User Workstation Setup Guide for Cisco Unity Connection Release 12.x

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User Workstation Setup Guide for Cisco Unity Connection Release 12.x

Chapter Title

Operator and Support Desk Orientation

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Updated:
October 24, 2017

Chapter: Operator and Support Desk Orientation

Operator and Support Desk Orientation

Operator and Support Desk Orientation

Overview

Operators in your organization need information about Cisco Unity Connection that is specific to your installation. In addition, if your organization has a support desk, the staff need to be prepared to answer the questions that users may ask, and to be aware of the resources that are available to assist them in answering user questions.

Operator Orientation

Operator orientation should address the same points as user orientation, but in greater detail. Operators must be familiar with how users use Unity Connection. Depending on the size of your organization, the operator may be the person users are likely to ask when they have questions about Unity Connection.

In addition to the information in the User Orientation chapter and the “Support Desk Orientation” (as applicable), operators also need to understand the following concepts and tasks.

Roles of the Operator and the Automated Attendant

The way your organization uses the automated attendant determines what the operator responsibilities are. The automated attendant is a call handler that is used in place of a human operator to answer and direct calls by playing greetings and responding to caller input. The automated attendant can provide a menu of options (for example, “For Sales, press 1; for Service, press 2.”), and it can also provide information (for example, “Our normal business hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.”).

Directing Calls

Regardless of how your organization uses the automated attendant, many calls go to the operator. The operator must know how to direct calls to voicemail and to user phones. With Cisco Unified Communications Manager, you can program the phone to direct calls to voicemail. For details on setting this up, see the tech note How to Transfer a Caller Directly into a Cisco Unity Mailbox, available at http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/sw/voicesw/ps2237/prod_tech_notes_list.html.

Forwarding Messages to Intended Recipients

If an operator also owns a call handler or system distribution list, make sure that the operator knows to review messages frequently, and to forward messages as necessary to the applicable recipients.

Using the Cisco Unity Greetings Administrator

An operator who is responsible for changing call handler greetings for the organization can use the Cisco Unity Greetings Administrator when it is not practical to change a greeting in Cisco Unity Connection Administration. For example, if the office is unexpectedly closed because of bad weather, the operator can call from home to use the Cisco Unity Greetings Administrator to enable the alternate Opening Greeting, or to rerecord a call handler greeting stating that the office is closed.

Using the Cisco Unity Broadcast Message Administrator

If an operator is responsible for sending recorded announcements to everyone in an organization (or to particular locations within an organization), explain how to access and use the Cisco Unity Broadcast Message Administrator to send broadcast messages.

Support Desk Orientation

Support desk orientation should address the same points as user and operator orientation, but in greater detail. Support desk staff must be familiar with how users and operators use Unity Connection, and the common problems that users may encounter when using Unity Connection. Instead of using the Unity Connection server, it may be helpful to set up a test server that support desk staff can use to browse to Cisco Unity Connection Administration, and troubleshoot and test client applications.

To prepare for possible calls to the support desk at your organization, familiarize the support desk staff with the resources listed in the following “Support Desk Resources” section, and with the potential user concerns and misconceptions listed in the “Potential User Concerns and Misconceptions” section . (See also the“Operator Orientation” section and the “User Orientation” chapter.)

Support Desk Resources

Potential User Concerns and Misconceptions

Table 5-1 describes potential user issues, which are typically based on misconceptions about how Cisco Unity Connection works. Users who encounter such issues are often those who are accustomed to another voice messaging system, have not yet completed Unity Connection training, or are unaware of a new feature or functionality change to an existing system.

Table 1. Potential User Concerns and Misconceptions

Potential Issue

Description

Delayed messages

Users may believe that their messages are delayed for the following reasons:

  • While listening to new messages, users may skip a message and inadvertently mark it new. Later, when they check messages again, they hear the skipped message and believe that the message arrived after a delay.

  • Users may skip more messages than they intend while listening to their messages, and later check messages again only to hear one or more of the skipped messages, and believe that the messages arrived after a delay.

  • While listening to messages, other new messages arrive that users may not be aware of. Later, when they check messages again, they hear the new messages and believe that they were delayed.

