Applies to: Exchange Server 2013, Exchange Online
Topic Last Modified: 2012-11-05
After you create a Unified Messaging (UM) auto attendant, incoming calls to an external telephone number that a human operator would ordinarily answer are answered by the auto attendant. Unlike with other Unified Messaging components, such as UM dial plans and UM IP gateways, you aren't required to create UM auto attendants. However, auto attendants help internal and external callers locate users or departments that exist in an organization and transfer calls to them.
For additional management tasks related to UM auto attendants, see UM Auto Attendant Procedures.
What do you need to know before you begin?
- Estimated time to complete: 3 minutes.
- You need to be assigned permissions before you can perform this
procedure or procedures. To see what permissions you need, see the
"UM auto attendants" entry in the Unified Messaging
Permissions topic.
- Before you perform these procedures, confirm that a UM dial
plan has been created. For detailed steps, see Create a UM Dial
Plan.
- For information about keyboard shortcuts that may apply to the
procedures in this topic, see Keyboard Shortcuts in
the Exchange Admin Center.
Tip: |
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Having problems? Ask for help in the Exchange forums. Visit the forums at: Exchange Server, Exchange Online, or Exchange Online Protection. |
What do you want to do?
Use the EAC to create a UM auto attendant
- In the EAC, navigate
to Unified Messaging > UM dial plans, select the
UM dial plan for which you want to add an auto attendant, and then
click Edit .
- On the UM Dial Plan page, under UM Auto
Attendants, click Add .
- On the New UM auto attendant page, complete the
following fields:
- Name Use this text box to create the
display name for the UM auto attendant. A UM auto attendant name is
required and must be unique. However, it's used only for display
purposes in the EAC and the Shell.
If you have to change the display name of the auto attendant after it's created, you must first delete the existing UM auto attendant and then create another auto attendant that has the appropriate name. If your organization uses multiple UM auto attendants, we recommend that you use meaningful names for your UM auto attendants. The maximum length of a UM auto attendant name is 64 characters, and it can include spaces.
Although you can name a new UM auto attendant to include spaces, if you integrate Unified Messaging with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 or Microsoft Lync Server, the name of the auto attendant can’t include spaces. Therefore, if you created an auto attendant with spaces in the display name, and you’re integrating with Office Communications Server 2007 R2 or Lync Server, you must first delete that auto attendant and then create another auto attendant that doesn't include spaces in the display name.
- Create this auto attendant as
enabled Select this check box to enable the
auto attendant to answer incoming calls when you complete the New
UM Auto Attendant Wizard. By default, a new auto attendant is
created as disabled.
If you decide to create the UM auto attendant as disabled, you can use the EAC or the Shell to enable the auto attendant after you finish the wizard.
- Set the auto attendant to respond to voice
commands Select this check box to
speech-enable the UM auto attendant. If the auto attendant is
speech-enabled, callers can respond to the system or custom prompts
used by the UM auto attendant using touchtone or voice inputs. By
default, the auto attendant won't be speech-enabled when it's
created.
For callers to use a speech-enabled auto attendant, you must install the appropriate UM language pack that contains Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) support and configure the properties of the auto attendant to use this language.
- Access numbers Use this field to enter
the extension numbers or telephone numbers that callers will use to
reach the auto attendant. Type an extension number or telephone
number in the box, and then click Add
to add the number to the list. The number of digits in the
extension number or telephone number that you provide doesn't have
to match the number of digits for an extension number configured on
the associated UM dial plan. This is because direct calls are
allowed to UM auto attendants.
The number of extension numbers or telephone numbers entered is unlimited. However, you may create the new auto attendant without an extension number listed. An extension number or telephone number isn't required.
You can edit or remove an existing extension number or telephone number. To edit an existing extension number or telephone number, click Edit . To remove an existing extension number or telephone number from the list, click Remove .
- Name Use this text box to create the
display name for the UM auto attendant. A UM auto attendant name is
required and must be unique. However, it's used only for display
purposes in the EAC and the Shell.
- Click Save.
Use the Shell to create a UM auto attendant
This example creates a UM auto attendant named
MyUMAutoAttendant
that can accept incoming calls but
isn't speech-enabled.
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New-UMAutoAttendant -Name MyUMAutoAttendant -UMDialPlan MyUMDialPlan -PilotIdentifierList 55000 -Enabled $false |
This example creates a speech-enabled UM auto attendant
named MyUMAutoAttendant
.
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New-UMAutoAttendant -Name MyUMAutoAttendant -UMDialPlan MyUMDialPlan -PilotIdentifierList 56000,56100 -SpeechEnabled $true |