gogoGophers

I will try to give you some info;

The auto attendant on that is built in on the CICS is a feature that is used simply to distribute calls in a small business environment. No voicemail boxes, only a small set of features. I have only used this once or twice in ten years, 99.99 % of the people that need the auto attendant features also need mailboxes and more functionality than the built AA on the CICS (I guess you could argue that it's "free"). When you buy a Call Pilot, you get a more fully funtional product, that includes mailboxes. A greeting table (auto attendant) on a Call Pilot has three default functions 1) dial by extension 2) "#" for company directory by first, last or both names. 3) dial 0 or time out to an operator.

The CCR comes into play whenever you need to have a variety of functions accessable to the caller by selecting a particular number. These functions include information mailbox, yet another menu, internal and external transfers, and direct mailbox transfers. So if some one wants something as simple as "Press 1, for Bob, Press 2 for Nancy, Press 3 for Sam.....", you need a CCR tree. If someone wants something complex like "press 2 for the abc group, then 6 for accounting, then 2 for accounts payable", this is also accomplished with the CCR tree. To hammer home a point, these scenarios are made possible not just with the phone system transfering people around, but that you can get a mailbox if someone is not available. Leaving my mailbox rantings out of it, a built in AA is just for internal transfers, a CCR tree allows more complexity and customization.

Now for something completely different

GO TIGERS