Hi Nortelshop,
My apologies for not being able to get back with you sooner.
With an Access link, you are linking your Symposium Call Center Server with Meridian Mail. This is what gives the recorded announcements in Symposium. You can also do some more advanced things such as play a menu in Symposium and collect digits and then route calls accordingly using the access link.
It sounds like you have lineside T1s in your PBX that connect your PBX with your IVR. Print a TN of one of the lines on that lineside T1 by printing loop shelf card unit of the first slot of the lineside T1. These most likely are built as ACD sets that belong to a bigger queue. Then when calls that are going to the IVR come in, they are pointed to the queue which then sends the call over to the IVR for treatment. Usually the IVR plays a menu and can do a number of things. For instance, when you call into your bank or credit card company, you are prompted for your account number and then you can get information about account balance, etc. This is the IVR collecting the digits and then getting information from a database and sharing it back with the caller.
In the environment I am currently working at the IVR front ends our customer service calls. There are options to make a payment, check account balance, buy pay per view movies. The IVR automates this so that this call is never routed to a call center rep.
Is there an IVR team in your company? If so, they should be able to share some of the statistics with you like the call completion rate in the IVR and more of the specifics of what the IVR is used for in your company...
If any of this is not clear, please let me know and I will try to assist further...