One ACS R7 Partner & Partner Messaging - Two Businesses

[Resintel]

Hello,

I'd like to share an ACS R7 Partner & Partner Messaging with another business. I remember seeing a string on this site in the past that referenced this. If someone can point me to it I'd deeply appreciate it.

Thanks

 

[Resintel]

Sorry, Partner Mail R3 (2-Port)

 

[telecomtekperson]

You only have 1 Auto attendant and 10 mailboxes.

Working around that it is possible, but 1 company will have to have a mailbox as their AA (if need be). At which point the caller would possibly have to input *815 to reach ext 15...

It depends on how you need it to work.

In my opinion, it is time to upgrade if you want to really make this work correctly.

 

[phonesaz]

You need to take the lines that belong to the second company and assign them to whatever extension acts as their "main extension" rather than to the automated attendant. The mailbox for that extension would then act as the "automated attendant" for that second company. As noted, the main drawback is that the greeting would have to state that a caller needs to dial *8 before an extension number to transfer it. It works OK if the second company is small and is basically looking for a general greeting.

 

[Resintel]

Thank you for the input.

We're upgrading to Partner Messaging R6. This will give us the additional AA's. How should we program the system?

 

[phonesaz]

If you are going from 2 port to 4 port, you will need to tell the system what extensions the additional 2 ports are using (they will be either the 2 before or the 2 after the current ones; I always forget whether the card counts bottom to top or top to bottom.) You will also need to go into the line assignment to the hunt groups and tell the system which lines belong to which automated attendant.

If you haven't done the upgrade yet (made the purchase, that is) the only other thing I would consider is the added functionality of the voice mail. You are picking up a spell-by-name directory, many more options in terms controlling the number of rings before calls go to voice mail, and outcalling to name a few. The one feature you are not picking up without additional expense is the voice to email integration, which is becoming more and more useful. If you want to go that route, I would seriously look at a 3rd-party voice mail called DuVoice (check out their WEB site) I like it way better than partner messaging; costs a little more, but is pc-based and therefore way easier (much more visual) to program, has all the features of messaging and a lot more size, and comes with a built-in fax board and the ability to send voice mail to email as a .wav file. Something I would consider since with your purchase you have more opportunity to increase functionality than just getting more automated attendants. Sorry to ramble on so much.