I have a voicemail that is busy and overloaded all the time. How do I make it more efficient?

Firstly, this usually suprises customers and technicians when the decision to go "Full Auto Attendant" is made, although it can happen on new installs (when the salesman undersells it). If your bridges are kinda burned, and your thinking about upgrading/expanding the voicemail, here are a couple of things to try first.

1. Set the voicemail to do blind transfers.
By default, the voicemail "supervises" transfers to phones, causing a port to be busy for a long time. Even after the recipient picks up their phone, the voicemail is still busy while it says "you have a call". Set it for blind transfers by going into Hardware Settings/PBX Dialing Parameter. Change the sequence for Extension Transfer from FX to FXD. You may also change the Operator sequence to FXD, but there are other reasons not to (see below). You must then activate Call Forwarding Busy/No Answer on all extensions with mailboxes (Example KXTD series: intercom FWD/DND 5 165). Set the No Answer Timer in Phone System programming to desired number of rings (default is 3).

Note on transfers to operator: If you wish the operator to have his/her own personal mailbox (separate from general delivery mailbox), you will have to leave the sequence for Operator Transfers at the default (FX). Then you must set the Operator No Answer Time in the Voicemail (Automated Attendant/Operator's Parameter to be less than the No Answer Time in the Phone System (I ususally also increase the Phone System Timer to meet halfway).

2. Turn off External Message Notification.
This is a real resource hog. How long is the port busy trying to call these people on their cell phones? If you have a 2 port voicemail, and 7 people want notification, forgetaboutit!