist on the other tenants to which you copy this Auto Attendant. For example, if you want callers to press 8 to reach the Customer Service group at x600, make sure that you’ve created a Customer Service call group at extension 600 on all your tenants. Check the greeting to be sure the recorded audio is pertinent to all destinations where this Auto Attendant will be copied. For example, if your greeting says, “Thank you for calling our Dallas office”, you won’t be able to copy that and use it at your Oklahoma City office. Make sure the number of times the greeting plays through and the final disposition is what you want. For example, if after playing three times the Auto Attendant routes to the receptionist at x101, make sure you’ve also set up x101 as Reception at your other tenants.

From the drop lists, pick the tenant and Auto Attendant extension number which will be the source attendant to clone to other destinations. The tenant drop list displays the nickname of the tenant you defined at the Manage Enterprise Groups page.

Create a list of clone destinations

Click Next. You are presented the list of destinations. Pick a tenant by nickname (it can be the same tenant as the source if desired). Then pick from the list of available Auto Attendant extensions at the destination tenant. Only the available Auto Attendant extensions are shown; if an attendant already exists at the destination tenant, its extension number is not listed. Finally, give the new attendant a name

Continue to add destinations to the list by clicking Add Auto Attendant Extension

You’ll notice that it matters not which extension number you pick for the clones, nor the number of digits in the extension schema at the destination tenant. You must, however, pick unique names at the destination tenant for your new attendant. If the name already exists, the tool will require you to enter a new name that’s not already in use. When your list is complete, click Finish.

Batch update processes in background

Your list of Auto Attendants (source and all its clones) is now processed in batch in the background. Depending on how many destination entries in your list, it may take a few minutes. You will be redirected to the Bulk Import Status page where you can check the status of your Clone Auto Attendant request. Refresh the page until it shows completed.

Your new cloned attendants should now all exist at each of your destination tenants and extensions.

Modifying existing cloned attendants

Each cloned attendant is considered a normal Auto Attendant in every way including your ability to modify each individually at the Auto Attendants page in WE Connect. Navigate to the Auto Attendants page, select the correct tenant in the nickname drop list at the top of the page, and click on the edit icon for the attendant you wish to modify.

If you want to modify multiple attendants in bulk, use the Clone Auto Attendant function as follows:

1.      Revise your source Auto Attendant as desired including Name, Menu Keys, Greeting, etc.

2.      Select the tenant and the extension of the source attendant in the first two fields.

3.      Check the box to apply these changes to all Auto Attendants of the same extension

Upon Submit, a batch process is initiated in the background just as when you created the clones originally, but in this case it's copying the new source attendant with the changes you made to all other tenants in your Enterprise and overwriting any previous versions of the same extension.

After a few minutes when the batch update completes, the cloned attendants will be identical in every way to the source including name, extension, greeting, menu keys, final disposition, etc. It will overwrite all AA's of the same extension as the source as well as create identical clones at tenants that did not already have that AA extension.

As before, it's important that the source AA be exactly as you wish before initiating the cloning process including any destinations for menu keys or forwarding. If you prompt callers to press 1 for the Sales Group x600, ensure that every tenant in your Enterprise has a Sales Group at x600. If a key press destination is an invalid extension at the cloned destination, for example you did not have a group x600 at one of the destination tenants, then the menu key for that selection in the cloned AA will revert to its default value; typically "Prompt for Extension" for keys 1 through 8, "Last Name Directory" for 9, etc.