Tag Archives: um

“Voice Mail Escape” – a golden new feature in #Lync Server 2013

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In Lync Server 2010 when a user configured simultaneously ringing in Lync, and they receive a call when their mobile phone is turned off, the call will automatically be answered (or redirected) by the carriers voicemail.

Well those times of bad voicemail are now over, with Lync Server 2013 a admin can opt to have the users business-related calls routed to their corporate voice mail system. This is done by a timer that we can configure (its off by default), and if the call is answered by the carrier’s voice mail within the range of time, Lync Server 2013 will disconnect the call from the operators voice mail system, while the user’s Lync clients (Lync or LPE) continue to ring and the caller is automatically routed to the user’s Exchange UM voice mail.

This is configured on the users Voice Policy and the only way to enable it is via the Lync Config Shell and the command Set-CsVoicePolicy

So by default it will look like this and we can see that its set to False

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By running the command:
Set-CsVoicePolicy Global -EnableVoiceMailEscapeTimer $true – PSTNVoicemailEscapeTimer 2000

We now change it to True and to wait 2 seconds, and if the call is answered before the 2 seconds the call will be disconnected and still ring on the Lync endpoints untill the configured time out on the Lync client kicks in and then the call is sent to Exchange UM.

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Troubleshooting 101:6 The Unified Messaging Troubleshooting Tool

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There is a new tool currently in beta just out from Microsoft. The Exchange UM Troubleshooting Tool.

The Exchange 2010 UM Troubleshooting Tool is an Exchange Management Shell cmdlet that you can use to diagnose configuration errors specific to call answering scenarios and to test whether voice mail is functioning correctly in both on-premises and cross-premises UM deployments. You can use this cmdlet in deployments with Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 or Microsoft Communications Server "14" or in UM deployments with IP gateways or IP PBXs.
This cmdlet emulates calls and runs a series of diagnostic tests that help on-premises administrators to identify misconfigurations in telephony equipment, Exchange Server 2010 SP1 Unified Messaging settings, and connectivity issues between on-premises and cross-premises deployment of Exchange 2010 SP1 Unified Messaging.
When you run the cmdlet, it states the reason and possible solutions for issues that have been detected. It also outputs general audio quality metrics for diagnosing audio quality issues related to network connectivity such as jitter and average packet loss.

Download here

Mastering MS UC – #OCS & #Exchange UM in Stockholm 26/5 – 3days

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I we managed to score some sweet deals from some of my partners (Microsoft, Plantronics, Interoute, Ingate, Dialogic) for my lab @ http://labcenter.se/Lab/2055 and my office is starting to look like a Best Buy or something with all the gadgets and stuff i got for the lab now.
There is Bluetooth headsets, wired ones, phones, speaker phones, CX5000 (roundtables), HD webcams, sip gateways and some other surprises.

So if you are in to Unified Communications and want to learn some more of the whole ecosystem around Microsoft’s UC offering i really recommend you to sign up.

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In three intensive days together with me, we will go through the various components of Microsoft’s Unified Communications offering.

Office Communications Server with Exchange is the foundation of Microsoft’s unified communications offering and in this lab we will review and build OCS 2007 R2 from scratch, with all its various roles, including Exchange 2010 Unified Messaging.

The Lab contain many practical exercises and goes through the basic functions such as IM, online meetings in Live Meeting, Federation and Desktop Sharing. After that we will deepen ourselves in Enterprise Voice, SIP trunks, SIP gateways and the Exchange UM role.

We will also look at OCS in the cloud and compare the differences between having one yourself or buy it as a service from for example Microsoft Online Services.

http://labcenter.se/Lab/2055

Exchange UM & Outlook Voice Access “Find Me”

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I we been playing around quite much with the Exchange UM role lately and the more i use it and play with it, the better it gets and i starting to miss not have it deployed in our own production environment yet.

If you haven’t tested the Outlook Voice Access (OVA) in 2010 yet send me a email and i will get you a account in my demo for you to play around with for a while to get a feeling of it.

To start with, Exchange UM is really great to have when you are on the move and need to check something right away and its a real lifesaver in cars.

But what more do i find so great about it? Well my personal favorite is that i can set up “Find me” rules for my voice mail.

So lets say I don’t want to give out my mobile number to everyone since i use the same number both private and for business. People have my business card with my office number, and that should be enough. UM in Exchange 2010 offers a really great way to solve this problem.

From my personal options screen, which I can reach from Exchange 2010 Outlook Web App (OWA), I can create a Call Answering Rule for lets say Bengt. When Bengt calls my office number and I don’t answer, UM will pick up the call, find the rule that I created, and follow the instructions in the rule. UM will play the special greeting I recorded: “Hello, Bengt. I’m not at my desk at the moment. If you want to try to reach me on my mobile phone, press 1. If you just want to leave me a voice message, press 2.” If Bengt presses 1, UM will ask him to tell his name, and then ask him to wait while it tries to find me. It will place Bengt on hold, and make a call to my mobile number (or any other number, like my home or wife’s mobile number, which I placed in the rule, where no one can see it). If I answer UM’s call on my mobile phone, it will play Bengts name and ask me if I want to speak with him. If I say “Yes”, UM will take Bengt off hold, and connect him to me. The end result is that Bengt called me on my mobile phone, without knowing the number. This is an easy way for me to increase control of my communications and still let people contact me regardless of me having to stay near my office number.

