Unity Cxn 8 - Caller Input - unable to "Zero-out" 1

[MitelInMyBlood]

We've set up some zero points for several of our users, but customers are complaining it doesn't work.

In researching, it seems any "Caller Input" (such as zero) has to be input before reaching the end of the greeting (the beep). Once the beep plays then and "Caller Input" is ignored.

This seems unintuitive. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks!!

Original MUG/NAMU Charter Member

 

[whykap]

Actually nothing is wrong. This is the correct functionality. Once the "beep" is heard, you are in the recording session. Any caller input will need to happen before that. If the recording is too fast for the callers to zero out, either leave a long pause at the end of the recording, giving them a chance to react or set the greeting so it repeats before it goes into the recording session.

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

Thanks!

I was afraid of that. Unfortunately, this represents a significant change in functionality from our former system (Octel Overture 350) so I'm probably going to get some pushback.

That's one of the problems with users having remained on the same system for 20+ years, they become very comfortable with it and even the slightest change is seen as an adversity.

Original MUG/NAMU Charter Member

 

[whykap]

Let me just say this. Even though Unity is a very powerful and seasoned voice mail system, trying to compare it to an OCTEL is futile. The octel line stopped being developed shortly after AT&T acquired them almost 20 yrs ago. To the day however, and with a 20yr old technology, there is not another voice mail system that can compare to the octel features, ease of usage from a end user perspective, and robustness.
I am saying this with the danger of getting different opinions from other users here.
Unity will stand tall against any other "modern" voice mail system today. hands down. From features, an endless list of PBX integration capability, true failover and unified messaging to end user ease of use and system administration.
Octel however, minus the features that IPTEL has enabled us with is still the standard that all mamufacturers are trying to reach.

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

Thanks. Indeed, the Octel was unarguably the single most dependable piece of hardware in our shop. Close to 100,000 hours on the drives and never the first hiccup. We initially purchased a broad compliment of hardware spares (power supply, TIC cards, CPU, network card, a couple spare drives, etc., all still today in their original unopened cartons. Positively amazing. The secondary market (buyer) who came in to pick that thing up was grinning from ear to ear.

Perhaps most challenging, we've discovered that several things (in programming) we were able to knock out on the Octel in a matter of minutes, now take hours to duplicate in Unity Cxn. Most sorely missed is the Type 34 and Type 35 transfer and conditional transfer mailboxes.

I'm sure we'll survive...



Original MUG/NAMU Charter Member

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

By the way, I discovered today just how much we miss the Octel "Type-35" Conditional Transfer mailbox.

Replicating in UCXN one which had a night schedule spanning across the midnight hour led me down the primrose path back into CUCM and learning about some of the finer points of "Time Of Day Routing". Holy crap! Now I have a better appreciation of what it means to reinvent the wheel.

Original MUG/NAMU Charter Member

 

[whykap]

Time of day routing" feature is powerful but cumbersome to say the least. Especially when you have different timelines for different DNs. Lots of partitions to manage when that happens.

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

Cumbersome" is a polite way of saying it. The DN in question was a 24-hr on-call support line. 8A~5P Mon~Fri to 1 destination then 5P to 8A + 24 hr weekends and holidays to the on-call team. At the end of the day I had 5 partitions. (8A~5P) + (5P~midnight) + (Midnight to 8A) + (weekends) + (holidays) and I'm still not sure I have it fully covered.

Original MUG/NAMU Charter Member

 

[whykap]

You should really look into uccx. As a matter of fact cisco gives the software away on new installs with up to 10 enhanced agents. So all you should have to provide is a server, a 7825-I4 should be sufficient and it is not that expensive.
A simple script would have taken care of the above and you wouldn't have this mess to troubleshoot and support.
It's not just a call center app, it can be used to simplify other functions, like the one you described. For example, I've used it to front end a main line as AA, instead of routing it to unity and having to deal with a relentless menu that would have required 40 or more call handlers. Very powerful app.

Did you not get the free uccx licensing when you installed all that new gear last year?

 

[MitelInMyBlood]

Yes we did... and we bought 2 redundant 7825's but nobody knows how to do anything on uccx & the VAR has said "programming uccx is very complex" - as if to maybe encourage us to use them.

Original MUG/NAMU Charter Member