Customizing Announcements

Overview of Customizing Announcements

While using the Intuity AUDIX Release 5 messaging system, you hear voice prompts. Voice prompts, which are also referred to as announcements, tell you what to do and what your options are. Use the commands and procedures described in this section to change AUDIX announcements to meet the needs of your business and of your users.

Who Should Read This Section

Read this section if you are the AUDIX system administrator responsible for the configuration and maintenance of an Intuity AUDIX system.

Section Assumptions

The procedures in this section assume you know basic Intuity AUDIX commands and navigation, such as logging in and out of the system, the difference between the vm and sa logins, command prompt function and usage, and how to move from field-to-field within a screen or window. If you are not familiar with Intuity AUDIX system basics, read Getting Started before you continue.

Section Objectives

After reading this section, you will know how to:

• Create a new announcement set
• Customize your new announcement set
• Activate an announcement set
• Remove an announcement set

Definitions of Fragments, Announcements, and Announcement Sets

To customize AUDIX announcements, you need to understand precisely what is meant by fragments, announcements, and announcement sets.

Fragments

The voice prompts you hear in AUDIX consist of one or more pieces of recorded text called fragments. A fragment is a recorded word, phrase, or sentence. Each fragment is identified by a number prefaced by the letter "f".

For example, the voice prompt "Previous login incorrect. Please reenter extension and pound sign," contains these two fragments:

• f233 "Previous login incorrect. Please reenter extension,"
• f224 "and pound sign."

Announcements

An announcement is actually a placeholder within the system for playing fragments. Each announcement is identified by a number prefaced by the letter "a". For instance, a10 is announcement 10. Each event that can occur within AUDIX has one or more announcement numbers permanently assigned to it. Fragment numbers are then assigned to the announcement numbers.

Thus, when a caller or subscriber completes an event (like pushing a button), AUDIX processes the announcement number assigned to that event and then plays the fragments assigned to that announcement.

See Example: How an Announcement Links Voice Fragments to Events for a sample event sequence. In this example, announcement a815 marks a place to play fragments when a caller connects to AUDIX. The standard voice prompt at this point says "Welcome to AUDIX. For help at any time, press * 4" (or "* H" in some installations). As the caller continues to press more keys, additional announcements trigger AUDIX to play the assigned fragments.

Announcements are fixed in place. That is, you cannot use an announcement number to mark a different point in the AUDIX system. Therefore, you cannot add, change, or delete an announcement number. However, you can add, change, or delete fragments assigned to announcements and thereby change announcements.

See Commonly Customized Fragments and Announcements for a list of commonly changed announcements.

Announcement Sets

An announcement set is a collection of announcements. These can be standard or custom announcements.

Standard Announcement Sets

Intuity AUDIX offers standard announcement sets in several languages. Contact your account executive to get the latest list. The standard set is loaded and activated by default.

 

Note: If the standard version is English, your system comes with two announcement sets: a standard version and a terse version. The terse version contains all of the announcements in the standard set, but individual announcements contain fewer words. For example, the standard US version of announcement a2 is "Partial entry deleted." The terse version is "deleted." You can also create and activate custom announcements for the terse set.

Custom Announcement Sets

To create a custom announcement set, you add an announcement set name to the system and then copy into that set the announcements from another standard or custom set. You can then change the announcements and fragments in the newly created custom set and activate it. The rest of this section provides procedures for creating and using custom announcement sets.

Active and Administrative Announcement Sets

The standard announcement set is the default active announcement set. "Active" means that AUDIX currently plays the set's announcements to users. You may also designate an announcement set as the administrative announcement set. "Administrative" means that you may record into the set. The administrative set may or may not also be the active announcement set. If the same announcement set is both active and administrative, any recorded changes made to the administrative version are also made automatically to the active version.

If your announcement set is U.S. English, you may want to replace the standard version with the terse version as the active announcement set. See Activating an Announcement Set if you want to designate terse as the active announcement set.

