Outbound PSTN Calling from a Lync Response Group

A few weeks ago I had a client wanting response group overflow to dial out to another call center so their clients wouldn't wait on hold for longer then 30 seconds before talking with a live agent.

I added the call center 1800 number to the Response Group Queue under "Enable queue time-out". But once the timer hit the call would disconnect. In the Lync Logger I found an error "user does not exist 18008886655@domain.com". Well of course the user doesn't exist as its an outside tel.

The resolution to this is to assign the response group to a voice policy.

Note: If you have only assigned Global/Site Voice Policies, you will need to create a User Voice Policy in order to apply the policy to the Response Group. You CANNOT apply a Global/Site Policy to a Response Group.

To Create a new User Voice Policy,
Open the Lync Control Panel -> Voice Routing -> Voice Policy
Click New -> User Policy

Name your policy, Enable your calling features.
Click New, This will create a new PSTN Usage Policy.
Name your Policy ie (Response Group). Then click New for Associated Routes.
In the new Route screen name your route ie (Response Group Route)

Build a Pattern to Match

add the patten of the number you are wanting the Response Group to dial ie (+18008886655) your patten should look like this (^\+18008886655)

Suppress your caller ID if required, and assign your gateway, and click OK 3 times, which will bring you back to your list of Voice Policies.

Next, Open Lync Server Management Shell

and type in the following. Please make corrections in the below command where necessary

Response Group Name = The response group that will be dialing outbound via PSTN
Response Group Voice Policy = The Voice Policy you just created above.

PS> Get-CsApplicationEndpoint -Identity "Response Group Name" | Grant-CsVoicePolicy -PolicyName "Response Group Voice Policy"

Allow 5-10 minutes for replication to the RGS