Business Hours

Purpose

Business hours are the configurable time values per week-day, which define the processing capability of a depending on the time of day for any new session received in that UCC.

With the AnywhereNow platform it is required to set the Business Hours of each separate UCC.

  • For audio sessions, outside of UCC Business Hours, an alternative message (Message Closed) will be played and customers can be given the opportunity to leave a voice mail or limited routing options for further processing.

  • For text sessions, outside of UCC Business Hours, incoming messages will be stored and further processed only when the next opening time is reached.

One day can have multiple Business Hours for open and closed state, for example in the morning from 08:00 to 12:00 and the afternoon from 13:00 to 17:00.

Tip

If the UCC needs to be closed on one specific day, the business hours can be edited in realtime within that week, but it may be easier to use a Holidays item instead.

Relationship to Dialogue Studio

These are UCC-level opening hours. They also apply when Dialogue Studio handles the voice callflow, not only when the is configured in SharePoint.

For normal incoming voice calls, the UCC checks its opening state before starting the flow. If the UCC is closed, the call follows UCC closed-state handling instead. The available exceptions depend on the connect model.

Connect: A side-entry endpoint with Always open enabled can bypass UCC Business Hours and Holidays for incoming voice calls. This endpoint setting does not override TemporarilyClosed or overflow checks. Other routing and flow-entry conditions still apply. Configured outside-hours routing can provide separate exceptions.

Unify: The endpoint's Always open setting does not bypass the UCC opening-hours check for incoming voice calls. If the UCC is closed, it plays the configured closed message and ends the call before starting Dialogue Studio. Do not rely on this setting to send calls into the flow outside UCC opening hours.

The Routing node - Business Hours evaluates schedules only after a message reaches the flow. Adding or configuring this node does not replace or disable the UCC's SharePoint Business Hours.

Training Video

Explanation per field

In order to manage Business Hours, the following screen should be filled in:

Item Description

Start

This field contains the starting time of the Business hour. This must be in the format HH:MM.
Allowed values are 00:00 - 23:59 (i.e. 24:00 is NOT allowed)

End

This field contains the ending time of the Business hour. This must be in the format HH:MM.
Allowed values are 00:00 - 23:59 (i.e. 24:00 is NOT allowed).

Tip

If End time is earlier or equal to the Start time then the End time is scheduled on the next day.

Day

Select the specific day of the week

AllDay

Will ignore the Start and End times and opens the UCC all day.
(A Start and End time are still required so valid time values will need to be filled in)

Create/Edit/Remove item

Item can be created, edited or removed.

Warning

Updates to the system take place in real-time. Entering the incorrect information here may cause issues with your software. Proceed with caution.

Create Item
  1. Open the list.
  2. Select the Add new item button.
  3. Enter the correct data in the window that appears.
  4. Select the Save button.
Edit Item
  1. Open the list.
  2. Tick the respective item.
  3. Select the “Edit Properties” button.
  4. Enter the correct data in the window that appears.
  5. Select the “Save” button.
Remove Item
  1. Open the list.
  2. Tick the respective item
  3. Select the “Delete Item” button.