Multiple mailboxes on one extension?

[avayanewbie]

New Partner ACS R5.0 system with Partner Mail 5.0.

We are tight on office space and have two people time-sharing a single office, ext #12 (Mark in the morning and Amy in the afternoon). Amy has mailbox #12 and we set Mark up with a guest mailbox of #17. Amy is happy, but when Mark is in the office, the receptionist transfers to #17 which always just rolls to his voice mail, even if he is free and able to take the call on #12.

I see two possible solutions:

1. Hardware - Back at the system unit, merge the cables coming out of #12 and #17 and plug the merged cable into the jack panel which leads to office #12. My question here is, will the phone get confused?

2. Software - There doesn't seem to be any way to associate a guest mailbox with another extension, so perhaps I can achieve a similar result by setting up an Auto Attendandant just for extension #12 - "...press 1 to leave a message for Amy, press 2 to leave a message for Mark" and then have those choices route directly to the appropriate mailboxes. I think Mark still won't get a message waiting light, and I don't like that outside callers have to make this choice."

Any better ideas? Any problems with how I am looking at this? I guess I was spoiled by my last VoIP system where userids and hardware were very easy to mix and match.

 

[jinxs]

I read the the new partner messenger has the abailty of phantom mailbox's. This seem exactly what you are looking for:
Phantom Mailbox: Allows a System Administrator to designate "phantom" mailbox extensions. With this feature, a caller leaves a message for one mailbox, which is actually delivered and received via a different or "phantom" mailbox. This gives businesses the flexibility to cover vacant extensions, use a single mailbox to cover two extensions, or shift phone coverage to another extension without changing the phone number. Phantom mailboxes are useful when someone wants all their messages to be forwared to another mailbox while on vacation, if they have transferred to another job or work in a remote office location.

Hope this might help

 

[itpphoneguy]

Hi avayanewbie,
What I do in that situation is install a single line phone for the other extension. Basically, I just want the message waiting light, save cost and desk space. Any cheap phone with an LED message light should work. I think Avaya sells just the message waiting light, but I'll bet it costs more that a cheapo phone. Both people would use the system phone.
-Chris

 

[TouchToneTommy]

As I read your problem, the receptionist is transferring the calls to 17, whether Mark is in the office or not. If you have 17 as an available physical port, and a spare CO line port, loop extension 17 to the spare CO, and assign that line to Ext. 12, with Immediate ring, but be sure to take it out of the Auto Line Select. In fact, you might use #302 (or is it #303?) to make that "line" on ext. 12 be "In Only". Oh, and change the ring pattern in #209 so it can be distinguished from an incoming line.

Now when the receptionist transferres calls to ext. 17, they will ring on that line button on ext. 12, and Mark can get his calls. Amy will need to ignore it when she is there.

 

[ttech]

You can have the afternoon guy dial Feature 20 17 12 at extention 12 - that will call cover extention 17 calls to extention 12 and if 12 does not pick up it will goto 17's Vmail. At the end of the day the guy would dial feature 20 17 17 to cancel the coverage.

or

You can program call coverage onto a button with lights at ext 12(feature 00 - press blank button with lights - feature 20 17 - feature 00) when the light is on coverage is on.
and
If you program an intercom autodial too it will flutter when a call from 17 comes into 12.


-Don

 

[mrpeabody]

Man, am I missing something? Examining the original question and taking it at complete face value:

"Amy is happy, but when Mark is in the office, the receptionist transfers to #17 which always just rolls to his voice mail, even if he is free and able to take the call on #12. "

I may be oversimplifying but what about this:

Remove Automatic VMS Cover on X12 and have the receptionist transfer the call to x12 when Mark/Amy is there, and Voicemail Transfer (Feature 14) if they are not. Also make sure the Transfer Recall is not set too high, because at night when the Auto Attendant transfers to x12, recall will kick in and send it to mailbox 12.

The only issue I see with this is that Mark/x17 wont get a message light. But he gets his own mailbox, he and Amy don't have to hit anything as they come and go, and it wont take up a CO line port.