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AVAYA IP Office Voicemail

IP 500

Voicemail is one of the many applications provided to increase business efficiency and improve client handling. Voicemail provides the equivalent of a telephone answering machine on every employee's desk, indeed, voicemail facilities can be allocated to remote employees even though they may not have a desk or telephone in the main office.

Voicemail allows callers to leave messages for you when you are out of the office, away from your desk or engaged on another telephone call. Voicemail messages can be retrieved either locally or remotely via any telephone (you will be prompted for a PIN number if you are using any telephone other than your allocated extension or a trusted location e.g. your mobile telephone).

 

Alternatively, you can forward your voicemail to your email and collect it via your PC. This approach allows you to use your PC to display your two different types of messages. It also frees your telephone for incoming calls whilst using your PC to playback your voicemail. You can then also forward your voicemail, just like any email. For full integration with Microsoft Exchange server and control of voicemails from your client PC, please see Integrated Messaging Pro (described later in this section).

Voicemail, when used in conjunction with IP Office's Phone Manager application, ensures that you will never miss a customer call again, even when the caller decides not to leave you a voicemail message. In this case the caller's number will be left on the Caller Display of your telephone and/or your PC screen allowing you to dial them back upon your return.

All IP Office systems have been specifically designed to give a business a competitive edge, by providing a total communications system. To this end a Voicemail application is provided as standard on all IP Office systems.

Five voicemail modes of operation are available:

Voicemail Lite is the standard voicemail application provided with all IP Office platforms. Voicemail Pro builds on the features and facilities offered by Voicemail Lite and can be tailored to meet the individual needs of a business by adding applications such as auto-attendant, call recording and advanced Call Queuing.

Both Voicemail Lite and Voicemail Pro applications can reside on a Windows 2000, 2003 or XP Professional PC. Communication between IP Office and this 'Voicemail server' is via IP over a LAN connection. No specific hardware is required – not even a PC sound card.

If a PC cannot be designated as a voicemail server or you prefer to save space with an all-in-one-box solution then Embedded Voicemail is the preferred option. It can be used with Avaya supplied memory cards on the IP Office - Small Office Edition and the IP406V2. On the Small Office Edition it uses voice compression channels.

The voicemail server is multi-lingual and can offer different prompts depending on the user's preferred language, independently of the other internal users' set-ups. Similarly, external callers can hear prompts in their own language depending on their incoming call route (e.g. based on CLI/ANI or DDI/DID). This is very useful to multinational companies or in multi-lingual markets.

Avaya IP Office Voicemail Feature Comparison

Platform Support

  Embedded Voicemail Voicemail Lite Voicemail Pro
IP Office - Small Office Edition Yes (uses in built VCM resources) Yes Yes
IP406 V2 Yes (does not use VCM resources) Yes Yes
IP412 No Yes Yes
IP Office 500 Yes (does not use VCM resources) Yes* Yes*

*IP Office 500 running in IP Office Professional Edition mode only.

Capacities

Voicemail Embedded Voicemail Voicemail Lite Voicemail Pro
Number of Mailboxes supported No specific limit on IP Office - Small Office Edition or IP406 V2. Limited only by IP Office configuration. No Limit - Limited only by IP Office configuration. No Limit - Limited only by IP Office configuration.
Maximum Number of Concurrent Calls (ports)

4 simultaneous calls on IP Office 500 and IP406 V2.

From 1-10 simultaneous calls on IP Office - Small Office Edition depending up on available VCM resources

 4 simultaneous calls on IP Office - Small Office Edition, IP406 V2 and IP412

Up to 30 dependent on license & platform

(IP Office - Small Office Edition=10, IP406 V2 =20, IP412=30, IP Office 500 = 30).
Recording Time

IP Office 50 and IP406 V2: Approximately 15 hours

IP Office - Small Office Edition: 10 hours minimum

 PC dependent (Requires 1MB per minute) PC dependent (Requires 1MB per minute)

Features

  Embedded Voicemail Voicemail Lite Voicemail Pro
Runs as a service No No Yes
Multi-lingual support Yes Yes Yes
Voicemail for Individual users Yes Yes Yes
Voicemail for Virtual users Yes Yes Yes
Voicemail for Hunt Groups Yes Yes Yes
Centralized Voicemail Services No No Yes
Voicemail Ringback Internal only Internal only Internal and external
Voicemail Help TUI No Yes Yes
Message Waiting Indication Yes Yes Yes
Visual Voice (interactive menu on phone display) Yes No Yes
Integration with Phone Manager Pro No No Yes
Personalized Greeting Yes Yes Yes
Extended personal Greetings No No Yes*
Continuous Loop Greeting No Yes Yes
Forward to Email Yes Yes Yes
Copy to Email Yes Yes Yes
Listen To Email (Text To Speech) No No Yes*
Send Email notification Yes Yes Yes