Installation of Other Languages

For information on obtaining and installing another language announcement set, contact your account executive.

Creating a Custom Announcement Set

Create a custom announcement set so you can use it as a base for changing your system's announcements. This step lets you keep the standard announcement sets in their original state so you can use them again if necessary.

 

If you might upgrade your system in the future, consider the following: If you customize the standard (or terse) set rather than to create a custom announcement set, you lose all customization during the upgrade. Custom announcements from your original system are not automatically moved to and activated in the upgraded system. In fact, the old custom announcement set may not make sense in the context of the new features. Standard fragments that you re-recorded are moved to the new system and placed in the appropriate announcements. Contact your account executive or technical support representative to discuss the impact of potential upgrades before you customize your announcements.

You create a custom announcement set in two steps:

• Adding an Announcement Set Name
• Copying an Announcement Set

After you create an announcement set but before you activate it, you can change the announcements and fragments as desired.

Adding an Announcement Set Name

The first step in creating a custom announcement set is to give the announcement set a name.

To add an announcement set name:

1. Start at the Avaya Intuity Main Menu and select:

AUDIX Administration

The system displays the AUDIX Command Prompt Screen.

2. At the enter command: prompt, enter add announcement-set anncsetname where anncsetname is the name of the announcement set to be added. The name may contain up to 14 alphanumeric characters.


 


Tip: You can first list announcement set names to see what names are already in use. See Listing Announcement Sets for more information.

The system displays the Add Announcement Set Screen, with the name of the new announcement set listed.

3. Press F3 (Enter) to add the set.

The announcement set you just named is empty until you copy into it the announcements from another set. The cursor returns to the command line, and the system displays the following message:

Command Successfully Completed.

4. Continue with Copying an Announcement Set or enter exit or another administrative command at the enter command: prompt.

Listing Announcement Sets

List announcement sets to determine:

• What names are in use for announcement sets
• Whether you added or removed an announcement set successfully
• What sets are available for copying

To display a list of existing announcement sets:

1. Start at the Avaya Intuity Main Menu and select:

AUDIX Administration

The system displays the AUDIX Command Prompt Screen.

2. At the enter command: prompt, enter list anncsets

The system displays the List Announcement Sets Screen.

3. Press F1 (Cancel).

The cursor returns to the command line, and the system displays the following message:

Command Successfully Completed.

4. Enter exit or another administrative command at the enter command: prompt.

Copying an Announcement Set

After you add a name for a new announcement set, you must copy the announcements and fragments of an existing set to the new announcement set.

To copy an announcement set:

1. Start at the Avaya Intuity Main Menu and select:

AUDIX Administration

The system displays the AUDIX Command Prompt Screen.

2. At the enter command: prompt, enter copy anncset

The system displays the Copy Announcement Set Screen.

3. Complete the fields on this screen using the information provided in the table for Field Definitions: Copy Announcement Set Screen.
4. Press F3 (Enter) to save the information to the system database.

The cursor returns to the command line, and the system displays the following message:

Command Successfully Completed.

5. Enter exit or another administrative command at the enter command: prompt.

Customizing a New Announcement Set

Customizing an announcement set consists of the following general steps:

• Identify an administrative announcement set
• Copy, record, rerecord, and remove fragments, as described in Customizing Fragments
• Copy, change, and remove announcements, as described in Customizing Announcements

Identifying an Administrative Announcement Set

You must identify an announcement set as the administrative announcement set before you can record or re-record fragments in that set.

 

Note: You can listen to fragments in a set even if the set is not the administrative announcement set. However, you cannot record new fragments, re-record old fragments, or remove fragments unless the set containing those fragments is the administrative set.

You can also copy, change, and remove announcements in the active announcement set. However, subscribers and callers hear the changes immediately, before you are able to test the new announcements. As a result, this method is not recommended.

To identify an administrative announcement set:

1. Start at the Avaya Intuity Main Menu and select:

AUDIX Administration

The system displays the AUDIX Command Prompt Screen.

