A Good Basic Voicemail/Auto Attendant System For The Avaya Partner ACS.
Written: Feb 05 '06
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Low cost. Quality of voice recordings is very good. Easy to administer.
Cons: Lose all messages if reducing the number of active mailboxes.
The Bottom Line: A great voicemail system for Partner ACS users with basic needs and a small budget.
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| telecomman's Full Review: Avaya PARTNER Voice Messaging 3.0 Full Version (Li... |
History:
The Avaya Partner Voice Messaging card was introduced by Lucent Technologies back in 2000. The card is still made today by Avaya, a company that was spun off from Lucent shortly thereafter.
Description:
The Partner Voice Messaging is one of two voicemail systems that Avaya manufactures for the Partner ACS line of commercial telephone systems (the other being the Avaya Partner Messaging, which is a full blown voicemail system).
The Partner Voice Messaging system (referred to as PVM for the rest of this review), was designed to be used in situations where the capacity, cost & complexity of an Avaya Partner Messaging are not needed.
Avaya does offer two cards that support a different number of voicemail boxes and storage times. The "small" card will support up to 4 mailboxes and a maximum of 40 minutes total of recorded messages and greetings. The "large" card will support up to 16 mailboxes and a maximum recording time of 110 minutes.
Installation:
A quick note before I give an overview to the installation process.
The Partner ACS is a business telephone system and should only be installed by persons who are familiar with the system and proper installation practices. I will give a general description of installation and programming procedures as a full and complete description of those procedures is beyond the scope of this review.
Installing the PVM, which is actually a Personal Computer card, requires the installing tech to perform a system backup to save all programming, power down the Partner ACS module, slide the card into one of the two PCMCIA slots on the front of the ACS processor and then power the ACS processor back up.
Programming:
Programming the PVM system is usually done from a system telephone connected to extension 10 or 11 on the Partner ACS processor. Basic programming includes, but is not limited to:
1) Programming which telephone lines are supposed to be answered by the auto attendant.
2) Programming 2 internal extensions on the Partner ACS processor so that the processor itself can communicate with the PVM.
3) Configure the PVM card for the desired number of voicemail boxes desired (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14 or 16)
4) Record a greeting on the auto attendant as well as any active voicemail boxes.
Options:
The PVM system, besides acting as an auto attendant, can also act like a sophisticated answering machine. Any given mailbox can be set up to record messages or simply play an announcement and give the caller the option to reach another extension. In instances where a telephone line is assigned to a specific user, that line can bypass the auto attendant and ring right into a person's telephone. From there, the voicemail will act as an answering machine. Once a message is left behind in a particular voicemail box, a light on the corresponding telephone will illuminate to give a visual indication that a new voicemail message has been recorded and is waiting for review.
To simplify dialing for callers, the auto attendant has 9 selector codes (1-9) that can be programmed in such a way that a caller would only need to press a "2" to be transfered to extension 11. Selector code "0" is always used to transfer a caller to the operator (extension 10).
A Few Positives:
It's a true testament to Lucent that they were able to put a good number of features into the PVM and keep the price reasonable.
While many advanced features found on the Avaya Partner Messaging are not found on the PVM, there is enough to keep the small to mid-sized company happy.
Given that this voicemail system is embedded on a card, reliability should be excellent. Other systems, like the APM, use a computer drive to store messages on and those drives eventually wear out.
A Few Negatives:
One biggest drawbacks to the PVM is that the system will wipe out most, if not all, programming when the number of mailboxes is decreased. Adding mailboxes does not cause settings to be lost.
A caller cannot specify if a message is private or priority. All messages are treated all the same.
Unlike the APM, there is no way to make a backup of the voicemail settings. If the ACS system loses power, and the 2 AAA power fail batteries are weak or dead, the voicemail system will default. Come to think of it, the Partner ACS processor will also default.
Using The Voicemail System:
I installed an Avaya Partner ACS recently in our house. Because I installed and maintain the Partner ACS telephone system at my church, I was very familliar with the programming structure of the PVM.
My initial setup had my incoming telephone calls answered by the auto attendant, play my greeting and have callers press "1" to have them transfer the call to me. The greeting was much clearer than what I had been accustomed to hearing with consumer based answering machines. Likewise, the quality of the recordings left by callers was also quite good. At this point, it must be said that speaking in a good strong clear voice is needed to produce as good clean recording. If a person speaks like his mouth is full of marbles, no system will be able to generate a clean, easy to comprehend recording. Maneuvering around the menus of the PVM is simple as there are a few "*" codes used by the system, (**9 is used to disconnect a caller, *3 deletes messages and so on). To access the voicemail system to retrieve messages, one can either press an "intercom" button and then press "777" or program that same sequence to a single programmable button on a system telephone.
Out of the box, messages left by callers can be up to 2 minutes in length. If longer recording times are desired, the system can be reprogrammed accordingly. The system is also set for 4 mailboxes. As noted above, the number of boxes can be readily done. Messages can be repeated and skipped, but you cannot adjust the playback speed.
Final Thoughts:
The PVM is a good system. It offers a nice set of basic features that a small business, or a residence, would need. The instruction manual included with the system is pretty small and fairly easy to understand. This voicemail system is really a nice choice for a small company or an upscale residence that has an Avaya Partner ACS telephone system and who wants something better than a consumer answering machine, but not a full-blown voicemail system complete with a boat-load of options and a large sticker price to match.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
telecomman
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 in Electronics |
 in Electronics |
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Member: Paul C.
Location: Arlington, Mass, USA
Reviews written: 41
Trusted by: 39 members
About Me:
Telecom tech since 1990. Dabbles with electronics, telephone gear, pro audio & pipe organs.
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