Amanda Work Group Administrations 7 Xx Instructions Manual
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Chapter 1: Introducing Amanda What Amanda Does [email protected]/DOS is an automated attendant and voice processing system designed especially for ease of use and flexibility. As a PC-based product, Amanda takes advantage of the technical innovations in the personal computer market. In addition, Amanda’s standard hardware components can be repaired or replaced by any PC service company. The computer on which Amanda is installed must be used only for Amanda. Depending on what lines from your PBX are connected to Amanda and when calls are sent to Amanda to be processed, Amanda can serve you or your customer in a variety of ways. Configured as a primary attendant: Amanda answers all your incoming calls on the lines you designate and allows the callers to direct their calls to a specific person or department without being placed on indefinite hold. If a specific person is unavailable, Amanda can take a private message for that person without missing any details. In this case, the telephone switching system sends all incoming calls to Amanda.
2 Administering [email protected]/DOS Configured as a secondary attendant: Amanda assists your regular operator when call volume is heavy, allowing callers to direct their own calls or hold for the operator. Some companies provide specific incoming lines for Amanda as a backdoor attendant for calls from vendors, family members, friends, and special clients who prefer to have Amanda process their calls. In this case, the telephone switching system sends incoming calls to Amanda only when the regular operator’s extension is busy or not answered. Configured as an off-duty attendant: Amanda provides 24-hour access to your company and its employees when an operator is unavailable. In this case, the telephone switching system sends all incoming calls to Amanda while the office is closed. Configured as a voice messaging center: Amanda takes messages and allows users to send, store, and forward messages, increasing productivity and enhancing inter-office communication. In this case, the telephone switching system transfers any incoming call to Amanda if the extension being called is busy or not answering. Configured as an information system: Amanda provides answers to your callers’ most frequently asked questions (so you can avoid costly interruptions and provide a higher level of customer service 24 hours a day). Information such as your address, available hours, directions to your offices, and so forth, might be better handled by Amanda. Amanda’s serial ports can access databases and other information stored in other computers, allowing Amanda to give callers information on account balances, train schedules, and so forth. In this case, the telephone switching system or even an operator can send incoming calls to Amanda. Then automatically, or if selected, Amanda plays out the requested information.
Chapter 1: Introducing Amanda 3 How to Use Amanda [email protected]/DOS can be run as either a voice server or as a standalone system, switching back and forth if necessary. In either case, the computer on which Amanda is installed must have a DOS operating system and be dedicated solely to running Amanda. The advantage of running Amanda as a voice server is that you can monitor it and adjust how it processes users’ calls from your own workstation rather than from the computer on which Amanda is running. When you use Amanda as a standalone system, you use DOS applications to control everything from the computer on which Amanda is installed. [email protected]/DOS comes with one license for the client software, the applications that allow you to access Amanda from your workstation. To allow other users to access Amanda via their workstations (in addition to their telephones), you must purchase a license for each user. Besides the usual user options (such as listening to messages and changing the setting for Do Not Disturb), the client software allows users to dial telephone numbers listed in Windows applications. Voice ServerThe computer running Amanda as a Voice Server must have a LAN adapter. During the installation, software was provided that allows you to access a Microsoft Workgroup network. In addition to installing the Voice Server, you can install client software which allows you to interact with Amanda from your workstation. One copy of the client software is supplied with this product. It contains five Windows 3.11 applications. Two of them assist you in your role as Amanda system administrator: Amanda Administrator Allows you to control how Amanda processes calls and to create reports. Amanda Monitor Allows you to observe what ports are active and so on.
