TRY THIS Best Method For Routing To An External PBX

[mashby]

I'm a newb when it comes to managing a PBXinaflash and if it's not in the GUI then I am completely lost. My hope is that someone here can at least point me in the right direction for what I'm trying to accomplish.

The Goal
We are using an outside company to handle a function of our business and we would like to route calls directly to an outside number, pause and then enter the extension necessary.

The Workflow
A customer dials into our PBX and is greeted by an IVR and offered to select a ring group. When the customer selects the option that has been outsourced, then we'd like the call to be routed to the 3rd party's PBX.

What I Have Tried
My natural inclination was to create a custom extension and enter "Local/[phone-number]@from-internal" in the "This device uses custom technology" field. That works but I appear to be unable to enter a pause. Ideally, if I could enter a pause, or two and then the right extension, then I believe my problem would be solved.

As it stands now, I can send the customer to the external number but they are greeted by the external IVR which can be confusing.

Suggestions?
I could be going about this the wrong way, so if there's a better way to accomplish this, I'd be much appreciated. My Google-fu only pulls up half answered questions from 5+ years ago so thank you in advance.

 

[wardmundy]

Here's a possible solution. You'd just insert this code into the [from-internal-custom] context in /etc/asterisk/extensions_custom.conf using an extension number of your choice for the 3d party connection. Then imbed this extension in your IVR.

 

[kenn10]

Another solution is to see if the company you are outsourcing to can provide a direct dial number to their departments to which you need to forward the call. The scenario where you call an IVR and wait and then enter an extension number is problematic in that if there are unexpected delays for the other IVR to answer, your timing will be off and the call will abort.

Worldwide, direct dial numbers (DID's) are quite cheap and I would expect someone to whom I am outsourcing my business to provide better service. Perhaps you can engage in conversation with the outsource company to see if they can accommodate.