Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Resource Kit: Response Group Application

The Response Group
Application chapter of the upcoming Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Resource Kit
book provides a detailed description of the Response Group application in
Microsoft Lync Server 2010 communications software. First introduced in
Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007 R2, Lync Server 2010 brings new
features as well as a new management interface. This chapter is being
developed. It describes a deep dive into the call flows used by the Response
Group application as well as the Response Group Web component and the
Announcement application. You can download this chapter from here.

Author: Stéphane Cavin

Publication date: February
2011

Product version: Microsoft
Lync Server 2010

The Lync Server Response Group application runs on a Front
End Server and provides supporting functionality for the Response Group
application tasks and features. The Response Group application routes and
queues incoming calls to a group of agents.

The internal workings of the Response Group application
require several components and data stores that work together to accomplish
things such as selecting agents, handling queue timeouts and overflow, and
maintaining resiliency. These components include a hosting component, workflow
component, Match Making component, call control component, and Web component.
This chapter explains these components and shows you call flows that illustrate
how these components work together. Understanding the logic behind these
components can be immensely helpful in troubleshooting.

This chapter also explains how you can configure queue
timeout and overflow to handle calls even if no agent is available to service
calls. You will also learn about agent anonymity. By using the anonymity
feature, the identity of a response group agent is preserved for incoming and
outgoing calls. With Lync Server 2010, a new Announcement application has been
introduced to handle calls to unassigned numbers.

Summary

The Response Group application in Lync Server 2010 has
improved the customer experience as well as manageability for the
administrator. In Lync Server 2010, Response Group supports more flexible
interactive voice response (IVR) configurations and prompts, such as for
invalid or no-response to IVR questions and messages before music on hold or
queue timeouts. Lync Server Management Shell cmdlets support all Response Group
management tasks, and Microsoft Lync Server 2010 Control Panel supports common
Response Group management tasks.

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