Configuring workgroups – CounterPath Bria 4 Administrator Guide User Manual

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Bria 4 Administrator Guide

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Configuring Workgroups

A workgroup is a group of people who work together. Workgroups are also known as BLF (Busy lamp field)
and BLA (Bridged line appearance).

Via the Bria Workgroup window, members of a workgroup can monitor each others’ calls, pick up on behalf of
another member, and join an established call.

Workgroups can be set up as a server-side feature (below), or they can be set up in the Bria client, in peer-to-
peer mode (page 30). In both cases, each member of the workgroup can be set up as:

A regular member: every watches and is watched by everyone else.

Or as a supervisor: the supervisor watches but is not watched by other members.

Configuring in Server Mode

In server mode, workgroups are implemented through support of dialog events (RFC 4235) and through
subscription to a “resource list server” (RLS) in accordance with RFC 4662. The workgroup feature uses full
updates (not partial updates) for dialog events.

The server application (your PBX that includes workgroups or the workgroup application) must support RFC
4235 and RFC 4662. Bria does not support resource list subscriptions for the “presence” event package.

How Workgroup Works

Here is a typical implementation. The RLS application is set up with one or more resource lists. Each list con-
tains the URIs (extensions) of people who are considered to be in a workgroup and can therefore monitor each
other.

Now the user setup: The user displays the Accounts > Presence panel for that account and enters the URI to one
resource list. The user also checks the “Allow others to monitor” field.

When the Workgroup window is opened, Bria automatically contacts the RLS with the URI of the specified list.
The RLS sends out subscription requests to all the URIs in the list. Each online user automatically responds to
the request. When responses are received, the RLS sends status information to the requesting user.

When all the “online” (SIP account is registered) users in the workgroup do this, the result is that each user is
able to monitor the activity of every other online member of the list.

One variation on this setup is for supervisors. The setup is identical except that the supervisor unchecks the
“Allow others to monitor” field. When the supervisor goes online, their requests to monitor other people in the
list will be accepted, but requests from other people to monitor that supervisor will be blocked. The result is that
the supervisor is able to monitor the activity of everyone in the list but no-one can see the supervisor.

Setup on the Server Application

1.

Create the resource list and add the appropriate people.

2.

Make a note of the list name. For example, sip:[email protected] or sip:salesgroup@mydomain.

Setup on Bria

1.

Each user must be set up as follows:

The Workgroup address must specify the name of the list.

If the user is non-supervisory, check the “Allow others to monitor” field.

If the user is a supervisor, uncheck this field.

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