Deleted messages

By default, when users delete a new or saved message, Unity Connection does not ask them to confirm the deletion. You may want to enable Unity Connection to request confirmation from users before proceeding with the deletion, especially if many users do not belong to a class of service that allows them to retain and review their deleted messages. You can set up Unity Connection to confirm deletion of messages on the System Settings > Advanced > Conversations page in Cisco Unity Connection Administration.

For information on deleted messages, see the “Managing Deleting Messages” chapter of the User Guide for the Cisco Unity Connection Phone Interface (Release 11.x), available at http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/connection/11x/user/guide/phone/b_11xcucugphone.html.

Deleted messages: IMAP and MAPI behavior

When users access messages stored on a Microsoft Exchange server both from a Microsoft Outlook client and from Unity Connection, they may experience unexpected and confusing behavior when deleting messages. The difference in behavior occurs when the Microsoft Outlook client is configured to use MAPI, the Microsoft interface for connecting to Exchange, and stems from the fact that MAPI and IMAP—the protocol used by Unity Connection—use different mechanisms for marking messages as deleted.

If you have users who access a Microsoft Exchange server using Outlook (with MAPI) or Outlook Web Access, and who also use Unity Connection to manage messages on the same message store, be sure to alert them to this behavior.

Deleted Messages—IMAP Behavior

When a user deletes a message from Microsoft Outlook, the message is moved from the Inbox to the Deleted Items folder. At this point, Unity Connection can no longer access the message, and no longer indicates that the message exists either as a new, saved, or deleted message.

Deleted Messages—MAPI Behavior

When a user deletes a message from Unity Connection, the message remains in the Inbox but is flagged to indicate that it has been marked deleted by the user. However, when configured to use MAPI, Microsoft Outlook does not recognize this flag as a deletion, and continues to display the message as a new or saved message in the Inbox.

Device for recording or playback does not show in ViewMail for Outlook device lists

When users add or turn on a new recording or playback device, they must restart the ViewMail for Outlook add-in so it can recognize the new device. To restart ViewMail, restart Outlook.

Directory listing: users are not listed as expected

When users do not have a recorded name, they are not listed in the corporate directory and as a result, outside callers are not be able to find them when searching for them by name. By default, Unity Connection prompts users to record a name during first-time enrollment, but it does not prevent them from completing the enrollment process if they do not.

To address this issue, consider the following options:

  • You can change whether recording a name is required to complete first-time enrollment on the System Settings > Advanced > Conversations page in Cisco Unity Connection Administration.

  • You can provide recorded names for users in Cisco Unity Connection Administration.

  • Users with class of service rights can record their own names using the Unity Connection conversation or the Unity Connection Messaging Assistant.

    Note 
    This problem does not occur for internal users, but only for outside callers; Unity Connection users who address messages by name are still able to find other users even if they have not recorded a name.

Fax: attached files are not delivered to fax machines

(fax integrations only)

Users may be unaware that when they add attachments to an email message and then send the message to a fax machine, Unity Connection renders only those attachments with the file extensions specified during Unity Connection setup. All other attachments are removed.

IMAP client: Differences in client behavior

Users who use different third-party IMAP clients to access voice messages from their desktop machines may note the following discrepancies in behavior:

  • Microsoft Outlook client:

    • For new messages, the “Mark as Unread” feature marks messages as new on the Unity Connection server, regardless of whether the WAV file message attachment is downloaded or not.

    • Voice messages that are deleted by phone are marked for deletion in the Outlook client and are changed to strikethrough text when users select the “Send/Receive” command.

  • Novell GroupWise client:

    • When new messages with the WAV file message attachment have been downloaded to the GroupWise client, the “Read Later” feature no longer marks the message as new on the Unity Connection server.

    • Voice messages that are deleted by phone are not marked for deletion in GroupWise; users need to manually delete them from this client.

    • GroupWise users need to use the “Send/Retrieve” command to update message status from the Unity Connection server.

Mailbox fills up quickly

Users may complain that their mailboxes are filling up too quickly, for any of the following reasons:

  • Unity Connection does not automatically delete messages when they reach a certain age. This means that user messages are saved until the user deletes them permanently. (For information on how to permanently delete messages, see the “Managing the Size of Your Mailbox” chapter of the User Guide for the Cisco Unity Connection Phone Interface (Release 11.x), available at http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/connection/11x/user/guide/phone/b_11xcucugphone.html).