4 Administering [email protected]/DOS NOTE:To set the configuration options client_activation_key and n_clients, see Installing [email protected]/DOS. When n_clients is 0, you have only one client. This allows you to run Amanda Administrator to control Amanda Voice Server. How Amanda Operates To users and callers, Amanda is a voice on the telephone guiding them to people, services, and messages. However, Amanda’s entire design revolves around the mailboxes defined by you, the system administrator. This chapter explains what a mailbox is, how Amanda uses mailboxes to process calls, and how Amanda processes each mailbox based on the contents of fields associated with it. The others allow you to process messages, place calls, and manage your personal mailbox: Amanda Messenger Allows users to access their messages from their worksta- tions as well as by telephone. Amanda Dialer Dials telephone numbers that appear in Microsoft Word for Windows, Microsoft Excel, and other Windows applica- tions. Amanda Fax Allows you to fax anything that you can print from a Windows application. It also allows you to convert the printable item (document, spread sheet, and so forth) into a fax file or a fax message. Standalone SystemIn this mode, you control Amanda from the computer on which it has been installed using DOS applications. All users access their messages by telephone.
Chapter 1: Introducing Amanda 5 A Mailbox for Each User Each user of the Amanda system has a mailbox. The Amanda Company recommends using the same number as the extension number, but you don’t have to—unless you are using digital integration (such as SMDI). Amanda dials the extension number to reach a user who has a call. The mailbox identifies a record in Amanda’s database. The record contains fields that define how Amanda processes each user’s calls. The system administrator initially (and ultimately) controls the contents of these fields, but the user can change many of them. For example, the user can turn Do Not Disturb on and off during a hectic day. The user changes the contents of these fields using a telephone and a series of menus. He can also use Amanda Messenger. The administrator changes them from Amanda’s Users screen (if using Amanda as a standalone) or from Amanda Administrator (if using Amanda as a voice server). The administrator can view all the fields associated with the mailbox at the same time and move easily from the fields for one mailbox to the fields for another. In addition to these fields, each mailbox has one or more recorded greetings. For example, when a user does not answer a call, the caller hears a greeting, such as “Hi. This is Ralph at extension 123. Please leave a message….” A typical mailbox is configured to ring a telephone extension and record messages from callers. Users periodically check their mailboxes for messages, or they can be notified that a message exists in a variety of ways. Typically, there is one user for each mailbox, even though several mailboxes might share a single telephone extension. Mailboxes that Control Call Processing There are more mailboxes than there are users. This is because mailboxes also control the flow of a call. For example, the company greeting and all the menus are played as greetings for mailboxes. One mailbox directs the call to another mailbox for further processing.
6 Administering [email protected]/DOS By default, Amanda starts with mailbox 990, known as the Company Greeting mailbox. Amanda plays a very short greeting for that mailbox, which is something similar to “Thank you for calling The Amanda Company.” The Done Chain field, one of the fields associated with mailbox 990, causes Amanda to route the call to mailbox 991, known as the Caller Instructions mailbox—unless the caller enters the DTMF (touch tone) digits for another mailbox, such as Ralph’s 123. The greeting Amanda plays for mailbox 991 is a menu of choices (for example, “For sales, press 1. For customer support, press 2….”). If the caller presses a number from the menu, Amanda routes the call to the mailbox associated with that menu number. The Caller Instructions mailbox (by default mailbox 991) is very important because the caller returns to it if all else fails. It is what keeps the caller from becoming lost in the system. You don’t have to use mailboxes 990 and 991, but it is very important that you use two mailboxes. The first should always provide a very short general greeting. The second should be a very specific set of instructions or a menu that allows the caller to reroute himself. The caller can hear it under a variety of circumstances. The second mailbox must be the value stored in the first mailbox’s Done Chain field. You can use these two mailboxes for all calls coming into Amanda, or you can use two different mailboxes per port. This allows you to have a separate general greeting and set of instructions for each port. Mailboxes that Provide Information An information mailbox (such as 990 or 991) does not accept messages from callers; instead, its greeting is played to callers to provide them with various pieces of information, such as the company’s hours of operation, location, and so forth. No real user or telephone extension corresponds to this kind of mailbox.