Unified Messaging Service (UMS)

 No No Option
Save Message Yes Yes Yes
Delete Message Yes Yes Yes
Forward Message to another Mailbox Yes Yes Yes
Forward to Multiple Mailboxes Yes Yes Yes
Forward with a Header Message Yes Yes Yes
Repeat Message Yes Yes Yes
Rewind Message Yes Yes Yes
Fast Forward Message Yes Yes Yes
Pause Message No No Yes
Skip Message Yes Yes Yes
LIFO/FIFO Message Playback Option No No Yes
Set Message Priority No No Yes*
Set automatic message deletion timeframe No No Yes
Alphanumeric Data Collection No No Yes*
Callers Caller ID, time & date announced Yes Yes Yes
Call Back Sender (if Caller ID available) Yes Internal only Yes
Remote Access to Mail Box Yes** Yes Yes
User Definable PIN Code Yes Yes Yes
Known Caller ID PIN Code By-Pass Yes Yes Yes
Breakout to Reception Internal and external. Internal only Internal and external.

In-Queue Announcements

  Embedded Voicemail Voicemail Lite Voicemail Pro
Queue Entry Announcement Yes Yes Yes
Queue Update Announcement Yes Yes Yes
Queue Position Announcement No No Yes
Time in Queue Announcement No No Yes
Time in System Announcement No No Yes
Estimated Time to Answer (ETA) No No Yes
Exit Queue to alternative answer point No No Yes

Auto-Attendant/Audiotex

  Embedded Voicemail Voicemail Lite Voicemail Pro
Multi-Level Tree Structure Yes No Yes
Message Announcements No No Yes
Whisper Announce No No Yes
Alarm Calls No No Yes
Assisted Transfers No No Yes

Other Features

  Embedded Voicemail Voicemail Lite Voicemail Pro
Call Recording No No Yes
Test Conditions No No Yes
Personal Numbering No No Yes
Speaking Clock No No Yes
Campaign Manager No No Yes
Voicemail Pro Manager No No Yes
Customized Voicemail No No Yes
Intuity TUI emulation mode. No No Yes
Forward Emails to External Systems (VPIM) No No Yes
Third Party Database Access (IVR) No No Yes
Text To Speech within call flows No No Yes
Support for Visual Basic Scripts No No Yes


Centralized Voicemail

Where IP Office is deployed in Definity/Multi-Vantage/ACM Environments it may be desirable to utilize the voicemail system (Intuity Audix or Modular Messaging) connected to the Definity/Multi-Vantage/ACM, to provide voicemail services to IP Office users. Connectivity between IP Office and the Definity must be either an E1 or T1 circuit or an IP trunk running QSig services. In addition to the IP Office license Key (IP400 AUDIX RFA) that enables this service, further license keys may be required on the Definity/Multi-Vantage/ACM.

Embedded Voicemail

(IP406 V2 and IP Office - Small Office Edition only)

In environments like retail or home office where no space for a PC is available or you do not want to keep a PC running all the time (notably to avoid the risk of someone accidentally switching off the PC thereby taking away the voicemail service), Embedded Voicemail may be the preferred option to enable an entry-level voicemail service.

On the IP Office Small Office Edition and the IP406 V2, Embedded Voicemail can be installed to provide an entry level voicemail service. With the Small Office Edition this solution does require a voice compression channel for each call that it handles. See the Voicemail Feature Comparison table for functional details and the IP Office - Small Office Edition section for further details.

The maximum number of messages stored is only restricted by Embedded Voicemail cards storage capacity (currently around 10 hours on the Small Office Edition and 15 hours on the IP406 V2).

The features available include:

Avaya IP Office Voicemail Lite

IP Office's standard Voicemail application can handle up to 4 simultaneous calls. When enabled Voicemail Lite automatically answers your telephone when you are not available to take a call. Personal greetings can be recorded, providing confirmation that the intended recipient will actually receive the message.

Messages may be played as a continuous loop. This allows information to be heard, but no message to be left. The caller may press a key on the telephone at any time to be transferred to a pre-determined number, usually the receptionist or secretary.

When voicemail messages have been left, the number of new messages waiting will be displayed on the Phone Manager application and/or the telephone caller display panel if used. Voicemail Lite can also periodically ring the extension to deliver any new messages. When voicemail messages are left they are time & date stamped and the caller's number recorded. Once listened to, old messages are deleted 24 hours after being left. Alternatively they may be saved permanently.

