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Voicemail was invented by Gordon Mathews in the late seventies to manage
electronic messages in digital format. His invention was patented in 1982. He
set up a company called VMX in Dallas for his voicemail systems and sold his
first commercial voicemail system to 3M. VMX stands for Voice Message Express.
VMX was ultimately purchased by Lucent Technologies and later became known as
Avaya.
Traditionally voicemail is a system which records and plays back caller’s
messages. The original VMX voicemail system was proprietary and so expensive
that only very large corporations could afford them.
As a result it was not widely used until the introduction of PC-based voice
processing boards. This significantly reduced the cost of voicemail systems as
software developers could create voicemail software that work on industry
standard personal computers. The affordability of voicemail puts it within the
reach of the masses.
Voicemail grew to be very popular and over the years, it has become a common
offering for most phone systems.
The traditional PABX is not integrated with a voicemail system. In order to
bundle a voicemail system into its package, a third-party voicemail system is
connected to the main PABX.
The basic voicemail system provides the following functions:
When a caller calls a user and the line is busy or when the user is unable to
receive that call, the following happens:
When the user accesses the system to retrieve his voice messages, the system
performs the following:
Over the years, the functions have broadly expanded into the following areas:
Although voicemail is now a basic offering for any telephone system, it is not
an inherent part of the traditional PABX system. It is an external add-on to
the traditional PABX system. In order to include voicemail functions, a
voicemail server need to be installed on a separate and proprietary computer
telephony (CT) box. It also requires dedicated phone lines to the main PABX
system.
On the other hand, voicemail is one of the features of the PowerX2011™ telecom
server. The message is automatically processed by the voicemail without any
loss of time routing the message back and forth between the PABX system and the
external voicemail subsystem before recording and retrieval.
The voicemail system in the PowerX2011™ telecom server offers many advanced
features that are useful for the busy executive in today’s fast paced
environment. Some of the main features are as follows:
Notification of incoming messages is one of the features offered by the
PowerX2011™ telecom server voicemail system. As you note, the voicemail
facility within PowerX2011™ telecom server incorporates rich features. Not only
is it able to provide notification of new messages, it is able to offer options
on how users wish to be notified.
System settings for outdial notification includes the following:
The user can easily configure receipt of his notification from any of the
following devices via the key telephone set and change the setting as often as
he pleases:
The user can playback an existing notification and then replace it. He can also
check on the status of the notification feature.
Local and remote access to voice mailboxes is also provided by the
PowerX2011™ telecom server. This ensures that users can continue to attend to
customers when they are out of the office.
Local or remote maintenance of the mailboxes can be achieved using the
PowerX2011™ telecom server. Some of the maintenance tasks available remotely
are:
Review voice messages in the context of the PowerX2011™ telecom server
is more than merely playing back voice messages. Many options are offered to
users when reviewing their voice messages. Of particular interest are the reply
and forward features. Some of these options are:
Replying to message feature saves users much time. Instead of having to
redial the caller or search for the caller’s number to return his call, this
can be quickly achieved by pressing the telephone handset numeric button thanks
to the PowerX2011™ telecom server. No time is wasted in searching for the
caller’s phone number or exiting the voicemail retrieval system and then return
the phone call.
Forwarding of messages is another feature which saves users' time.
Sometimes it may not be convenient for users to return customers’ calls
immediately, for instance, if they are on business in the United States and the
customers are in Asia where the time difference is about 12 hours. In such
circumstances, they may have to delegate the return of the phone calls to their
colleagues in the home office in Asia. By facilitating the forwarding of voice
messages with comments, the PowerX2011™ telecom server enables their colleagues
in the home to listen for themselves the original voice messages. At the same
time, the users who are away in the United States can record comments to the
customers’ voice messages and forward both the messages and their comments to
their colleagues in the home office for action. In this way, the colleagues in
the home office can be instructed to return the customers’ phone call in the
way the user desires.