2. At the enter command: prompt, enter change systemparameters features

The system displays Page 1 of the System Parameters Feature screen.

3. Press F7 (NextPage) twice.

The system displays the System-Parameters Feature Screen, Page 3.


 


Note: For complete information on the System Parameters Features screen, see Defining Basic Features and Parameters.

4. In the Administrative: field under ANNOUNCEMENT SETS, enter the name of the announcement set in which you want to modify announcements and fragments.


 


Note: If this announcement set is the same as the active announcement set, subscribers and callers hear any announcement changes you make immediately.

5. Press F3 (Enter) to save the information to the system database.

The cursor returns to the command line, and the system displays the following message:

Command Successfully Completed.

6. Enter exit or another administrative command at the enter command: prompt.

Customizing Fragments

You can customize fragments in a variety of ways. These methods are described in the following topics.

 

If you upgrade your system, you may lose any new fragments or fragments you copy. In addition, after an upgrade, fragments you removed may be reinstated. If a future upgrade is possible, it is recommended that you customize fragments by re-recording them. It is also recommended that you remove fragments by re-recording them using silence.

Re-recording an Existing Fragment

There are at least two standard fragments you will probably want to change when you customize your Intuity AUDIX system:

• "Your call is being answered by AUDIX" (the greeting callers hear when they are routed to a subscriber's AUDIX mailbox)
• "Welcome to AUDIX" (the greeting a subscriber hears when calling AUDIX directly)


 


Note: You must be administered as a subscriber with announcement control to be able to record fragments. You assign announcement control using either the Class of Service screen or Page 2 of the Subscriber screen. See Subscriber Administration for more information about changing subscribers or Class of Service.

To re-record a fragment:

1. Identify the announcement set that contains the fragment as the administrative announcement set. See Identifying an Administrative Announcement Set for more information.
2. Use the information in Commonly Customized Fragments and Announcements to determine the number of the announcement whose fragment you want to change.
3. Start at the Avaya Intuity Main Menu and select:

AUDIX Administration

The system displays the AUDIX Command Prompt Screen.

4. At the enter command: prompt, enter di anno announcementID where the announcementid is the announcement identifier from a1 to a5000.

The system displays the Display Announcement Screen, with the announcement set ID, the announcement ID, and the fragment numbers contained within the announcement listed. The cursor returns to the command line, and the system displays the following message:

Command Successfully Completed.

5. Verify that the announcement you plan to change is actually composed of the fragments you expect.
6. Use your touchtone telephone to log in to the AUDIX system.


 


Note: You must be administered as a subscriber with announcement control to be able to record fragments. You assign announcement control using either the Class of Service screen or Page 2 of the Subscriber screen. See Subscriber Administration for more information about changing subscribers or Class of Service.

7. At the activity menu, press 9. (This option is not included in the voiced options.) If you hear "Invalid entry. For help at any time, press star H", you do not have announcement control permission.
8. When you hear "To record names, press 4. To play names, press 5," press 1 to change the fragment. (This option is not included in the voiced options, but plays out if you press * 4 for help.)
9. Enter the fragment ID as prompted and then press the pound sign #. For example, for f287, press 2 8 7 #.
10. Record the changed fragment when prompted. You can use all the normal voice mail editing capabilities on your touchtone telephone to make sure the new fragment is exactly how you want it to sound.
11. When you are satisfied with the recording, press the pound sign # to approve it.
12. Repeat Step 9 through Step 11 for any other fragments that you want to change.
13. Activate the announcement set via the System Parameters Features screen. See Activating an Announcement Set for the procedure.

Recording a New Fragment

To change a fragment for some announcements but not for others, you will need to substitute an existing fragment or create a new fragment for use by the announcements you want to change. You then leave the old fragment intact for use by existing announcements that you do not want changed.

For example, announcement a812 and announcement a834 are the only announcements that use fragment f87, "This call is experiencing difficulties." If you want to change this fragment for announcement a812 but not for announcement a834, you must create a new fragment to associate with announcement a812 instead of fragment f87. You then leave fragment f87 and its association with announcement a834 intact.

