This feature was formerly called the Call Control Client.
The Barracuda Phone System provides a web-based portal, the Communication Command Center, where you can:
- review recent calls
- answer calls
- place calls on hold
- arrange multi-user conferences
- set agent availability status
You can access the Communication Command Center (CCC) with a web browser (e.g., IE 8+, Safari, Firefox, or Chrome).
Before you begin, obtain the following information from your administrator:
- IP address or domain name – Information typed into the browser address bar. For example, http://192.168.1.200 or http://bps.company.local.
- Username – Usually your extension number
- Password – Usually the same as your voicemail PIN.
Launching the Communication Command Center
To launch the CCC, you can:
- click Communication Command Center at the login prompt.
- click the Communication Command Center tab after you log in.
- click the Launch CCC button from within Microsoft Outlook, if you have installed the Click-to-Dial Outlook Add-In,
You might want to create a bookmark for the login page.
After logging into the CCC, a list of devices assigned to you, along with any extensions assigned to them, is displayed. Select any extension you want to control. The tabs on the left side of the interface can be dragged to re-order them, or to create new rows, columns, or stacks. If you want to reset the layout, use the Reset Local Settings option in the Utilities tab.
Using the Dial Pad
- To dial out, select numbers on the dial pad.
- To search for a number, enter numbers to search. After a search, you can place the call from the search results by:
- clicking Call.
- dragging the number onto the blue area of the dial pad.
Once on a call, key presses are sent to the current call, allowing you to quickly get through Interactive Voice Response systems.
Managing Calls
Call State
The state of calls to or from the selected phone are shown above the dial pad. Some may be in a collapsed or combined state. To expand these calls, click the call to toggle its state.
Call Transfer
To transfer an active call, click Transfer for the call, then enter or select a destination. You can also drag the current call onto another person or active call to transfer callers or connect active calls together. Dragging phone numbers and calls from other tabs onto your active-calls list works the same way.
Call Hold
To place a caller on hold, click Hold above the dial pad.
To take a caller off hold, click Resume above the dial pad. The held call may be collapsed or combined with other calls. In this case, click the summary item to expand the hidden calls.
Call End/Reject
To end a call, or reject a ringing call, click the Hang Up button.
Tabs in the CCC
Contacts Tab | |
Conference Manager Tab | |
Queue Calls Tab | |
Previous Calls Tab | |
Utilities Tab |
Contacts Tab
The Contacts Tab displays all contacts from your Address Book.
On the Contacts tab, you can:
- Search Contacts – At the top of the tab page, entering extensions or names to find a specific contact.
- Place/Transfer Calls – Drag contacts and search results to the dial pad or to other tabs to make or transfer calls.
- Add/Manage Contacts – On the main interface of the Barracuda Phone System, go to the Personal > Address Book page.
Conference Manager Tab
The Conference Manager tab shows each active conference you can manage or view. Each conference listing includes the individual conference members. Select a conference to view details including conference members. Conference members can use the following controls:
- Mute/unmute – Mute or unmute a single member of the conference.
- Kick – Forcibly remove (i.e., hang up on) a conference member.
- Transfer – Transfer a conference member to another extension or phone number. This control opens a new window and requires a destination entry to complete the transfer.
- Audio Controls – Adjust the gain and energy for a conference member. This control opens a new window, which includes two slider controls:
- The Gain slider amplifies member audio; the higher the slider, the louder the member voice. Raising the Gain slider also amplifies background noise.
- The Energy slider helps adjust the audio in a noisy environment. Increasing Energy reduces the background noise transmitted to the conference. The louder the background environment, the higher you should set the Energy slider.
The following controls are available on the conference itself:
- Lock/Unlock – Lock the conference to prevent anyone else from joining, or click Unlock to allow others to join the conference.
- Invite – Enter an extension or phone number and the system dials the target number adding it to the conference.
- Mute / Present – Mutes / Unmutes every member in the conference.