Sending messages to colleagues’ voice mailboxes through the PowerX2011™
telecom server voicemail server is also possible. As in the case of forwarding
voice messages, the advantage of this feature is that the user who is sending
the message does not have to wait for the line to be connected to record the
message. The PowerX2011™ telecom server takes care of delivering the voice
message to the mailbox of the other party after it gets recorded.
Users are also not confined to a singular recipient mailbox for voice messages.
The PowerX2011™ telecom server empowers users to the following choices of
mailboxes not unlike an email system:
Recording of greetings is a breeze with the PowerX2011™ telecom server.
Users can record more than one greeting for use at different occasions. Some of
the choices available to users are:
The choice of different greetings makes it more convenient for users to switch
amongst the different greetings for each occasion. For example, a user may have
a normal greeting for callers whenever the line is engaged or when he is away
from his desk but within the company premises.
When he goes on vacation, he may want to leave a vacation message for callers.
If he is constrained to only one personalized greeting, he has to replace the
usual greeting he has with his vacation message. When he returns, he has to
undergo the hassle of re-recording his usual message.
By allowing more than one personalized greeting, the PowerX2011™ telecom server
effectively eliminates this hassle. The PowerX2011™ telecom user can keep a
usual personalized greeting as his personal greeting and actively replace the
message for an absence greeting as required by the occasion. If users do not
wish to record their own greeting, the PowerX2011™ telecom server is delivered
with a standard greeting with option for users to include their names, if so
desired.
To record the greeting, the user performs the following:
SMDR recording is also enabled in the PowerX2011™ telecom server. The
capturing of SMDR (Station/Storage Management Data Requester) data provides
greater enhancement to the call data. The call data can be used for call
analysis as well as furnish details for reports.
The PowerX2011™ telecom server administrator console provides an interface for
the system administrator to select from the following list of data he wishes to
collect:
The PowerX2011™ telecom server administrator console also offers options such
as the setting of the number of days for recording of SMDR data and
transferring the data output via serial ports.
The PowerX2011™ telecom server is a very flexible system. The system
administrator can choose the calls to capture SMDR data. It does not have to
collect SMDR data for all calls. The selections include the following:
Call forwarding is simple to set and maintain through the PowerX2011™
telecom server’s follow me feature. With this feature, the incoming calls to a
user’s extension can literally “follow him” around the company premises. For
example, a user has to attend a meeting in another building within the
company’s premises. At the same time, he is expecting an important business
call. The PowerX2011™ telecom server‘s follow me feature can achieve both
tasks. All he has to do is transfer all incoming calls intended for his
extension to the extension in the meeting room. In this way he can attend his
meeting and also receive the important business call.
Call forwarding in the PowerX2011™ telecom server is not confined to telephone
extensions. Users can forward calls to any of the following devices:
Users need not activate the follow me feature from their physical handsets.
They can launch the feature from any handset within the company premises.
Likewise they can also cancel the feature from any handset within the company
premises. In the earlier example, the user has to attend a meeting as well as
receive an important business call. Once the meeting is over, the user can
“remotely” access his follow me feature and forward all calls from his
extension to another extension where he is expected to be at. Hence he will not
miss any call.
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The purpose of voicemail is to enable
customers to leave messages for company’s staff from any location 24 hours a
day 7 days a week. This is important as the customer can relay messages to
company employees at their convenience and continue to go about their other
chores. Without voicemail, customers have to write down the purpose of their
call somewhere and remind themselves to call the company lines whenever they
have time to do so. With voicemail, customers can leave word for company staff
to return their calls or even leave a message of the purpose of their call.
This saves time for both customers and company resources. After leaving the
messages, customers can proceed with other tasks while the company employees
can act upon the verbal instructions left by the customers.
Voicemail offers many benefits to users. As a fully integrated solution, the
PowerX2011™ telecom server is built with a voicemail system. Some of the
benefits are as follows:
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The voicemail module within the PowerX2011™ telecom server comprises the
following exciting features:
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