Chapter 1: Introducing Amanda 7 The Power of Mailboxes Amanda makes a distinction between the mailbox and the user’s extension, although they are usually the same number. The mailbox is the number for a record in Amanda’s database. The extension is what Amanda must dial to transfer a call. By making this distinction, Amanda can provide powerful features through her Token Programming Language. All of Amanda’s mailboxes are stored in a single database, so no two users can have the same number. For example, you can have only one mailbox 0 (usually the company operator). To use 0 more that once, Amanda provides single-digit menus. When you define a single-digit menu, you provide a mailbox to be processed for each number on the menu (1–9 and 0). Amanda processes that mailbox when the user or caller selects the corresponding menu number. For example, if a caller is in mailbox 100 and mailbox 100 maps the menu number 0 to mailbox 222, then Amanda sends callers who press 0 to mailbox 222 rather than to the company operator designated as mailbox 0. When a digit is not mapped as a menu number, Amanda treats the digit as a mailbox. For example, if 0 is not mapped, the caller who enters it reaches mailbox 0, which is usually the operator. Similarly, if a caller enters more than one digit, such as 123, the caller reaches mailbox 123 (if it exists). Processing Calls and Mailboxes To learn the basics of Amanda’s call processing capabilities, you must understand the following concepts. How Amanda processes a call by going from one mailbox to another How Amanda processes an individual mailbox based on the contents of its fields
8 Administering [email protected]/DOS Processing a Call Amanda waits for incoming calls directed to her by your telephone switching system. When a call comes to an Amanda telephone port, Amanda goes from one mailbox to another as she processes that call. How does she know what mailboxes to use? As Amanda answers a call, she starts with the mailbox defined for use with the port that handles the call. This is usually mailbox 990, the Company Greeting mailbox. See “Recording the Company Greeting” on page 44 for more information about setting up this mailbox. She proceeds with the mailbox she finds in the Done Chain field for the current mailbox unless the caller enters an extension. Amanda translates the digits that the caller enters (whether an exten- sion or a number from a menu) to a mailbox and continues process- ing at that mailbox. Depending on the fields associated with a particular mailbox, Aman- da uses the contents of that mailbox’s Extension field, Done Chain field, Busy Chain field, or RNA (Ring No Answer) Chain field to de- termine what to do next. Tokens from Amanda’s Token Programming Language are used in the Extension field. The Done Chain, Busy Chain, and RNA fields contain only mailboxes. See Installing [email protected]/DOS for more information about the Token Programming Language. Eventually, the caller talks to someone, leaves a message, and/or hangs up. The following diagram helps to illustrate this concept.
Chapter 1: Introducing Amanda 9 Call Processing Diagram
10 Administering [email protected]/DOS NOTE:If a Done Chain field is not defined, Amanda uses the Done Chain field of the Company Greeting mailbox as a default. While this default Done Chain can vary from port to port, it usu- ally is the Done Chain field for mailbox 990 and is initially set to mailbox 991 (referred to as the Caller Instructions mailbox). Because of this feature, callers who make invalid choices return to the Caller Instruction mailbox and hear a menu of choices. This keeps them from getting lost in the system. Processing a Mailbox Every time Amanda processes a mailbox during a supervised transfer, she follows the path shown in the following diagram. The settings for the fields associated with the mailbox, such as the Do Not Disturb, determine what actions Amanda does or does not take. While Amanda processes every mailbox the same way, the dotted rectangle around the left column of the diagram’s first page shows a typical call— starting with Amanda dialing a user’s extension and ending with the call being answered, busy, or not answered after a number of rings. The right column of the first page (outside the dotted rectangle), shows the processing for additional (in some cases, special) features. For example, it shows how Amanda: Routes the call if Do Not Disturb is on Identifies the caller, the called party, or both Allows the called party to screen calls Knows when to go to another mailbox or process tokens from the Token Programming Language The second page of the diagram shows in detail what Amanda does when she supervises the transfer of a call and finds that the extension is answered, busy, or not answered. The third page shows when messages are recorded and where they are stored. N OTE:At any time, the caller can enter a number from the menu or the number for another mailbox. If the caller enters a single digit and there are menu fields, Amanda checks for values in those menu fields first. If the menu field for that digit is empty or if the caller enters more than one digit, Amanda assumes that the caller entered a mailbox.