Queue Calls Tab
Use the Queue Calls tab to view and manually answer calls in any assigned queues. Your agent availability status must be set to Available on the Utilities tab to receive a call from the queue automatically. Agent availability changes also reflect in agent/queue manager and monitor screens. Refer to the Utilities section below for more information on Queue Agent Status.
The call queue displays:
- caller ID information, if available
- time waiting in the queue
By selecting a call from the list, an agent chooses a call to receive. Otherwise, the system determines the next call to deliver.\
Previous Calls Tab
All previous calls are listed under Recent Calls. Click Call next to a number, or drag a number to your dial pad to call it.
Utilities Tab
You can set your Queue Agent status, located at the top of the tab. Queue Agent status options include:
- Available
- Offline
- Lunch
- Meeting
- Training
- Break
Before changing your agent status, verify the correct agent status according to your company policies. When your status is Available, waiting calls display on the Queue Calls tab. Your desk phone rings if you are not already on a call. If you answer a call, a green border appears around the call for a moment before it moves to the dial pad pane.
You can also use your phone to change your status to Available or Offline.
To change your status from your phone, dial *999, then
- press 1 for Available status
- press 2 for Offline status
Your status changes, and you receive or stop receiving calls accordingly.
From the Utilities tab, you can also:
- enable/disable showing a popup message for incoming calls
- reset your CCC settings to their default values and default positions
- log out
Find-Me Call Forwarding
Find-Me Forwarding allows you to define the Barracuda Phone System response to a call received on any of your extensions. For example, you can set up Find-Me Forwarding to direct calls received off-hours to an external, personal number, or you can put a caller on hold while the Barracuda Phone System attempts to reach you at each of your phones. Define Find-Me Forwarding on the Find-Me > Call Forwarding page.
Call forwarding uses the Calling Sequence to forward calls to each number in the list, in order. If the call remains unanswered at the end of the calling sequence, the If the call is not answered option is executed. If no numbers are in the calling sequence, the If the call is not answered selection is executed as soon as the call comes in.
Before making any changes, be sure you have mapped out the way you want calls to be handled. Consider these questions:
- Do I want calls routed based on time-of-day and/or day-of-week?
- Do I want calls routed to another extension or telephone number?
- If calls are routed to my mobile phone, how should unanswered calls be handled: by my Barracuda Phone System voicemail or by my mobile phone’s voicemail?
As an example, the following instructions will demonstrate this routing setup:- Calls ring desk phone from 8am to 5pm, Monday – Friday
- Calls ring an external number between 5pm and 6pm
- Calls ring external number for 15 seconds
- Unanswered calls to external number go to Barracuda Phone System voicemail box
Activating and Configuring Find-Me Forwarding
The following example illustrates how to configure Find Me Forwarding using the basic feature functionality.
To activate Find-Me Forwarding:
- Navigate to Find Me > Find-Me Forwarding. Click your extension.
- Under Find-Me Forwarding, select Active (Use Rules and Actions)
- Under Default Action Set, select an existing set or type a name for a new set you will define.
Click Save.
- Under Rules and Actions, click Add a Rule.
- In the Time/Number Rule column, you will specify when this rule applies. For example, a rule could apply only on Sunday, or when a particular mode is enabled, or for an entire day, or every weekday from 3:00 to 5:00 PM, or only when a specified number calls the ACR. Combine these restrictions to create complex rules.
Mode – Select a system mode for which this rule will apply: Day, Night, or (All Modes). By default, each rule applies to All Modes. If the system mode does not match one of the modes specified, the rule will be rejected, and no other scheduling rules will be evaluated, except for the Default Action.
- Days – Select each day of the week when this rule applies. The rule is not applied to calls received on unselected days.
- Time – Specify the time of day when this rule applies. All Day is 24 hours. To specify a smaller time range (such as business hours) select a start time and an end time. The rule is not applied to calls received outside the specified time range.
- Caller – Select Any Callers to apply the rule regardless of caller ID value. To limit the rule application to specific caller ID values, select Caller's Number Starts With, Caller's Number Ends With, Caller's Number Is, or Caller's Number Matches Regular Expression.
- Match – Specify the Caller ID value or regular expression to match.
