I’ve covered Exchange Unified Messaging Auto-Attendants and Skype for Business Response Groups in some depth in previous posts, and I wanted to do a comparison between the two. The two share some overall similarities, with some major difference that will lead you to select one over the other, and minor differences that you’ll want to be aware of.
Microsoft recently released two Skype for Business Online features: Cloud PBX Call Queues and Cloud PBX Auto Attendant. These two SfBO features are roughly analogous to Exchange Auto Attendant and SfB on-premises Response Groups, however to be clear I am not referring to the Cloud PBX functions in this post unless I explicitly mention them.
Main Feature Comparison
In the following table, I state whether functionality is available in Response Group and Auto Attendant scenarios, and in some cases I provide some more clarity and detail beyond a “yes” or “no”.
|
Feature |
Response Group |
Auto Attendant |
|
Anonymous call out |
Yes, user can call as the Response Group |
No |
|
Management delegation |
Yes, per Response Group (and associated Queues and Groups) |
Not very granular, only to “Exchange UM” RBAC role within Exchange. |
|
User lookup/dial by name (speak or spell) |
No |
Yes |
|
Schedule |
Scheduled to the minute. Two open periods per day, otherwise closed. |
Scheduled in 15 minute blocks, any number of blocks may be open or closed. |
|
After-hours and holiday support |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Calls delivered to |
Natively to PC SfB client. Voicemail and other timeout/overflow options available. |
To any SfB client, or any phone number reachable by Exchange – including PBX extensions and PSTN numbers. |
|
Honors Team-ring, Delegation, SimRing, Call pickup, mobile clients |
No, only rings the user’s PC or desk phone. |
Yes |
|
IVR |
Yes, multiple choices and levels. Calls delivered to Queue, not directly to an endpoint. |
9 choices, one level. Calls delivered to a number, mailbox, and can play a message |
|
Caller can dial 0 to reach operator at anytime |
No |
Yes |
|
Call queuing |
Yes – call is delivered to a queue |
No – call is transferred to the number specified |
|
Multiple language support |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Voice recognition |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Text-to-speech or recorded greetings |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Can read location and business hours to caller |
No |
Yes |
|
Formal agent logon mode (user logs into and out of a queue) |
Yes |
No |
|
Online or on-prem server based? |
On-prem servers only. (Use Cloud PBX Call Queues for online deployments) |
Both. Exchange UM Auto-Attendants have the same functionality on-prem and online. |
|
Can deliver calls to on-prem user |
Yes |
Yes |
|
Can deliver calls to online user |
No, users must be homed on-prem.
|
Yes |
|
Can assign multiple phone numbers to reach it |
No |
Yes |
|
Can record greetings via telephone |
No |
Yes |
The details in this table refer to native functionality of the Auto Attendant or Response Group solution. For example, you can only natively assign one Line URI to a Response Group workflow. If you wanted to have multiple numbers to reach a workflow, there are a number of ways outside of Response Group functionality that would permit you to do that.
Final Considerations
An additional consideration that you’ll need to make is the topology of the Exchange and SfB environments. If a call comes in from the PSTN via an SBA in a branch office and has to traverse the WAN to a central office to Exchange and SfB servers, the two solutions are equal. If you are using Exchange Online, calls to your Auto Attendant now have to traverse the Internet to the cloud.
In the not so distant past, I worked with a client in a “PSTN into the SBA” scenario, where calls had to traverse the WAN to reach Response Groups, and the WAN and an underspec’d VPN to a privately hosted Exchange system. That VPN was spec’d for email (and the specs weren’t even generous for that) not voice, so voice, Auto Attendant, and Subscriber Access suffered accordingly.
And finally, make sure you’re supporting REFER, and that your firewalls allow appropriate media flow between all of your clients and servers involved in these scenarios. Appropriate levels of bandwidth and QoS are also a must.
Up next: Cloud PBX Auto Attendants and Call Queues, the Cloud PBX cousins of Exchange Auto Attendants and SfB on-prem Response Groups.
Bump in the net 
A very useful comparison table, just what I was looking for. I was struggling to understand the core differences or the reasons for choosing one over the other. Thanks