Help me Program my Avaya Phone System.

August 21, 2007 9:13 PM

Is there anywhere online or in print that provides help programming Avaya Partner Messaging "Automated Attendants"?

I recently inherited an office with an Avaya Partner Messaging system installed. I managed to program the voicemail extensions for the staff okay, but am having trouble wrapping my mind around programming "automated attendants" also known as the day/night main menus.

Is there a place online or in-print that explains this in regular english, so I don't have to study selector codes and centrex transfers?

All I want is a pretty basic menu: If you know your parties' extension, dial it at any time, otherwise press 1 for department A, 2 for department B, etc.

posted by mikespez to technology (5 comments total)

Find phone system manuals here
posted by Myself at 10:11 PM on August 21, 2007

That's a great site. I should have specified that I have the manual, but I am looking for something that simplifies it more.
posted by mikespez at 10:39 PM on August 21, 2007

Unfortunately, you have to use the selector codes. In the manual, there should be a page that lists what each code does. We use only three - the one that transfers to another extension, the one that transfers to the system operator, and the one that takes you to submenu. (Unfortunately as I am at home in my PJs I do not have access to what these are offhand).

Setting up the day/night menus is much easier than it seems when you're navigating the programming menu. Much of it you can just press *# to skip over and have no ill-effects, if you don't mind the default action.

What version of Partner ACS are you using? I'll dig through my cheatsheets later today.

You have no email or location in your profile either for me to give you a local recommendation if you're around me. Some of the Avaya resellers can help you relatively inexpensively, too. Oh, and if it's new enough, you should be able to call up Avaya directly.
posted by schnee at 4:23 AM on August 22, 2007

The Avaya website is pretty good, too.

This should take you to the Partner Messaging part of the website.

In your manual, do you have the programming forms? Where you can outline your Automated Attendant and the submenus and whatnot? It should be in the back.

The menu we have here is similar to what you want. I just logged in to listen to the settings and this is what we have:

Selector Code 5 lets you connect to a direct extension - so that'd be for your main Auto Attendant menu (the initial one when the caller calls in).

Selector Code 3 is used when you want them to press (whatever) to access another submenu. So, for us, we use Selector Code 3 for when the caller presses 5 to listen to our address and fax number and website information.

Those are the only ones we use. From the menu, we have options 1-4 saved for extensions so people can dial them directly (there's that selector code 5 coming into play). Pressing 5 takes them to our address and fax and website information (there's selector code 3). 6-9 are set to transferring to departments (selector code 5).

I know when programming I press *# over any other options except for recording the prompt or entering what extension to transfer to. Pretty basic.

(make sure you have your operator password changed!)
posted by schnee at 5:41 AM on August 22, 2007

Thanks for your help everyone. I've updated my profile with my e-mail address.

I guess, just looking through the manual, the whole thing looked rather daunting. I'll give it a shot with your help — what's the worst that can happen?
posted by mikespez at 10:18 AM on August 22, 2007