Overview 

Voicemail Notify (also known as "VM Notify") lets you configure a voicemail notification to monitor a mailbox for new messages. When a caller leaves a message in that voicemail box, the system will call the recipients you have listed until one of them accepts responsibility for the message or until it reaches a retry limit.

You can list internal or external phone numbers / extensions as recipients and set their priority levels. The system will simultaneously call all the numbers listed in the first priority level. Then, if no one accepts the message, the system will call all the numbers in the next priority level, and so forth, until it runs out of priorities to call. It will then retry the entire list if it is configured to do so.

When recipients receive the notification call, they will be given the option to listen to the message by pressing 1, decline it right away by pressing 2, or play the caller ID (callback number) of the person who left the message by pressing 3. If they listen to the message, they can then decide whether to accept responsibility by pressing 1 again, or decline responsibility by pressing 2. After someone claims responsibility for the message, the system stops calling the recipient list.

The system will only let one recipient claim responsibility for the message. If two people are listening to the message at the same time, and both try to accept the message, the second person will hear "I'm sorry, but the message has been accepted by another person."

There is no need to worry about a message "accidentally" being accepted if a Voicemail Notification call goes to a voicemail / answering machine instead of a live person. The recipient must press 1 twice to complete the process. If no DTMF tones are received, the system will simply hang up the Voicemail Notification call.

You can optionally configure the system to send an e-mail to one or more e-mail addresses when a Voicemail Notification is complete. This e-mail can tell someone whether the Voicemail Notification succeeded or failed. You can customize the e-mail's subject and body with your own text and several variables, and choose whether to attach the voicemail sound file to the e-mail.

After a Voicemail Notification is set up, it can be turned on or off at any time from the PBX GUI.

Logging In

• Log into the PBX GUI.

• Go to Applications → Voicemail Notifications in the navigation menu.

Open

Creating a Voicemail Notification

Click the Add Notification button on the module home page.

Open

Basic Options

Select a Mailbox

Select a mailbox to monitor. If the Voicemail Notification is enabled, then the notification will be activated if a message is left in this mailbox.

Enabled

Yes/No: Whether the Voicemail Notification will be enabled after you submit changes and apply config. If you are not ready to turn the notification "on," select No to disable it. Otherwise, select Yes to enable the Voicemail Notification.

Recipients

Provide a list of numbers to be called by this Voicemail Notification, one per line. Optionally, you can enter a priority number of 0 through 100 after the phone number, separated by a comma. If a priority is provided, all numbers in the lowest priority number will be called simultaneously. If no one from that priority group accepts responsibility for the voicemail, then the group with the next higher number would be called, and so forth. Further down the page, you can specify whether the system will try the group again if no one accepts responsibility.

Below is an example of the format:

5555551234,0
5555551235,0
5555551236,1
5555551257,1
5555551258,2 

In the example above, the two phone numbers with priority 0 would be called first, then the two numbers with priority 1, and finally the number with priority 2. Note: you do not need to set a priority, if you want all numbers to be called at the same time without grouping them into different priority levels.

Outbound CID Mode

Select one of the four options to control what Caller ID (CID) will be sent outbound to the recipients.

• Default: Transmits the Fixed Caller ID set below, if allowed by the trunk. If the trunk has a "Force Trunk Caller ID" setting, the trunk CID would be honored instead.
  
  

• Fixed: Forces the Fixed Caller ID set below, regardless of whether the trunk has a "Force Trunk Caller ID" setting. The trunk's setting is ignored. 

• Mailbox: Transmits the CID of the extension associated with the mailbox that you are monitoring, if allowed by the trunk. If the trunk has a "Force Trunk Caller ID" setting, the trunk CID would be honored instead.

• Force Mailbox: Forces the CID of the extension associated with the mailbox that you are monitoring, regardless of whether the trunk has a "Force Trunk Caller ID" setting. The trunk's setting is ignored.

Fixed Caller ID

Optional - If the Outbound CID Mode is set to Default or Fixed, enter the Caller ID to be used. This is the caller ID that will be displayed on the recipient's phone (if supported). See the note above.

Caller ID Name

Optional - You can provide a custom caller ID name that will display when the recipient is an internal extension. If you leave the field blank, it will default to "VMNFY-<MailboxName>."

Initial Greeting

The default greeting is "You have a new voicemail in mailbox (name or number)."

• The recorded name for the mailbox is played if the user has set one up.

• Otherwise, the mailbox number is played.

You can select a different greeting, if desired, by choosing a system recording from the drop-down menu. You can create new recordings in the System Recordings module.

Instructions

The default instructions are "To accept this message, press 1. To decline this message, press 2. Or, to hear the caller ID, press 3." You can select different instructions, if desired, by choosing a system recording from the drop-down menu. You can create new recordings in the System Recordings module. If you create your own instructions, don't forget to describe options 1, 2, and 3.