Voicemail can be collected remotely by dialling the Voicemail Lite server. Using the security inherent in all IP Office systems, if the number the user is dialling from is "recognized" (home number or Mobile/Cell Phone for example), they will automatically receive their voicemail as if collecting it from their office extension. This is especially useful when collecting your voicemail whilst on the move, using your Mobile/Cell Phone in hands-free mode. If the source number is not recognized, users will be prompted for a mailbox number and a PIN code for that mailbox, before they can collect voicemail. Users have the ability to set and change their own PIN codes.

Where a voicemail needs to be copied to others, Voicemail Lite provides many options:

Avaya IP Office Voicemail Pro

Voicemail Pro builds on the features and facilities offered by Voicemail Lite, can be tailored to meet the individual needs of a business and can scale up to 30 simultaneous calls if required.

Voicemail Pro allows message handling for individuals or groups, provides information to callers, assisting the operator during periods of heavy call activity and more by including a powerful voice processing system and an easy to use graphical user interface - the 'Voicemail Pro Manager'. Voicemail messages can be integrated into a user's email box and dealt with as any email message. Through the use of Text To Speech facilities users can be provided with access to their voice and email messages through the telephone whilst in the office or remotely when away from the office.

The Voicemail Pro Manager application also allows far more to be achieved than just guiding a user to the group or extension they require. It allows Voicemail Pro to dial back users, internally or externally, as soon as a voicemail message is left for them. It provides security, by prompting for a PIN code should a user wish to change their Forwarding or Follow Me number from an external telephone.

A single Voicemail Pro server (PC-based) can provide voicemail services to multiple IP Office systems over the LAN, WAN or a Frame Relay network. This is referred to as 'Centralized Voicemail' and can reduce costs, whilst facilitating communication between IP Office sites.

Other uses for Voicemail Pro include Whisper Announce which prompts callers for information (usually their name) which is recorded and passed on to the user's extension (if free), allowing them to choose to accept the call or not. This is particularly useful on "CLI/ANI withheld" numbers - usually calls from telesales companies where somebody is trying to sell you something. Voicemail Pro will not intrude onto busy extensions.

Assisted Transfer allows transfer of a call to a destination, but allows the call to return to Voicemail Pro automatically for other options should the called party be engaged, or not answer within a pre-determined time. By testing conditions (such as whether out-of-hours), calls can be routed depending on system or user-definable criteria. Conditions are constructed from a set of basic elements. These elements can be combined within a single condition to create complex rules. For example, the Week Planner can be used to define the company's standard working hours, and then combined with the calendar to define exception days such as public holidays / vacation.

Voicemail Pro also offers the concept of modules. Modules allow you to create sequences of actions that you want to share between a number of different call routing scenarios. These modules can be used to create a library of vertical voicemail applications or just easy dissemination to other IP Office voicemail sites, thanks to its import and export functionality.

Voicemail Pro can also trigger external actions such as activating the external relays on the IP Office. For example, remotely checking the status of the office heating and then turning it on from your Mobile/Cell Phone on your drive in to work. Voicemail Pro provides the ability to allow a caller to select the language in which they require the system to respond in. Finally, a Speaking Clock, that takes its time from the Voicemail server, is built into Voicemail Pro to minimize call charges.

In summary Voicemail Pro adds:

Voicemail Pro Manager graphical user interface.

Further details on some of the Voicemail Pro Manager functionality listed above are described later in this section.Further information on Queue Announcements, Call Recording and Campaign Manager can be found in Compact Contact Centre (CCC).

Networked Messaging

Increasingly organizations are operating a number of different voicemail systems across a number of sites. In this situation it is important to be able to provide integrated operation between voicemail systems so that messages can be passed between systems and delivered to a user's mailbox seamlessly. This is achieved by IP Office Voicemail Pro being licensed to support Networked Messaging.

The Networked Messaging Solution defines a common set of features to allow inter-working between Avaya voicemail systems. In Intuity mode, whilst listening to or having listened to a message, the user can select the option to forward the message to another mailbox, the mailbox entered can be any mailbox number on the local system or any mailbox on a remote Avaya system.

The IP Office Networked Messaging facility will allow configuration of up to 2000 remote mailboxes on each Voicemail Pro server and will operate with other IP Office systems supporting this feature, the Avaya Interchange and Avaya S3210 servers.

Networked Messaging

Auto Attendant

In addition to its advanced voicemail facilities, Voicemail Pro provides an easy-to-use, multi-level configuration tool 'the Voicemail Pro Manager' which allows network managers and system administrators to construct an interactive system, based upon DTMF telephone key entry.

