Merlin Newbie needs some help with setting up AA. 1

[DeepList]

We just recently purchased a Merlin Legend system for a great price. We've upgraded all of the equipment in our office and we're loving all of the new features. We have a MLM 007 module. I was able to log into it, run INIT, reset all of the old company's info off and set up voice mail for everybody in the office. It works great. When calling somebody's extension, if they don't answer, it goes to their VM, just how we want it to.

However, we want all incomming calls to be answered by an AA before even ringing any of the phones and the caller be presented with a message like "Press 1 for Mr Smith. Press 2 for Mrs Jones, press 3 for Mr the Sales Dept, etc." Right now when somebody calls in, it rings on all of the phones in the whole office, and then goes to the VM for the operator, which is ext 10.

I am pretty good at figuring this stuff out, but I have been messing with coverage groups and everything else for the last 2 days and can NOT seem to figure this out. I think I just need some general guidance on the proceedure that I need to follow to set this up.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Telecomboy]

Assign the lines to a phantom extension. make that extension principal owner. Then create a mailbox with class of service 15 matching the extension you are using. Class of service 15 is AA1. If that is too complicated, you can change x10 to class of service 15 as it sounds like x10 already had principal ownership. But, if you do so, then x10 will no longer have a personal mailbox as it will now be the AA.

 

[DeepList]

Okay, I did make ext 10 with a COS of 15 and it worked okay, but the receptionist uses 10 and we don't want to lose the personal mailbox so we put it back.

What you have mentioned here seems easy enough. The only other question that I would have is how do you re-assign the incoming lines to specific extentions and make it primary owner?

Thanks.

 

[Telecomboy]

Under lines/trunks, there is the option for pricipal user. Assign those lines as principal user for whichever extension you decide to utilize for the AA. Those lines can still ring on other phones, but they will cover to the extension with proncipal user. Make sure that user is also in voicemail coverage group (usually 30, but could be another number depending upon how it was set-up)

 

[TouchToneTommy]

You could just assign the trunks or pools to the Voice Mail Calling Group, and set any extensions with line appearances to delayed ring.

Incoming calls will be answered by the auto attendant, but if the VM system dies, or all the ports are busy, the phones will ring instead.

 

[DeepList]

I had delayed ring set on all extensions because I found that no matter what, there was always at least one ring that came through on the phones with lines assigned to them. Now I just set the cover delay for the phantom extenstion with the COS of 15 to just 2 rings, and the AA answers before any phone has a chance to ring, which is what we want. Just out of interest, how do you assign trucks to a specific group?

 

[TouchToneTommy]

You go to Extensions, More, Group Calling, Lines Trunks, then dial the voicemail calling group number (usually 770) and Enter. Here you dial the pool (usually 70 for the main pool), or the individual trunk numbers (801, 802, etc.) if the lines are not pooled.

This eliminates the need to assign the lines to an extension that covers to voicemail, and make a matching mailbox with a class of service that steers it to the AA. This also lets you have a personal mailbox for the Operator extension.

 

[DeepList]

Worked like magic. Thank you so much for your help!