 

Note: You must be administered as a subscriber with announcement control to be able to record fragments. You assign announcement control using either the Class of Service screen or Page 2 of the Subscriber screen. See Subscriber Administration for more information about changing subscribers or Class of Service.

To record a new fragment:

1. Identify the announcement set that will contain the fragment as the administrative announcement set. See Identifying an Administrative Announcement Set for more information.
2. Use your touchtone telephone to log in to the AUDIX system.
3. At the activity menu, press 9. (This option is not included in the voiced options.) If you hear "Invalid entry. For help at any time, press star H", you do not have announcement control permission.
4. When you hear "To record names, press 4. To play names, press 5," press 1 to change the fragment. (This option is not included in the voiced options, but plays out if you press * 4 for help.)
5. Enter the fragment ID, 4000 to 4999, as prompted. For example, enter an unused number such as f4000 by pressing 4 0 0 0 #.


 


Note: The fragment numbers 4000–4999 are reserved for customer use. Using numbers other than these could jeopardize the integrity of your custom fragments and announcements if these numbers are also used for new fragments in later versions or updates to AUDIX.

6. Record the fragment when prompted. For example, your new fragment might be, "This call is experiencing difficulties and cannot continue at this time."

You can use all the normal voice mail editing capabilities on your touchtone telephone to make sure the new fragment sounds exactly the way you want it to sound.

7. When you are satisfied with the new fragment recording, press the pound key # to approve it.
8. Use the Announcement screen to replace existing fragments with the new fragment. See Changing an Announcement for the procedure.

Copying a Fragment to an Announcement Set

You may want to copy a fragment from one announcement set into another announcement set. For example, perhaps you recorded the fragment "Your call is important" in Announcement Set X and you now want to use that recording again in Announcement Set Y. Instead of re-recording the fragment, you can copy it.

To copy a fragment to an announcement set:

1. Check the list of standard fragments in Commonly Customized Fragments and Announcements or your log of custom fragments for the number and text of the fragment you want to copy.
2. On your touchtone telephone, press 9 2. Follow the prompts to listen to the fragment to verify that it is the one you want.
3. Start at the Avaya Intuity Main Menu and select:

AUDIX Administration

The system displays the AUDIX Command Prompt Screen.

4. At the enter command: prompt, enter copy fragment

The system displays the Copy Fragment Screen.

5. Complete the fields on this screen using the information provided in the table for Field Definitions: Copy Fragment Screen.
6. Press F3 (Enter) to save the information to the system database.

The cursor returns to the command line, and the system displays the following message:

Command Successfully Completed.

7. Enter exit or another administrative command at the enter command: prompt.

Removing a Fragment from an
Announcement Set

Remove a fragment from an announcement when you no longer need it. Removing unneeded fragments saves disk space and makes your announcement set easier to maintain.

 

Check Commonly Customized Fragments and Announcements and your log of custom fragments to be sure the fragment you remove is not a necessary part of any announcements. Also, do not remove any fragments from your standard announcement sets.

If you remove a fragment, announcements that contained the fragment can no longer play it, even though the fragment number still appears for the announcement on the Announcement screen. AUDIX skips the removed fragment and immediately plays any other fragments that are defined for the announcement.

To remove a fragment:

1. Check your log of custom fragments for the number and text of the fragment you want to remove.
2. On your touchtone telephone, press 9 2. Follow the prompts to listen to the fragment to verify that it is the one you want.
3. Start at the Avaya Intuity Main Menu and select:

AUDIX Administration

The system displays the AUDIX Command Prompt Screen.

4. At the enter command: prompt, enter remove fragment fragmentidentifier anncset name where fragmentidentifier is an existing fragment and anncsetname is the name of the announcement set that contains the fragment.


 


Note: You can omit anncsetname if the set containing the fragment is specified as the administrative announcement set on the System Parameters Features screen.