- In the Action Set column, select an existing action set available for this ACR or define a new one. If you select New Action Set, enter a name for the new action set. Click Add.
- In the Rules and Actions table, select the newly created rule to expand it.
- Select Edit next to the Action Set to open the detail page for the new action set.
- Click Create an Action in the Action List table.
- In the Action column, click on the type of action to perform:
- Call Phone Numbers – Call one or more external phone numbers; numbers are dialed simultaneously. Ring Time specifies how long target phone numbers ring before assuming that they are not answered. If unanswered, the next action in the action set is executed. Use the Confirmation Prompt and Prompt Sound to verify that a person, not a machine, answered. If a person answers the phone, they are prompted to press 1 to tell the system that the call has gone through to a human. If a person did not answer, so the confirmation press 1 is not received before the Ring Time timeout, the call is considered unanswered, and the router moves on to the next action.
- Try Calling My Phones – Attempt to reach you at your extensions. The caller hears a ringback tone as your extensions ring. If no extension picks up, the next action in the action list is executed.
- Keep Trying to Reach Me – Attempt to reach you at your extensions, specifying a number of attempts to make before proceeding to the next action in the action list. The caller is placed on hold while this occurs. In addition, you can select a Music on Hold class to play while the caller is on hold.
- The Destination/Options column displays options for the selected action. By default, the Final Action is Call My Phones. The selected Final Action option executes after all other actions have completed. Select a Final Action from the following list:
- Call My Phones – Calls your extensions.
- Disconnect the Call – Hangs up on the caller.
- Transfer to an Extension or Number – Blind transfers the caller to the specified extension or phone number.
- Transfer to a Person's Voicemail – Sends the caller to the voicemail box to leave a message.
- Wait for a Fax – Waits for a fax tone from the calling party and then accepts the fax transmission. Optionally, the fax may be converted to PDF and emailed to the addresses listed. Use comma-separated list of addresses to specify more than one.
- Under Options, select if you want to
- Use Custom Voicemail Greeting
- Screen Calls
- Reject anonymous calls
- Detect Faxes
- Use T.38 Reinvite for Faxes
You now have Find-Me Forwarding activated for an extension. You can add an unlimited number of rules and an unlimited number of action sets. However, each rule has one and only one action set associated with it.
Default Action
Default Action is an action set that is automatically available for each extension and is what is executed if no other action sets are defined, or if no rules are applicable when a call is received. In addition, you can change which action set is considered the Default Action in the Find-Me Forwarding detail page for each extension.
Message Center
Use the message center to download or listen to voicemail messages and to send or receive faxes.
Voicemail and Faxes
In the Message Center > Voicemail and Faxes page, you can view received voicemails as well as sent and received faxes.
For received voicemails, you can click:
- Play and Stop icons to control message playback over your computer's speakers
- Download icon to download a message to your local system as a .wav file
- Mark Read to specify the selected message as read (phone message light is off)
- Mark Unread to specify the selected message as unread (phone message light is on)
- Delete to remove a message.
For received faxes, you can:
- View – Click to view the selected fax onscreen
- Download – Click to download the selected fax to your local system as a .pdf file
- Forward – Click to forward the fax to another user in the system; begin typing to view a list of matching extensions
- Mark Read/Mark Unread – Click to change the read status of the selected fax
- Delete – Click to delete the fax
For sent faxes, you can:
- View – Click to view the selected fax onscreen
- Download – Click to download the selected fax to your local system as a .pdf file
- Forward – Click to forward the fax to another user in the system; begin typing to view a list of matching extensions
- Delete – Click to delete the fax
Send a Fax
Go to the Message Center > Send a Fax page to generate a new fax:
- In the Your Information section, enter your Sender Fax Number and Fax Header Text.
- In the Sending section, enter the recipient details including the fax number exactly as it would be dialed.
- Click Choose File. Navigate to and select the PDF you want to fax.
- To include an optional cover sheet, turn on Include Cover Sheet, and enter the cover sheet details.
- Click Send Fax. The fax details display in the Message Center > Voicemail and Faxes page.