The defined hunt groups can themselves be members of a higher-level hunt group, just as hunt groups can be entered as the forwarding destination for a higher-level hunt group. These options enable the establishment of a cascaded hunt-group structure which can form highly complex scenarios by using a multitude of branches. These branches represent the hunt groups and the end points are the users themselves. The following rules apply to structures of this type:
- If a hunt group is used as a member, then this lower-level hunting group causes a new "branch" in the structure to open up when that member receives a call.
- When a lower-level hunt group opens, certain parameters that have been defined, e.g. forwarding time, etc., apply.
- This branch from the lower-level group only remains open for as long as the member in the upper-level hunt group is being signaled according to the settings. If the next member in the upper-level hunt group is reached, then the entire branch along with all of its other sub-branches is closed. The system does not wait until all possible combinations along the branch have been tried out. It is thus possible that there are members defined in a lower-level hunt group who cannot be reached because of settings in the upper-level groups.
- If a member of a hunt group picks up the call, all open branches are closed and all attempts to reach forwarding destinations are stopped.
- If a call remains unanswered after signaling all of the members of an (upper or lower-level) hunt group, then the call is passed on the the call-forwarding destination. This means that any call-forwarding times which may be running in the upper-level hunt groups are ended. In this case the call "jumps" out of the hunt-group structure and is given a new destination.
Example: The following hunt groups have been defined:
| Group call number | Comment | Members | Forwarding method | Forwarding time | Forwarding destination |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | Entire company | 200, 300, 400 | Simultaneous | 10 | Ext. Dialup remote |
| 200 | Service Dept. | 201 to 209 | Simultaneous | 10 | 100 |
| 300 | Marketing Dept. | 301 to 309 | Sequential | 10 | 200 |
| 400 | Sales Dept. | 409 | Sequential | 15 | 100 |
| 410 | Sales Europe group | 411, 412, 413, 414, 415 | Sequential | 10 | 400 |
| 420 | Sales America group | 421, 422, 410 | Sequential | 30 | 400 |
| 430 | Sales Asia group | 431, 432, 410 | Sequential | 30 | 400 |
Each department or group has users who use the final digits in the telephone number, i.e. 411 to 419 for the Sales Europe staff and 409 for the Sales team secretary. Only the group call numbers are communicated externally because all staff members tend to travel frequently on business. The purpose of the hunt-group structure is to connect each customer with a competent staff member in the shortest possible time.
An incoming call directed to the telephone number 420 for a Sales America team member is handled as follows:
- The call is signaled to the users 421 and 422 in this group for 30 seconds each. If there is no answer, then the hunt group 410 is activated for 30 seconds—a member of the Sales Europe team should take care of the customer if no Sales America team members are available.
- In the Sales Europe team, calls are distributed to each number for 10 seconds. The hunt group has five members, but with a forwarding time of just 10 seconds, not all of the users can be signaled: The branch is only opened for a maximum of 30 seconds by the upper-level group, in this case 420. This is a way of limiting the maximum waiting time for a customer. If the first three signaled members of the lower-level group 410 do not answer, then the call jumps back to the upper-level hunt group 420.
- There is still nobody available in the upper-level hunt group 420, and so the call is directed to the call-forwarding destination 400.
- Hunt group 400 directs the call to the team secretary 409. If here nobody answers for 15 seconds then the call-forwarding destination 100 is used, which addresses the entire company.
- Hunt group 100 calls all of the numbers in the hunt groups 200, 300 and 400 simultaneously. If even then nobody answers within 10 seconds, then the hunt group forwards the call to an external telephone number, for example a 24/7 call center.