Doesn’t that sounds great but how do you do it?

Well you need to be Exchange 2010 UM enabled and the administrator have to do some outbound dialing rules (witch i will cover in a later post) for UM to actually be able to make a call to your mobile.

Then its as simple as creating a mail rule in Outlook

But you will now use OWA instead. So just open a browser and then log on to your OWA, then go to options (alternatively you can just add ecp to the url instead of owa so it will look something like this: https://mail.contoso.com/ecp )

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Then just go to the Phone page / Voice mail tab and from there you can create your rules by clicking New Rule and then give it a name and start to add some of the following conditions

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So i rule i would like to have is VIP customers

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I don’t like early mornings but i often stay up late so its ok if they call late…

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…as long as they pay for it that is.

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I can then add some more choices like a press 2 for the regular service desk

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So i now have a rule that looks like this

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And this will now be played by the Auto Attendant voice to caller in the VIP Customers 1 group if they call me and reach my voice mail during the times i specified, but since this is my VIP customers calling i would like to add a little personality to it and let them hear my voice telling this instead of a “robot”.

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If i click the Call the Play on Phone… OVA will let me put in a phone number and then call me on that number so i can record a personal message.

 

Personally i see much more use of this now compared to UM in Exchange 2007.

Please post a comment of what rules would you create and how do you see that you could use this to maximize your communication by taking control of it? 

How to change voice prompts in Exchange UM using the Telephone User Interface

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Did you know that you can connect to the Exchange Auto Attendant, and then change/update an existing greeting from home, on a regular phone or from the office, on a OCS endpoint. This can be useful when you have to post an informational greeting telling that the office is closed due to bad weather or something.

Before you can perform this procedure, you need to be assigned permissions. To see what permissions you need, see the "UM dial plans" entry in the Unified Messaging Permissions topic.

This example enables you to manage custom prompt recording using the telephone user interface. You can record custom prompts and greetings by using the TUI if you follow these steps:

  1. Create a domain user account that cannot log on interactively.
  2. Delegate the Exchange Organization Administrator role to the domain user account.
  3. Create an Exchange mailbox for the domain user.
  4. Enable the domain user’s mailbox for Unified Messaging.

    Bb691404.note(en-us,EXCHG.140).gifImportant:

    Allow only those administrators who are managing prompts and greetings access to the extension number and PIN for the domain user account. Use this domain user account only for managing prompts over the telephone.

  5. Create a .wav file to be used for the custom greeting for the UM dial plan or auto attendant. Save the .wav file and upload it to a Unified Messaging server.
  6. Run the following cmdlet:
    1. Set-UMDialPlan -identity MyUMDialPlan -TUIPromptEditingEnabled $true
  7. Call the subscriber access number for the dial plan or the telephone number that is configured on the auto attendant. During the playback of the greeting for the dial plan or auto attendant, press the # key and then the * key.
  8. Follow the prompts to log on and edit the greetings. You will be prompted for the prompts for the dial plan or auto attendant that you have selected. The prompts in the TUI will let you select the existing prompt or greeting that you want to change.
  9. After you have saved the new custom prompt or greeting, the existing .wav file for the prompt or greeting will be replaced.

For more info and original source se How to Enable Custom Prompt Recording Using the Telephone User Interface in Exchange 2007 or Enable Custom Prompt Recording Using the Telephone User Interface in Exchange 2010

No Exchange 2010 UM Voice Mail Preview in Swedish, yet..

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I’m playing around with Exchange 2010 and integration with OCS for the lab and found out that the UM language packs in which MS expect to support Voice Mail Preview in the initial release is:

1. English (US)

2. English (Canada)

3. French

4. Italian

5. Polish

6. Portuguese

 

No Swedish as of now but there is a language pack for Swedish and all the features that only worked in English in the 2007 release now works, so at least we can control UM with voice now.

UC Lab @ labcenter

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My OCS / Exchange UM lab is now live at labcenter.se

We review and build OCS 2007 R2 from scratch with all its various roles including Exchange 2010 UM. The lab contains many practical exercises to bring up the basic functions such as IM, online meetings in Live Meeting, Federation and Desktop Sharing. After the basic functions we will also immerse ourselves in the Enterprise Voice, SIP trunks, SIP gateways and Exchange UM-role

So if you are waiting for the next step in your UC deployment or are in the planning stage or process of rolling out Microsoft Unified Communications in your organization i highly recommend you to get some practical  skills first by attending this lab.

http://www.labcenter.se/Lab/2055