At its most basic, this allows an Auto-Attendant system to be built and configured to suit the way the company operates in the best interests of staff efficiency and customer service, be that on its own, or as a back-up for the regular operator when call volumes are high. Voicemail Pro also offers the ability to enter the name of the person via DTMF key entry, after which the auto-attendant offers the caller a possible name that matches or if there is more than one, a selection list is provided and allows the caller to select which one they wish to call.

As an example, Voicemail Pro can be used to build an Auto-Attendant that prompts callers to "enter 1 for sales, 2 for support, 3 for admin, or 0 for the operator" allowing them to be transferred to the appropriate department without operator intervention. Alternatively, a list of personnel and their extension numbers could be listed, allowing the caller to directly access the person they want. For larger companies it could be department number listed first, followed by the list of employee extensions within the department.

The latter two examples are ideal where company telephone operation has changed from a central operator only based system to Direct Dialing In (DDI/DID), allowing callers to "learn" the required extension number from the prompting of Voicemail Pro, and then in future dial the extension number directly. Auto-Attendant operation is also ideal where multiple languages are required, for example "Dial 1 for English, 2 for German, 3 for French, ...".

VM Pro Call Flow Auto-Attendant created using Voicemail Pro Manager

Accessing Database Information within Call Flows (IVR)

The Voicemail Pro Manager provides the ability to construct powerful interactive systems based upon DTMF telephone key entry. This is achieved by using the flexibility provided from the built in call flow actions. As a caller passes through any part of a defined call flow the system is capable of interacting with most third party databases through the use of the standards based ADO interface (ActiveX data objects). The system is capable of retrieving information from a database and writing information into databases. The result of this is that powerful Interactive Voice Response systems (IVR) can be designed to specifically meet the requirements of the business and the customer experience that is required.

Example interactive systems that can be built as a result of these facilities include: Information Bulletin Boards, order taking and order processing systems, front end systems to Help Desks/Support Desks, Contact Centres, secure access to information through PIN checking, survey systems, remote time sheet management, etc.

The ability to interact with Database information is enabled through the purchase of the IPO LIC - IP400 3rd PRTY IVR RFA license key. The entry of this key will enable the operation of four new Database Action Icons within the Voicemail Pro Manager GUI.

VM Pro Database Call Flow Example Call Flow Utilizing Database Actions

The new database actions that are provided through the Voicemail Pro Client are:

As with other Voicemail Pro call flow actions the new database actions include the ability to communicate with the Avaya Compact Contact Centre for reporting purposes.

Access to ADO compliant databases is achieved through the use of database drivers. As standard the installation of the Voicemail Pro software will include the installation of the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) version 2.5 service pack 3 to provide access to most database systems. Any database not included within this list can be added to the system.

Interaction with the opened database is achieved through the use of Structured Query Language scripts (SQL). An administrator can enter SQL script directly into the 'specific' section of the Database Execute action. For administrators that are not familiar with SQL scripts a script can be automatically created through the use of a SQL Query Builder Wizard. The wizard will allow the administrator to create the SQL script by simply selecting options from drop down menus, e.g.:

When 'Selecting' information from a database:

Database Select

In the example above the system will find the 'Title' filed entries within the 'Booklist' table where the 'Author' field contains the string held within the $key field ($key is the last DTMF entry made by the caller through their telephone handset, DTMF entries can be numeric or alpha-numeric through multi presses of the telephone keypad).

Alternatively, information can be 'Inserted' into a database:

Database Insert

In the example above the fields within the 'OrderDetails' table will be updated with the information held within the defined system variables, i.e.: ContactTelephone will be updated with the current contents of the $CP4 variable, Cost will be updated with the current contents of the $DBD[1] variable, etc.

The information retrieved from a database can be assigned to any system or user defined variable and can be used at other points within a Callflow. For example any information held within a system variable can be passed to an extension through the use of the Callflow action ‘Assisted Transfer’. When an assisted transfer is completed any information assigned to the transfer will be passed to the extension and will be displayed on the telephones display. Alternatively, this information could be used by third party applications through the use of the TAPI interface for popping applications on a PC screen.

To further enhance the new database facilities two additional actions have been added to the Voicemail Pro Client. These actions are 'Alphanumeric Collection' and a 'Speak Text' action.

The Alphanumeric Collection action allows the system to collect characters as well as numbers through the telephone handset. A user can select the character they require through multiple presses of a key on the keypad. This is a similar operation to text entry on a mobile phone or the letter collection facility on Intuity Audix, e.g.: letter K is generated from pressing the 5 key twice. As a key is pressed the system will read back the letter that is selected.

The Speak action allows the use of Text To Speech facilities to play information back to a caller.