The system displays the Remove Fragment Screen, listing the fragment number you are removing, the fragment's announcement set, and the date and time the fragment was last changed.

5. Press F3 (Enter).

The cursor returns to the command line, and the system displays the following message:

Command Successfully Completed.

6. Enter exit or another administrative command at the enter command: prompt.

Customizing Announcements

You can customize announcements in a variety of ways. These methods are described in the following topics.

 

If you upgrade your system, you may lose any custom announcements. In addition, after an upgrade, fragments you removed may be reinstated. If a future upgrade is possible, it is recommended that you customize announcements by re-recording the fragments they contain. It is also recommended that you remove fragments in an announcement by re-recording them using silence, not by using the procedure for removing fragments listed earlier in this section.

Copying an Announcement

Copy an announcement to save time when creating new announcements and recording fragments. You can copy an announcement within an announcement set or from one announcement set to another. You can add an announcement by copying an announcement to a new announcement number. An announcement that you copy overwrites any announcement that already exists with the same ID.

To copy an announcement:

1. Check the list of standard announcements in Commonly Customized Fragments and Announcements or your log of custom announcements for the number of the announcement you want to copy.
2. Start at the Avaya Intuity Main Menu and select:

AUDIX Administration

The system displays the AUDIX Command Prompt Screen.

3. At the enter command: prompt, enter display announcement announcementid anncsetname, where the announcementid is the announcement identifier from a1 to a5000 and anncsetname is the name of the announcement set.


 


Note: You can omit anncsetname if the set containing the fragment is specified as the administrative announcement set on the System Parameters Features screen.

The system displays the Display Announcement Screen, with the announcement set ID, the announcement ID, and the fragment numbers contained within the announcement listed. The cursor returns to the command line, and the system displays the following message:

Command Successfully Completed.

Verify that the announcement contains the fragments you want to copy.

4. At the enter command: prompt, enter copy announcement

The system displays the Copy Announcement Screen.

5. Complete the fields on this screen using the information provided in the table for Field Definitions: Copy Announcement Screen.
6. Press F3 (Enter) to save the information to the system database.

The announcement is now copied to the new announcement ID and to the announcement set ID, if any. The cursor returns to the command line, and the system displays the following message:

Command Successfully Completed.

7. Enter exit or another administrative command at the enter command: prompt.

Changing an Announcement

An announcement can be modified by eliminating an existing fragment.

You can:

• Remove a fragment from the list of fragments that compose an announcement. For example, to modify the default voice mail greeting "Welcome to AUDIX. For help at any time, press *4" (or *H in some installations) to say just "For help at any time, press *4.", remove fragment f287 "Welcome to AUDIX" from the list of fragments that compose the announcement.
• Replace a fragment with another fragment. In the above example, you may want to replace the fragment "Welcome to AUDIX" with "Welcome to ACME Company." In this case, you record the fragment (see Recording a New Fragment for the procedure) and then substitute the new one for the old one.

You cannot:

• Add an announcement without starting with another announcement. Instead, you must copy an existing announcement into a new announcement number, and then change the text of this copied announcement. Available announcement numbers are from 1000 to 5000.
• Add a fragment to an announcement. For example, if an announcement has four fragments, you cannot add a fifth fragment.

To change announcements:

1. Use Commonly Customized Fragments and Announcements to determine the number of the announcement you want to change.
2. Start at the Avaya Intuity Main Menu and select:

AUDIX Administration 


 


Note: The announcement set you want to change must be designated as the administrative announcement set on the System-Parameters Feature Screen, Page 3. See Identifying an Administrative Announcement Set for more information.

The system displays the AUDIX Command Prompt Screen.

3. At the enter command: prompt, enter change announcement announcementid where the announcementid is the announcement identifier from a1 to a5000.

The system displays the Change Announcement Screen, with the announcement set ID, the announcement ID, and the fragment numbers contained within the announcement listed.