Retry Count

How many times to cycle through calling everyone in the Recipients list again before stopping, if no one accepts the voicemail after the first cycle. A "0" setting means do not retry – only call everyone once then stop. The default setting is "2," meaning the system will make a maximum of 3 total attempts.

Retry Delay

How long to wait (in minutes) before retrying, after calling all recipients, if no one accepts the voicemail. (Default = 5 Min.)

Priority Delay

How long to wait (in minutes) after trying to call all recipients with the same priority setting before moving on to call the next priority group. This only has an effect if you have recipients with different priority levels.

Save

At this point, if you do not want to set up e-mail notifications, you can leave the rest of the page as-is and click the Submit button to save your changes.

Otherwise, if you would like to set up e-mail notifications, continue reading the instructions below, and configure the options on the bottom half of the Voicemail Notification setup screen.

E-mail Notifications on Success and/or Failure

You can optionally configure the system to notify one or more e-mail addresses when a Voicemail Notification is complete. E-mails can be sent when someone accepts responsibility for a voicemail, when no one accepts responsibility and the notification times out, both situations, or neither. You can also configure different e-mail recipients for successful vs. failed notifications if desired.

To enable the e-mail notification function,  you will need to provide a "from" address and at least one "to" address. Optionally, you can enable voicemails to be attached to the e-mail as a sound file, and/or modify the default system-generated subject and message body.

Email From

The e-mail address you want the notification status e-mails to appear to come from. Keep in mind this may need to be a real e-mail box, and the address of this server may need to be added to your Sender Policy Framework (SPF) record in order to ensure delivery of the e-mails.

Email Success

A comma-separated list of e-mail addresses to notify when a voicemail is accepted successfully. The notification e-mail will be sent as soon as someone presses 1 to accept a voicemail.

Email Fail

A comma-separated list of e-mail addresses to notify when no one accepts responsibility for a voicemail, after the system has called all of the numbers in the list and performed the number of retries set, if any.

Email Attach

Yes/No: Whether to attach the voicemail message to the e-mail notification as a .wav file. Remember, the system will delete the voicemail from the monitored mailbox after an e-mail notification is sent out, regardless of whether attachments are enabled or disabled here.

Email Subject

The subject for the e-mail notification. You can edit the subject text and add/remove variables as desired.

Default Subject

{{STATUS}} voicemail notification from {{MAILBOX}} --- [{{ID}}]

Available Variables:

{{STATUS}} - Either FAILED or SUCCESSFUL depending on if the notification was accepted or timed out.
{{CALLERID}} - The caller ID of the person who left the message.
{{MAILBOX}} - The mailbox number the voicemail was left in.
{{TIME}} - The date and time the message was left.
{{LENGTH}} - The length of the message in seconds.
{{ACCEPTEDBY}} - The phone number that accepted the call.
{{ID}} - The unique notification ID. This can be used to prevent e-mail clients from grouping unrelated messages by subject.
{{RETRY}} - The retry number the call reached before being accepted or timing out. This will be 0 if it was accepted on the first attempt.
{{PRIORITY}} - The last priority level the call reached before it was accepted or timed out.

Email Body

The message body for the e-mail notification. You can edit the text and add/remove variables as desired.

Available Variables: Same as the "subject" variables shown above, plus {{LOG}}.

{{LOG}} - This will be replaced with a log of all the calls associated with this Voicemail Notification.

Default Body

A new voicemail notification was sent from
mailbox {{MAILBOX}} on {{TIME}}.

-----------------------------------------
Notification Details:
-----------------------------------------

Status: {{STATUS}}
Message CID: {{CALLERID}}
Length: {{LENGTH}} seconds
Accepted By: {{ACCEPTEDBY}}
Notification ID: {{ID}}
Number Retries: {{RETRY}}
Final Priority: {{PRIORITY}}

-----------------------------------------
Notification Log:
-----------------------------------------
{{LOG}}

Save

Click the Submit button to save your changes.

Note: There is no Apply Config button in this module – changes are saved and applied automatically after you click Submit.

Editing a Voicemail Notification

The module home screen displays a list of existing Voicemail Notifications, regardless of whether they are currently enabled or disabled. You can edit a Voicemail Notification to enable/disable it or change its settings.

Click the pencil icon to edit a Voicemail Notification.

When finished editing, click the Submit button.t

Deleting a Voicemail Notification

Remember, you do not need to completely delete a Voicemail Notification in order to turn it off temporarily. To temporarily disable it, you only need to set the Enabled option to No.

If you wish to completely delete the Voicemail Notification, click the trash icon next to the notification in the list on the module's home screen. Alternatively, if you are already editing the notification, you can click the Delete button. With either method, the Voicemail Notification will be deleted immediately.

UCP - Widget

Also available through UCP, you can select a widget.

The settings are automatically applied after the changes.