  • When users receive nondelivery receipts (NDRs) to messages that they send, their email client mailbox can quickly increase in size—especially if the original message included large attachments. For users who have access to email messages via TTS, if their email clients are configured to save their sent messages, the original message and attachments are stored in their Sent Items folders and another copy is sent to their Inboxes along with the NDR, increasing their mailbox size accordingly.

  • Users may receive messages that have been forwarded many times over, which increases message size. The original message plus all recorded introductions that were added during forwarding equal the total message size. As a result, users who have relatively few messages stored in their mailboxes may still find that their mailboxes exceed the storage limits.

  • User mailboxes can fill up while users are on vacation or on an extended leave of absence. To prevent this, specify that Unity Connection prevents callers from leaving messages when users have their alternate greetings enabled.

Message notification: repeat notification options

When a user chooses not to have Unity Connection restart notification each time a new message arrives, setting a long interval between repeat notification calls may lead the user to believe that Unity Connection is delaying notification.

Media Master: opening a file that is saved on a workstation

When a user attempts to use a previously recorded WAV file (for example, an announcement that was recorded earlier) rather than recording using a phone or a computer microphone, the Media Master may display an error message. The error occurs when the WAV file was recorded in the G.729a audio format. To resolve the problem, the user must do one of the following:

  • Convert the WAV file to another audio format (for example, convert it to the G.711 audio format).

  • Use a WAV file that is recorded in a supported audio format other than G.729a.

  • Make the recording using a phone or a computer microphone.

MWIs

To gain an understanding of when MWIs turn on and off, what causes them to turn on and off, and what causes MWIs to behave differently than expected, see the “Troubleshooting the Message Waiting Indicators (MWIs)” chapter of the Troubleshooting Guide for Cisco Unity Connection, Release 11.x, at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/voice_ip_comm/connection/11x/troubleshooting/guide/b_11xcuctsg.html.

Passwords and PINs are not secure, or users use the wrong password or PIN

Users may assume that their phone PINs and Cisco Personal Communications Assistant (PCA) passwords are the same or are synchronized. As a result, they may think that they are changing both PIN and password when Unity Connection prompts them to change their phone PIN during first-time enrollment. Additionally, they may try to use their phone PIN to sign in to the Cisco PCA.

Speed for elements of the Unity Connection conversation varies

Users may report that the speed at which Unity Connection plays menus, recorded names, greetings, and messages is inconsistent. For example, users may report that when they listen to their messages, the message is played at a different speed than the recorded names of users who leave them messages and the message properties (for example, the time stamp and message number).

Such inconsistencies are expected when you consider the following:

  • Unity Connection plays recorded names and greetings at the speed at which they were recorded. Neither you nor users can affect the playback speed of recorded names and greetings.

  • Messages played via Text to Speech (TTS) are always played at normal speed by default, regardless of message playback settings.

  • The speed that you or a user specifies for system prompts—the standard recordings that come with the Unity Connection system, including prompts for message properties—does not affect the playback speed of messages.

  • The speed that users specify for message playback does not affect system prompts.

Unread messages

Depending on how Unity Connection is set up at your organization, users may be surprised at how Unity Connection handles messages when calls are intentionally or unintentionally disconnected (for example, when a user hangs up or when a mobile phone loses its charge or signal) while users are in the process of listening to new messages. Some users may incorrectly assume that Unity Connection marks the message as read, which is not the case.

You can change how Unity Connection handles unread messages when calls are disconnected by adjusting the Mark Message Saved If User Hangs Up setting on the System Settings > Advanced > Conversations page of Cisco Unity Connection Administration.

Unsent messages

Depending on how Unity Connection is set up at your organization, users may be surprised at how Unity Connection handles messages when calls are intentionally or unintentionally disconnected (for example, when a user hangs up or when a mobile phone loses its charge or signal) while users are in the process of sending, replying to, or forwarding a message. Some users may incorrectly assume that Unity Connection offers a draft folder for unsent messages, which is not the case.

You can change how Unity Connection handles unsent messages when calls are disconnected by adjusting the Send Message If User Hangs Up During Recording setting on the System Settings > Advanced > Conversations page of Cisco Unity Connection Administration.

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