Using Text To Speech (TTS) Facilities within a Callflow

To further enhance the database facility, Text To Speech facilities can also be licensed. TTS facilities can enhance the callers experience by allowing the system to read back to them any information that has been captured from a database. In the examples above, a Book Shop system, the caller dials into the system and is asked for an ISBN number or for the Author's name of the book they require. The caller enters an Authors name through the telephone keypad and the system locates the title of the book from the database. As well as finding the title, as in the wizard above, the system could also look up the Author of the book and whether there were any books in stock. By using TTS, the system could now respond to the call:

“The book, Lord Of The Rings, costing $6.99, written by J R R Tolkien is in stock".

Offering to allow the caller to order this book by entering contact and credit card details could now enhance this system further. The TTS facility is provided as a license through the use of either the IPO LIC-IP400 Avaya TTS RFA 1 or IPO LIC - IP400 3rd PARTY TTS SPPRT RFA 1.

Each license purchased provides a single use of a TTS engine, multiple engines can be licensed on each Voicemail Pro system. For example, a four port Voicemail may have two TTS licenses enabled, these two TTS engines will be used by all four Voicemail ports on a first come first served basis. At any instance in time only two callers can use the TTS facility in this example. Purchasing additional licenses will increase the number of TTS engines available.

The Avaya TTS RFA1 utilizes the Avaya TTS engine. In addition to this license the TTS software media pack IPO CD - IPO AVAYA TTS CD SET will also need to be ordered, this is a 5 CD set containing the TTS engine software and all supported languages.

The 3rd Party TTS SPPRT RFA provides the Voicemail system with a SAPI 5 interface for use with other suppliers TTS engines. When using this license, Voicemail Pro will look for a pre-installed SAPI 5 compliant TTS engine on the Voicemail Pro server and utilize this for the delivery of TTS facilities. Once again a TTS RFA will be needed for each TTS engine that is required. For information, all Microsoft Server Operating systems are shipped with the Microsoft TTS engine included as part of the system. As a result this engine should be available for use by a customer as default. The Microsoft TTS engine will operate with Voicemail Pro.

The Avaya TTS engine currently includes 14 languages as default. During installation the Administrator can select which Languages they wish to have installed on the Voicemail Pro server. Once installed on the Voicemail Pro server the TTS engine can use any combination of these languages. The language used will be decided by the system or user localization that is configured. This means that multi language solutions can be easily provided, for example some users may have their emails read in US English and others have theirs read in Chinese. Within a call flow, information can also be read back to callers in different languages by using the 'System Prompt Language' to select the require language.

The languages currently supported by the Avaya TTS engine are:

Visual Basic (VB) Scripting

The Voicemail Pro Client call flow interface has been extended to allow an administrator to provide Visual Basic (VB) scripted logic that can be interpreted by the Voicemail Pro server. This ability allows system administrators to program the voice system via VB Scripts thus providing additional choice and flexibility in providing IVR applications.

The new VB script action contains a VB-Scripting parser (Syntax checker) to ensure the legitimacy of the administrator derived VB Script before it's incorporation.

VM Pro VB

Each VB script action used within a call flow can contain a maximum of 1000 characters, however a call flow maycontain multiple VB script actions within it.

Personal Numbering

Contact-ability is all-important in winning and maintaining business. Voicemail Pro offers users the ability to remotely turn their voicemail on or off, set their email forwarding, edit their call forwarding and follow me numbers. Together these actions provide a comprehensive Personal Numbering service for the user who needs to remain in contact regardless of their physical location.

VM Pro Personal Numbering

Extended Personal Greetings

In Intuity emulation mode, the Voicemail Pro system has the ability to hold a number of greetings within each users mailbox that can be played to a caller. In addition to the standard mailbox greetings, the extended personal greetings provide the ability to present the caller with a greeting that reflects where the call has come from (internal or external) or why the called party is unable to take the call. A mailbox user can configure the responses that are played back to the caller, based upon the reason the caller was routed to the Voicemail. The supported

call states are:

A greeting can be recorded for each of the above conditions through the Telephone User Interface (TUI). If a recording is made for each condition the order of play back to a caller will be:

A mailbox owner will need to record greetings against these conditions to deliver the greeting that they wish to present to a caller.

Group Broadcast Messages

With VoiceMail Pro, two modes of operation exist for the handling of hunt group messages. The method used is configured for the group through the IP Office Manager.

The first mode places the message in the hunt group mailbox and only informs those individuals configured for message waiting indication from that group. This is ideal for scenarios where only a few people such as a call centre supervisor need to be initially aware of group messages. This is the default mode of operation. Any message waiting light lit by this is extinguished when the new hunt group message is accessed by a user.

