Setting Up a Cisco UE Automated Attendant

In the preceding sections, you learned the reasons to use an AA; general features of the Cisco UE AA, such as dial-by-number; and how to customize an AA script.

This section walks you through building the actual AA. Just having written the script is not enough. It is the biggest step, but now the script, the prompts, and the AA pilot number must be linked to form a working AA application on your Cisco UE system. This is not a difficult task, but it takes a few steps to accomplish:

Step 1.	Determine whether the system AA is sufficient.
Step 2.	Prepare a custom script.
Step 3.	Upload the script.
Step 4.	Record the prompts.
Step 5.	Select a script.
Step 6.	Set the script parameters.
Step 7.	Assign a pilot number.

Determining Whether the System AA Is Sufficient

The first question to consider is whether you have to write a custom AA at all. Have a good look at the Cisco UE system AA, shown earlier in Example 9-2. Even though it's simple, it might be sufficient for your AA needs. If so, you only have to associate an AA pilot number with this script, customize the greeting, and insert your business hours and holidays, and you're done.

If the Cisco UE system AA is insufficient, you should continue using the sample AA functions illustrated in the various sample scripts in this chapter to put together a script that is tailor-made for your business.

Preparing a Custom Script

Follow these steps to prepare a custom script:

Step 1.	Ensure that the Cisco UE Editor is installed on your PC. If it isn't, download it from Cisco.com and install it.
Step 2.	Download the sample AA scripts from Cisco.com, and load them onto your PC.
Step 3.	Draw a rough diagram of the flow of menus and prompts you want for your AA.
Step 4.	Copy the sample script that is closest to your needs to a new file, and open it using the Cisco UE Editor.
Step 5.	Adjust (edit) the script to match your drawing from Step 3 by copying and pasting steps from other sample scripts, rearranging the existing steps, or dragging new steps from the Editor's Palette Pane.
Step 6.	Ensure that all the variables you defined and that you want to control via the Cisco UE GUI while the script is running are tagged with the parameter attribute. Also ensure that all the variables you want to control are defined in the top-level script and not in any subflows. Subflow parameters are inaccessible via the Cisco UE GUI to change their values.
Step 7.	Validate the script, resolve all warning and errors until it validates clean, and manually ensure that the steps will execute the call flow you want.

Uploading the Script

There are two places from where you can initiate a script upload:

• If you want to upload the script before you enter the AA Setup Wizard, select the Voice Mail > Scripts menu in the Cisco UE GUI, and click the Upload button. Follow the dialog box instructions to upload the script to the Cisco UE system.
• The second place where the upload function appears is in the AA Setup Wizard itself. To navigate to the wizard, select the Voice Mail > Auto Attendant menu, and then click the Add button. This step is discussed further in the upcoming section "Selecting a Script."

Recording the Prompts

Dial into the Cisco UE GMS, and record all the prompts needed by the script(s), or record them offline. If they were recorded via the GMS, download the prompts to your PC, rename them to have filenames that make it easy for you to recognize the content of each prompt, upload the new files to the Cisco UE system, and delete the old prompts.

If you are using prompts recorded offline, upload the prompt files to the Cisco UE system. Uploading of prompt files can be initiated from the Upload button on the Voice Mail > Prompts GUI menu.

Selecting a Script

Enter the AA Setup Wizard by selecting the Voice Mail > Auto Attendant GUI menu and then clicking the Add button. The screen that results from this, the first screen of the AA Setup Wizard, is shown in Figure 9-11.

Figure 9-11. Selecting the AA Script

In the drop-down box corresponding to the Select Automated Attendant Script, choose the name of the script you previously uploaded. If you have not yet done so, you can upload it now by clicking the Upload button.

Setting the Script Parameters

Click Next and proceed to Step 2 of the AA Setup Wizard. In this screen, shown in Figure 9-12, all variables tagged as parameters during the script preparation show up, and you can set their values. The prompt variables indicate whether the system has found the corresponding .wav files on the storage medium. If it hasn't, you can upload them now, or choose a different filename from the drop-down box next to each prompt variable.

Figure 9-12. Setting the Script Parameters

Figure 9-12 shows a sample screen to set a script's parameters, but this screen is dynamically formatted for each script based on the variable parameters present in that script. This screen, therefore, looks different for every script you view.

Assigning a Pilot Number

Click Next and proceed to Step 3 of the AA Setup Wizard, where the call handling parameters are set up. Here you associate the AA pilot number with the script you chose in Step 1 of the AA Setup Wizard, as shown in Figure 9-13.

Figure 9-13. Setting the AA Pilot Number

As soon as you have completed this step, click Finish. You now have a working Cisco UE AA application on your system.

TCL Based Automated Attendant