Forwarding an Avaya (IP Office or Aura) number

Avaya phone systems — including IP Office and Avaya Aura — are classic on-premise PBX platforms you'll find in a lot of established businesses. They support Forward Unconditional (always), Forward on Busy, and Forward on No Answer. Here's how to set it up for 365 Agents.

Critical: external forwarding is blocked by default

By default, Avaya IP Office will not let you forward or transfer calls to external numbers. Your system administrator has to enable external forwarding for your user. Without this, your forwarding will silently fail — the phone may show "forwarded" but calls will stay on the Avaya system.

Before you try any of the steps below, make sure your admin has enabled external forwarding for your extension. This is a one-time configuration change in Avaya IP Office Manager (under your user's Forwarding tab).

Step-by-step — Avaya IP Office phone (Forward Unconditional)

On a 9500 series or J-series Avaya phone:

1. Press Features.

2. Navigate to Call Settings → Forward → Forward Unconditional.

3. Set Destination to the 365 Agents number (you may need to prefix with an outside-line code like 9 depending on your system's dial plan).

4. Set On/Off to On.

5. Press Save.

The phone's display will show a "D" (diverted) indicator while forwarding is active, and your dial tone becomes a broken/interrupted tone as a reminder.

Step-by-step — Short codes (any Avaya phone)

If your admin has configured them, you can use short codes from the keypad:

• Forward Unconditional On: dial *01 — also enter destination number if prompted

• Forward Unconditional Off: dial *02

• Forward on Busy/No Answer On: dial *03

• Forward on Busy/No Answer Off: dial *04

• Set Forward Number: dial *07 + destination number

These are the default short codes — your admin may have changed or disabled them. If they don't work, ask your admin for the correct codes.

Mobile Twinning as an alternative

If you want Avaya to ring your desk phone and the AI agent at the same time (instead of forwarding), use Mobile Twinning:

1. Press Features → Call Settings → Mobile Twinning.

2. Set Destination to the 365 Agents number.

3. Turn it on.

Your desk phone and the AI agent will both ring. Whoever answers first takes the call.

For Avaya Aura (Communication Manager) users

Aura uses different feature access codes that your admin configures. The most common are:

• Send All Calls (SAC) On: default code is often *3 — check your System Feature Access Codes

• Call Forward All Calls: default code is often *2

• Call Forward Cancel: default code is often #2

Ask your Aura admin for your site-specific codes and for confirmation that your Class of Restriction (COR) allows external forwarding.

To turn forwarding off

Use the reverse of whatever turned it on — the Forward Off menu option, or dial *02 (IP Office) or #2 (Aura).

Your forwarding destination

Your forwarding destination is the 365 Agents number we assigned you during setup. You'll find it in your dashboard under Numbers. Remember to include any outbound prefix required by your dial plan (often 9).