In the second mode of operation, the message is not stored in the hunt group mailbox. Instead it is broadcast (copied and forwarded) to the individual mailboxes of all the hunt group member. This lights the individual messages waiting light of each user until they access their mailbox.

Personal Distribution Lists

Personal Distribution Lists are only available with VoiceMail Pro when operating in Intuity mode. The feature provides the ability for a user to distribute a voicemail message to a list of recipients simultaneously. Lists can be configured by a voicemail box subscriber either through their voicemail box telephone user interface (TUI) or through the desktop PC application PhoneManager. This feature operates is similar in operation to the same feature available with the Avaya Intuity Audix.

The features available to a voicemail box subscriber include:

Interaction of Voicemail with Email Systems

As standard, Voicemail Lite and Pro allow for a simple voicemail alert or the entire voicemail to be forwarded or copied to any MAPI or SMTP compliant Email application (Microsoft Outlook, Exchange, Lotus Notes, etc.) as a .WAV file attachment. This allows emails and voicemails to be unified and collected from a single source – the email client.

The simple alert option (which forwards only the time, date and caller's number information) has been designed for use with commercial Short Message System (SMS) services whereby this information can be forwarded to the display on a Mobile/Cell Phone or Pager when the user is away from the desk. This email notification, forwarding and copying, can be done for all voice messages or on individual selection and can be activated remotely. This is beneficial if you are working from home and have an email connection available.

Unified Messaging

Forwarding voicemail to email is one element of unified messaging and is particularly useful for group voicemail boxes as it allows a single voicemail message to be copied to the email of every member in that group.

VM Pro IMS

Unified Messaging Service (UMS)

Unified Messaging Service (UMS) is being introduced to replace the Integrated Messaging Solution (IMS). While it delivers almost the same functionality that was available on IMS, the UMS solution dramatically simplifies the installation and configuration. It delivers the user with two client interfaces through which voicemail messages can be retrieved from VoiceMail Pro.

Voice Mail Synchronization via IMAP

Email applications such as Outlook which support IMAP can connect to an IMAP server integrated with the VoiceMail Pro server.

UMS

When using a mail client new voice mails arrive as an email with wave attachment and the user can handle them like every other email. If a voicemail has been listened to, its status will change to “read” everywhere. If the user deletes it, it will be deleted everywhere.

Users that have UMS access enabled just need to add an additional email account to their client to be able to use the unified messaging features.

The instructions how to add this account and configure the web address for the VoiceMail Pro Web Access can be provided by an administrator email without the need for system administration or Business Partner support.

VoiceMail Pro Web Access

The second interface the UMS license offers to the users is a web interface allowing voicemail access via a web browser, such as IE7 or Mozilla Firefox, with the ability to listen to targeted voicemails by using either the PC’s multimedia equipment or the desk phone.

UMS Web

Unified Messaging Services web services requires the VoiceMail Pro installation to be on a server with IIS pre-installed. In addition, the VoiceMail Pro web services option must be selected during installation.

Once installed, the system will require the following additional configuration:

As the UMS solution is not reliant on integration with Exchange significant savings are made in the cost of installation and maintenance.

Fax Messages

While not directly supplying or supporting fax software, integration with fax to the desktop or client fax applications can be done through the use of fax servers. This then allows an email client (for example Microsoft Outlook) to be utilized as an easily affordable unified messaging solution. The many benefits of unified messaging include security (as faxes are sent to the users PC rather than on paper for everyone to see), ease-of-use and efficiency in terms of storage and retrieval of messages and the great gains that can be made in overall workforce efficiency and productivity.

To enhance the support of Third Party Fax solutions, Voicemail Pro supports the automatic detection of incoming fax calls. Traditionally a dedicated telephone number will be provided for all incoming fax calls. In addition to, or as an alternative to, the Voicemail Pro 'Menu' action or a subscriber's voicemail box (Intuity mode) can automatically detect any incoming fax calls and then direct the call to a predefined location. The benefit to a business or user is that only one number is required for either voice or fax calls.

The Voicemail Pro can store the default fax location for the automatic routing of fax calls. Alternatively, with fax tone detection at the voicemail box, each voicemail box can have their own fax location number. If a voicemail box owner has set their own fax number then this number will be used instead of the default fax location. A voicemail box subscriber can set their own fax number through the telephone handset locally or remotely.

Voicemail box subscribers can set their own fax number through their mailbox menus.

