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Using Text To Speech (TTS) Facilities within a Call Flow
A Text To Speech (TTS) engine can be added to further enhance IP Office IVR capabilities; TTS facilities can enhance the callers experience by allowing the system to read back to them any information that has been extracted from a database. For example, in a Book Shop, the caller dials into the system and is asked for an ISBN number of the book they require. The caller enters the ISBN through the telephone keypad and the system locates the title of the book from the database. As well as finding the title, 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".
The languages currently supported by the Avaya TTS engine are:
TTS Licensing
Visual Basic (VB) Scripting
The VoiceMail Pro call flow programming 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 VB script action contains a VB-Scripting parser (Syntax checker) to ensure the legitimacy of the administrator derived VB Script before it's incorporation. Each VB script action used within a call flow can contain a maximum of 10,000 characters; however a call flow may contain multiple VB script actions within it.
Extended Personal Greetings
In INTUITY emulation mode, the VoiceMail Pro system has the ability to hold a number of greetings within each user’s 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 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:
Hunt 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.
Cascaded Out-Calling
VoiceMail Pro can send a notification, with an escalation capability, that a new voice message has been received in a user's mailbox to specified phone number(s). This is particularly useful in environments such as healthcare and support where important voice messages are left and need to be answered promptly - even outside of office hours.
For example should a patient leave an important message to the main number of the doctor’s office, the voicemail system can ring the doctor at the office then on no response escalates to the doctor’s mobile/cell phone, his/her home phone or the doctor on duty after a programmable timeout. This avoids having to rely on an external answering service and allows mobile/cell and home phone numbers to remain private.
The voicemail notification can be sent for:
Mailbox owners can configure their own options from their handset (Telephone User Interface or TUI) and through their IP Office Phone Manager.
Five destinations can be defined by the mailbox owner through the TUI (Telephone User Interface). The destinations selected in the escalation list are called in sequence. The possible destinations are:
Each time an outcall event occurs, each number in the escalation list will be called until either the call is answered, or the end of the list is reached. This process will be repeated on each retry attempt, for the number of retries set.
Personal Distribution Lists are only available with VoiceMail Pro when operating in INTUITY emulation 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 Phone Manager Pro.
The features available to a voicemail box subscriber include:
VoiceMail Pro also offers call recording services that 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.
Note: It is possible for several recordings to be made of the same call. For example, if both automatic hunt group recording and automatic user recording are applicable to the same call, separate recordings are produced for both the hunt group and the user. Recording only continues while the party triggering the recording is part of the call, for example:
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
Centralized Messaging with Avaya Communication Manager
Where IP Office is deployed in an Avaya Communication Manager (ACM) Environment, it may be desirable to use one centrally managed voicemail system (INTUITY or Modular Messaging) to provide voicemail services to IP Office users. IP Office can be configured to use an INTUITY or Modular Messaging system over a remote connection such that all messaging calls divert to this location and message waiting indications are provided from the remote location and are displayed correctly on IP Office extensions. Connectivity must be either an E1 or T1 circuit or an IP trunk running QSIG services. In addition to the IP Office license Key (Centralized VM with ACM RFA) that enables this service, further license keys may be required on the ACM system.
PC Requirements
General Requirements
PC Specification
Network
Disk Space
A compact or typical installation requires 500MB for the VoiceMail Pro software. A full installation requires up to 2GB of disk space. However prompts and recorded messages consume an additional 1MB of disk space per minute.
Web Server Operation
If web browser access to Unified Messaging Services (UMS) web service and or campaigns is required, Microsoft IIS Web Server must be installed on the Voicemail PC before VoiceMail Pro. Both applications must run as a service. A server operating system is required for IIS.
UMS Client Requirement
UMS IMAP access requires IMAP4 capable email clients such as Outlook. For voicemail web access see Web Server Operation above
Voicemail Email Connection
Voicemail Email operation is supported using either MAPI or SMTP. MAPI requires the VoiceMail Pro server PC to have a MAPI compliant email client install. See Voicemail Email Integration.
If Text to Speech is installed, email text to speech is supported using MAPI.
In both cases above, full email sending from the server PC to users PC should be configured and tested before VoiceMail Pro installation using the same PC user account under VoiceMail Pro will be installed.
IMS Pro Connection
IMS requires the Voicemail server to use MAPI.
Voice Recording Library Management
IP Office Voice Recording Library (VRL) application is IP Office ContactStore. This application and its installation are documented separately. However: