TIPS Shared Voicemail?

[John C.]

I am using Incredible PBX for a home setup, where I have an inbound route that feeds a ring group that rings all extensions in the house. If no one answers, I would like to send the call to voicemail for them to leave a message (that would again be for the entire household). There are a lot of options for destination if no answer, but specific voicemail box isn't one of them. I see voicemail blasting as an option, but that seems like overkill. I am considering creating a new extension with voicemail enabled that is not registered to any device and then forwarding calls to that extension (in the hopes that it would go immediately to VM). I could then program all extensions to use that VM box Before I just start trying things, does anyone have a best practice you would recommend for this particular situation? Thanks.

 

[atsak]

Unless this has recently changed use the (none) virtual extension when creating one. That is a defacto voicemail only mailbox.

 

[ext-104]

You could set up virtual extensions for each person in your household. Forward unanswered call to auto-attendant
"to leave a voicemail for John press 1. for betty press 2. etc and then forward voicemails to each persons email, (including speech to text translation) and delete voicemail off PBX.

Just saying. it's what I would do. That should keep you busy.

 

[John C.]

Unless this has recently changed use the (none) virtual extension when creating one. That is a defacto voicemail only mailbox.

There is no extension (none). When I select to send to an extension, it defaults to the first extension in the list. And if I send it there, then it will attempt to ring just that extension.

You could set up virtual extensions for each person in your household. Forward unanswered call to auto-attendant
"to leave a voicemail for John press 1. for betty press 2. etc and then forward voicemails to each persons email, (including speech to text translation) and delete voicemail off PBX.

Just saying. it's what I would do. That should keep you busy.

Most of the messages are junk. Generally someone will check the messages once a week or so and let anyone know if they have a message of any importance. If we scattered them out to multiple boxes, a fair number of messages might go a year or more before being checked. Easiest just to let one person play triage and filter the occasional wheat from the more plentiful chaff. The only reason I have considered IVR would be to add a prompt "If you are not a robo-telemarketer and really want to leave a message, hit 1" just to filter out some of the junk. I just worry that the time required to explain the new "hit 1" prompt to grandma might consume more time than deleting the junk does.

 

[atsak]

You have to create the virtual extension first in the extensions application.

 

[John C.]

OK. So it is like what I was thinking. I just need to create an otherwise "dead" extension and route everything there to collect voicemail.

One more dumb question... what do I need to configure to allow a second call to rollover to the second extension? So, for example, my kitchen phone has extensions 31 and 32. 31 is part of the main ring group. If another call comes in, since 31 is busy, how does it know to ring everything in the ring group except roll the call for 31 over to 32?

Thanks. Appreciate the assistance.

 

[dallas]

OK. So it is like what I was thinking. I just need to create an otherwise "dead" extension and route everything there to collect voicemail.

One more dumb question... what do I need to configure to allow a second call to rollover to the second extension? So, for example, my kitchen phone has extensions 31 and 32. 31 is part of the main ring group. If another call comes in, since 31 is busy, how does it know to ring everything in the ring group except roll the call for 31 over to 32?

Thanks. Appreciate the assistance.

If you look at the CDR you will see a record for each extension in the ring group. By clicking on the system id for the call you will see where the call is ringing. If extn 31 is busy only available extensions in the ring group will be rung.

So the answer is to test, test and test. There is enough info in the CDRs and log to see how it works.

The short answer is "it just works".

 

[dhoppy]

In my ring groups I can pick "Voicemail" as the destination if not answered. It is right above Voicemail Blasting (destination if no answer has 2 drop down menus). Then I have the choice, for each extension that has voicemail enabled, to pick 701 (busy message), 701 (not avail message), or 701 (No Message). I always set up my systems to email the voicemail. If I want the voicemail to go to multiple people, I think you can list two addresses under each extension, but what I do is setup a distribution list on the email server that gets updated as employees join or leave the company.

 

[John C.]

You are right dhoppy! Once I created the "extra" extension just for voicemail and turned voicemail on, then voicemail became an option. My next challenge will be enabling speech to text and then emailing that (with the actual voicemail attached), but that will take a little more work as currently sendmail isn't working since this is just running on a server in my basement. I'll have to figure out how to configure it it connect to an ISP SMTP. Isn't there always something else that can be done?

 

[John C.]

The voicemail was much easier than expected to configure. I was able to get email and IBM voice transcription both working with only minimal difficulties. Great instructions make a huge difference. Thanks for all the pointers.