Most fax solutions can be used in conjunction with IP Office, however the following products have been tested and verified to operate in the above scenarios:

• Equisys - Zetafax:
Zetafax for Networks provides versatile network fax software solutions for small businesses, corporate offices and distributed enterprise businesses. It enables employees to send and receive faxes at their desktop, without the need to print fax communications, take them to a fax machine and send them manually. Zetafax can be seamlessly integrated into market leading email systems like Exchange allowing users to send and receive faxes directly from their Outlook client. In addition Zetafax can be integrated with other existing applications, such as accounting or CRM systems, for fast, automated faxing from the desktop or back office. Zetafax for networks is already used by more than 60,000 customers worldwide.

• Captaris - RightFax:
RightFax offers a broad, scalable product line that integrates with email, desktop, CRM, ERP, document management, imaging, archival, call center, copier/scanner systems, as well as host, legacy and mainframe applications–virtually all business applications.

• Fenestrae – Faxination
Fenestrae Faxination Server for Microsoft Exchange integrates fax into email technology. Create faxes on your desktop and deliver them to your chosen fax machine at the click of a mouse.

• GFI – GFI FaxMaker
GFI FAXmaker for Exchange/SMTP allows users to send and receive faxes and SMS/text messages directly from their email client It integrates with Active Directory and therefore does not require the administration of a separate fax user database. GFI FAXmaker integrates via the SMTP/POP3 protocol with Lotus Notes and any SMTP/POP3 server. .

• Castelle Fax
Faxes routed to a user’s mailbox by Castelle fax servers will be recognized by Voicemail Pro as faxes, and will be supported by Voicemail Pro Fax features.

Text To Speech (TTS) for Email Reading (Microsoft Exchange only)

In addition to providing a unified mailbox for voicemails, emails and Fax message, Voicemail Pro can also provide the ability to retrieve Voice and Email messages through the telephone. When operating in Intuity mode and with the system licensed for Text To Speech (TTS) facilities the user will be presented with a list of both Voicemail messages and Email messages. The emails can be read out over the telephone in any of the supported 14 languages, based upon the system or user localization settings. The benefit to the user is that their messages are now accessible whilst in and out of the office through any telephone.

When accessing messages through the telephone all new Voicemail messages will be presented to the mailbox owner before any new Email messages. When accessing an Email message the system refers to the message as "New message with text".

The TTS facility is provided as a license through the use of either the IPO LIC-IP400 Avaya TTS RFA 1 or IPO LIC - IP400 3rd PARTY TTS SPPRT RFA 1 (see TTS in Call Flows for a description of these two licenses and the TTS media pack).

The differences between these two licenses are the language support and a difference in the Email reading capability. With the Avaya TTS RFA, a TTS engine is included with support for a minimum of 14 languages. All languages supported are included are made available as part of the license charge and TTS media pack (see TTS in Call Flows for a list of supported languages). Furthermore, when reading emails the Avaya TTS engine will analyzes (parse) the Email contents and only play out information that is appropriate, with the 3rd Party TTS RFA the capabilities offered will depend upon the TTS engine that is then utilized..

Configuring the reading of emails to users is a simple exercise. Firstly, TTS services will be loaded onto the Voicemail Pro server (the Avaya TTS media pack will install the Avaya TTS engine). Secondly a license key will need to be purchased and entered into IP Office manager. Thirdly, for each user who is wishes to utilize Email reading, the user's email address will need to be entered into the User profile details in IP Office Manager and the facility enabled through the email reading checkbox.

Campaign Manager

As part of Voicemail Pro, Campaign Manager enables the gathering of repetitive information (such as brochure requests) to be fully automated, leaving agents free to deal with other more complex calls which require human interaction. A definable sequence of recordings are played to the caller with time in between each recording to allow the capture of the caller's spoken answers and/or the caller's key presses via DTMF. At the end of the transaction the caller can be thanked and the completed transaction retrieved by an agent via a web interface or a short code.

Campaign Manager allows calls in queue to "break out" of the queue, or be directed in an "Overflow" situation to complete their transactions thereby increasing customer satisfaction by effecting an 'answer' to their call. This ensures that a minimum of customers give up when forced to wait in a queue or even worse, hear a recorded message stating that they are calling outside of "office hours".

In a Contact Center environment, when agents are busy, an overflow to Campaign Manager relieves congestion and pressure on agent groups. An agent can collect the completed transaction via a web browser or via a short code representing the park slot number of a particular campaign. This number can be pre-programmed under a DSS key and used by agents to access the campaign. If the DSS key incorporates a BLF lamp, that lamp is lit when new campaign messages have been left. Agents then transcribe the caller's answers into a database or other records.

VM Pro Campaign Web

Call Recording

Voicemail Pro also offers 'Recording Services' which allow the automatic/manual recording of calls for a variety of applications, such as for training purposes or to monitor abusive callers. As standard, recordings can be directed to the called extension’s voicemail box or to any other mailbox for later retrieval. Alternatively, recordings can be stored in a central database for retrieval through a Web based browser by using ContactStore for IP Office.