4. Complete the fields on this screen using the information provided in the table for Field Definitions: Change Announcement Screen.
5. To remove a fragment:
1. Move the cursor to the fragment number and press F4 (ClearFld).
2. Type f0 in the blank field to replace the fragment with silence. Any fragments on subsequent lines in the announcement will play immediately after the fragments that precede the blank field.
6. To change a fragment:
1. Move the cursor to the fragment number and press F4 (ClearFld).
2. Type the new fragment number in the blank field. Remember that you cannot add a fragment.
7. Press F3 (Enter) to save the information to the system database.

The cursor returns to the command line, and the system displays the following message:

Command Successfully Completed.

8. Enter exit or another administrative command at the enter command: prompt.

Displaying an Announcement

To display an announcement:

1. Start at the Avaya Intuity Main Menu and select:

AUDIX Administration

The system displays the AUDIX Command Prompt Screen.

2. At the enter command: prompt, enter display announcement announcementid anncsetname where the announcementid is the announcement identifier from a1 to a5000 and anncsetname is the name of the announcement set.


 


Note: You can omit anncsetname if the set containing the fragment is specified as the administrative announcement set on the System Parameters Features screen.

The system displays the Display Announcement Screen, with the announcement set ID, the announcement ID, and the announcement fragment numbers listed.

Removing an Announcement

To remove an announcement:

1. Start at the Avaya Intuity Main Menu and select:

AUDIX Administration


 


Note: The announcement set containing the announcement you want to remove must be designated as the administrative announcement set on the System-Parameters Feature Screen, Page 3. See Identifying an Administrative Announcement Set for more information.

The system displays the AUDIX Command Prompt Screen.

2. At the enter command: prompt, enter remove announcement announcementid where the announcementid is the announcement identifier from a1 to a5000.

The system displays the Remove Announcement Screen, with the announcement set ID, the announcement ID, and the fragment numbers contained within the announcement listed.

3. Press F3 (Enter).

The system removes the announcement from the announcement set. The cursor returns to the command line, and the system displays the following message:

Command Successfully Completed.

4. Enter exit or another administrative command at the enter command: prompt.

Activating an Announcement Set

The announcements that you and other subscribers and callers hear are the announcements contained in the active announcement set. Normally, after you make changes to an announcement set, you activate it.

To activate an announcement set:

1. Start at the Avaya Intuity Main Menu and select:

AUDIX Administration

The system displays the AUDIX Command Prompt Screen.

2. At the enter command: prompt, enter change systemparameters features

The system displays Page 1 of the System Parameters Features screen.

3. Press F7 (NextPage) twice.

The system displays System-Parameters Features Screen, Page 3, Activating Changed Announcement Set.


 


Tip: You can list all available announcement sets. See Listing Announcement Sets for more information.

4. In the System: field under ANNOUNCEMENT SETS, enter the name of the announcement set you want to activate.

Subscribers and callers will now hear the announcements in the announcement set. The cursor returns to the command line, and the system displays the following message:

Command Successfully Completed.

5. Enter exit or another administrative command at the enter command: prompt.

Removing an Announcement Set

An announcement set uses approximately 15 megabytes of disk space. For each announcement set your disk stores, you lose approximately 1 hour's worth of storage space for user voice data.

Typically, you should remove an announcement set immediately after you have tested and activated a replacement announcement set.

 

Note: Do not remove the standard announcement set unless you have a backup tape of the set. You may want to restore the standard announcement set at a later date.

To remove an announcement set:

1. Start at the Avaya Intuity Main Menu and select:

AUDIX Administration

The system displays the AUDIX Command Prompt Screen.

2. At the enter command: prompt, enter remove anncset anncsetname where anncsetname is the name of the announcement set to be removed.

The system displays the Remove Announcement Set Screen, with the name of the announcement set listed.

3. Press F3 (Enter).

The cursor returns to the command line, and the system displays the following message:

Command Successfully Completed.

4. Enter exit or another administrative command at the enter command: prompt.

http://www.avaya.com Avaya UCS Information Development