Help Setting Up Time Of Day Announcements 1

[SwitchWitch]

Does anyone have the steps needed to set this up.
So many different options needs to be set,
I can't figure out where to start.

 

[brewerdude]

Meridian Mail, Call Pilot, or Symposium?

 

[SwitchWitch]

Sorry, Meridian Mail.

We are suppose to get Symposium in the Spring, but until then, I have to make due w/ what I have.

i have (4) scripts prepared and I'm trying to setup a day/time announcement to be played after 7:00 p.m. on certain days.

 

[brewerdude]

Menus, Announcements, Time of Day, Through-Dials are all built in the voice messaging area of Meridian Mail. This is a real quick and dirty to give you a start, but I strongly recommend downloading the meridian mail NTP's from nortelnetworks.com.

In the PBX:
First you'll need to create a queue in the PBX that has a MAXP of 1, and an NCFW of your voice mail. That's the number that will be called for the announcement.

In Meridian Mail:

From the main menu:
3 - Voice Services

From Voice Services:
4 - Voice Services Administration

You'll need to create two announcements: one for business hours, one for out of office hours. Depending on the user requirements, those are going to either be menus or just announcements.

Then you'll have to create a TOD entry. There you can define the business hours for the announcements, and enter the ID's for the business hours announcement and the out of office announcement.

Then you create a VSDN entry that takes the queue you created in the PBX and points it to the TOD entry you created above.

You'll then need to record your messages. For that you'll need prompt maintenance number for your PBX (it should be defined in the VSDN table).

If all goes as planned, when you dial the queue it will play the appropriate message based on the time you set in the TOD entry.

 

[SwitchWitch]

You made it sound so simple... I'll give it a try.

 

[brewerdude]

There's a lot to building one of these. Make yourself a few test numbers and take it one step at a time. Once you get the hang of it, it's pretty easy.

Good luck!

 

[johnpoole]

are you going to use the tod for inbound routing?

john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc

 

[SwitchWitch]

Hey Dude:
I'm almost there!
What I can't figure out is where is the TOD Control Definition for Holiday.
I did just as you instructed.
I now have (3) IDs:
1137 (Business Service ID), 1138 (Off Hours), 1139 (Holiday).

My default Business Hours was: 09:00-22:00, I think this caused the Off-Hour announcement not to kick in. I gad to go in and reset the default hours to, 09:00-17:00.

Now I can get the Off-hour announcement to play, but I can't find where I set the Holiday Announcement.

Is there a limit to how many announcements can play (2-only) or can you have 3.

 

[brewerdude]

You'll have to create an announcement 1139 in the Announcement Services section.

When you're in there, hit F2 to add, and fill in all the necessary info. It'll be like any other announcement service, just designated as a holiday message.

 

[SwitchWitch]

I did:

-------------
View/Modify an Announcement Definition
Announcement ID: 1139 Title: holiday
Revert DN: 3713
Access Password: Update Password:
Silent disconnect after direct access: No Yes
Number of times to play if accessed directly: 2
Number of times to play if accessed via a menu: 1
Announcement Recorded (Voice): Yes
----------------

But there's no where to tell the holiday announcement what time to start playing.

 

[SwitchWitch]

I think I found my answer.
You can only have two IDs: One business and one Off-Hours.
The Holiday ID is only played according to the dates you enter on the holiday list.

BREWER... Thank you for your help!

 

[brewerdude]

Depending on the version you have, you should have a holiday entry on the TOD screen.

 

[SwitchWitch]

Brewer,

Thought I was all done, but another question now needs to be answered.

Can you have a combination of TOD service along w/ an announcement service.

Here's My Example.

There is already an announcement service active: 1600.
You call this number and an announcement is activated along w/ a multiple choice menu. I.E.,, press 1 to speak w/ ..., press 2 to go to .... etc.

I want to take the TOD service that I created, record it's own message and then point it to 1600.

Any words of widsom?

 

[brewerdude]

Well, you don't "record" anything on the TOD, it's just a service that directs calls depending on the time and date.

So, if the menu you refer to is what you want callers to hear during business hours, that 1600 would be the ID you enter for the Business Hours ID in the TOD.

Also, in your message you stated announcement, but what's on it sounds more like a menu. To be clear there are different types of voice services:

Announcement Service - just plays a message. When done will hang up the caller when complete
Menu Service - Allows you to build a menu with prompts 0-9
TOD Service - Allows you to redirect calls depending on time and date
Thru-dial Service - Allows you build a service that let's callers dial extensions

 

[SwitchWitch]

Got It!

If you're ever in NJ... Look Me Up.. I Owe You

 

[brewerdude]

np