The system administrator can select whether all calls are required to be automatically recorded or just a selection of calls. Alternatively, calls can be manually selected for recording. If for any reasons resources are not available then a recording may not be taken (for example all Voicemail Ports are busy).

Voicemail Pro provides a number of methods for triggering the recording of a call.

Most of the settings and controls for automatic voice recording are accessed through the IP Office Manager application. The proportion of incoming and/or outgoing calls that should be recorded and the time-period during which Voice Recording should operate can be selected.

Call recording uses the conference facility and so is subject to the conference restrictions of the IP Office system. For some situations, it may be a requirement that call parties are advised that their call is about to be recorded. This is done by switching on the Play Advice on Call Recording option via the VoiceMail Pro client. The maximum length of any call recording is 60 minutes

IP Office ContactStore

The standard Call Recording facilities provided with IP Office and VoiceMail Pro can be extended further by using IP Office ContactStore. IP Office ContactStore complements the voice recording capabilities; it stores and catalogues the recordings so that they are easily accessible for later retrieval. Any recordings that you instruct VoiceMail Pro to “send to the Voice Recording Library” are placed in a database.

IP Office ContactStore is provided with the VoiceMail Pro software CD set and has an inbuilt 45 day trial license. A fully featured IP Office ContactStore system can be installed and used for 45 days from the creation of the first recording. After this time the system will stop taking recordings until a license is purchased and installed onto the IP Office.

IP Office ContactStore has a number of components, these are:

To allow you to search for calls easily, the details of the recordings are stored within a MSDE database. It contains one record for each call recorded and additional records for each party on the call and the owner of the call. The information that is held for any recording is:

Recordings within IP Office ContactStore are stored as .WAV files. IP Office ContactStore uses the G.726 16kbps ADPCM compression standard, which provides the best compromise between storage capacity and CPU loading. IP Office ContactStore is designed to perform compression as a background task, which does not impact the systems ability to record, search or play other calls. It takes approximately 1 minute to compress a two hour recording. The compressed recordings are stored as 16kbps G.726 format, storage requirements are therefore 8MBs per hour of recording.

The IP Office ContactStore suite can be installed onto the same server as VoiceMail Pro but must be loaded onto a separate partition. Alternatively, IP Office ContactStore can be installed on a separate drive within the same server or on a separate server. The minimum PC specification when VoiceMail Pro and IP Office ContactStore are installed on the same server is detailed in the VoiceMail System requirements later in this chapter.

IP Office ContactStore stores recorded calls with certain security in place. Access to recordings is strictly controlled according to the security constraints configured within the System Administration pages. Each recording has an owner; the call owner is the number of the station that recorded the call. You can specify to which stations each user has replay rights; the user can search for and replay all calls “owned” by those stations. Typically an individual may be given rights to replay calls owned by their station number while managers may have rights to the station numbers of all of their staff.

Any hard disk has limited storage capabilities. Once the available hard disk space is used, older recordings will be deleted, overwritten by newer recordings. To keep copies of recordings or to protect the recordings in the event of failure/theft/destruction of the hard disk on the recorder or to provide longer-term archive and replay capability, you can use a DVD +RW drive within the IP Office ContactStore server. With a DVD +RW drive installed in the ContactStore server, calls can be automatically archived. IP Office ContactStore requires the Nero DVD tools to write to the DVD drive. You must therefore use a drive that is supported by Nero. If Nero is not bundled with your DVD drive, you must install it separately. Single-sided 4.7GB DVD +RW media are supported.

The system will automatically generate alarms showing system warnings. Alarms are logged to IP Office ContactStore's database and held for a month before being purged. The administrator can define specific Email addresses for alarms to be automatically forwarded to. The email recipient could be a local system administrator, a manned help-desk and/or suppliers' support desks if you have a support agreement that includes this facility.

The system sends an email message each time an alarm occurs or is cleared. It also sends an email once per day as a "heartbeat" to let you know it is still operating. Failure to receive the daily heartbeat message should be investigated; it could indicate that the server has failed.

Contact Store

IP Office ContactStore allows replay of recordings by means of a browser-based application that is accessible with Internet Explorer (IE) V5.0 and higher. The Search and Replay facilities includes the following features:

Voicemail System Requirements

Solutions for your attendants and operators

Tools such as voice mail and PhoneManager improve the productivity of your business by helping your employees perform both necessary and optional tasks with greater comfort and ease. Additional Avaya IP Office applications make your business more efficient by minimising the steps employees and customers take to arrive at great service.

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