Migrating to
Cisco Unity Connection from Another Voice-Messaging System
When the customer is replacing another voice messaging system
with Unity Connection, consider the following issues:
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How do users interact with each system? For example, the options
offered by the Unity Connection standard conversation (the telephone user
interface, or TUI) and the key presses used to accomplish tasks may be
different from what users are accustomed to using. As an alternative to the
standard conversation, some customers may want to activate Optional
Conversation 1 (the ARIA-like conversation available in Unity Connection) so
that users hear message-retrieval menus that more closely resemble the choices
they are familiar with. However, other menus—those that outside callers and
Unity Connection users use to send and manage messages, as well as the menus
that users use to change their Unity Connection settings—are the same as those
in the standard conversation.
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Ensure that the customer understands the Unity Connection
behaviors that are different from those of the voice messaging system it is
replacing. For example, if the customer does not currently use an automated
attendant feature and wants Unity Connection to be configured the same way,
this should be noted so that the installer configures Unity Connection
correctly. If it is necessary to make changes, for example to change the
behavior of the opening greeting, or to zero out to an operator option during a
personal greeting, these changes should be made and tested prior to the day of
the cutover.
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Plan a method for creating Unity Connection users. If they be
imported from an LDAP directory, imported from Cisco Unified Communications
Manager, imported from a CSV file, or added using Cisco Unity Connection
Administration? If they are imported from a CSV file or added using Unity
Connection Administration, where does the information come from? Creating user
accounts requires planning and testing prior to the cutover.
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The larger the installation or number of servers, the greater
the need to perform user enrollment tasks prior to the day of the cutover. If
too many users try to enroll simultaneously, some users (up to the number of
voice ports available) succeed in accessing the Unity Connection server and
enrolling, but the rest get a busy signal.
To prevent this negative user experience, smaller groups of
users should be told a few days in advance how to call the pilot number and
enroll in Unity Connection before the system goes live.
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If the customer has special audio-text applications set up in
the existing voice messaging system, Unity Connection equivalents should be
planned and set up before cutover. Unity Connection supports audio-text
applications and provides tools for designing and configuring them.
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Unity Connection does not support group mailboxes, but the same
functionality can be made available by setting up a call handler whose greeting
prompts the caller to “press 1 for Pat, press 2 for Chris,” and so on. Dispatch
messages may also provide the necessary functionality needed to support group
mailboxes. (For more information about dispatch messaging, see the “Dispatch
Messages” section of the “Messaging” chapter in the System
Administration Guide for Cisco Unity Connection
Release 11.x, at
https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/connection/11x/administration/guide/b_cucsag.html.
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When the Unity Connection design is finalized and verified
through lab qualification, Unity Connection functionality should also be tested
before cutover running a simulated load test and by running application test
plans.