Need to have one number go to one of several accounts based on availability

Hello,

We at Agaric have what we thought would be a common need-- to have one support number / Skype account that our clients can call be picked up by whichever of our several members around the world (Germany, India, and the US so we cover the time zones pretty well!).

I cannot figure out how to configure this.

1.) Customer calls Agaric. On Skype directly or our phone redirects to Skype.
2.) It is 4a.m. in the US and agaric1_username in Germany is supposed to be on at this hour. The SkypeIn for business knows to try his account first.
3.) He is not online or does not answer after 10 rings, but one other Agaric happens to be online so Skype knows to try that account next.
4.) If no Agaric members are on Skype / take the call, it falls over to voicemail.

This is a killer feature and indeed the one we need! Thank you for your advice and assistance.

best,

ben

Skype says they do not have this. ("It is possible to configure call transfer option and voicemail option for the members of your Business Control Panel. Unfortunately, it is not possible to configure the call transfer option the way that calls gets redirected to the member that is online." In other words, they can forward to just one number. I do not see the point of forwarding at all, then, for our needs. We could all share a Skype login for business needs- this is worth trying, in fact.)

In further research I have learned that in computer and maybe non-computer telephony this feature is called hunt groups.

There is one Skype extra that throws "hunt group" into their keywords which we can try: https://extras.skype.com/1657/view

PBX

And then there are PBX systems, including the open source Asterisk, which offer the hunt group feature, but it is not clear to me that these can fairly easily direct their calls to online numbers around the world.

See http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/PBX+Hunt+Groups

VOIP.com offers call hunt as part of their PBX offerings. Same questions there as above. Sadly they have no non-phone way to contact them until you are already a customer.

Vonage

Vonage offers "Call Hunt" - http://www.vonage.com/features.php?feature=call_hunt&lid=feature_nav_call_hunt - and "Ring List" - http://www.vonage.com/features.php?feature=ring_lists&lid=feature_nav_ring_lists - which both would seem to do what we need. Not clear to me how many Vonage numbers you get for their $50/month business plan, how nice the web software for them is, and all those other details that matter a lot.

Vonage does not seem to have the concept of computer-only accounts without a phone number, and that's really what we want-- one business number that any of us can access from around the world on our computers. Also, its PC phone software only supports Mac and Windows, not Linux.

Note on configuring Skype: The number that shows up in caller ID for your Skype-out number is configured at Skype.com, in the business account.

Whether and where you forward and answering machine messages are set in the Skype application preferences.