PSNZ

Hi there.

We are a small company based in New Zealand, and have an IP Office system complete with Voicemail Pro.

We have an operational requirement that calls made and received must be recorded, for both security and training purposes.

Up until now, we had been simply recording to a "dummy" user's mailbox, then automatically emailing the calls to an address in our email system (using the "Auto Recording mail box" for the user's recorded calls to point to the dummy user, which has "Voicemail Forward" set to email the call through our mail system).

This works perfectly to calls to/from a specific user. However, recordings of calls made to a Hunt Group cannot be forwarded in this way, as there is no option to select another user's mail box. We were recording calls to the hunt group mailbox and forwarding it via email in the same way (Voicemail Forward), however there does not seem to be a way to differentiate between recorded calls and legitimate messages left in the group's mailbox, which is not a very good solution (ie we need to differentiate between messages left and calls recorded).

We have just recently started the trial for Witness ContactStore, which works very well. However, upon enquiring about the cost from our supplier, we were informed that it would be several thousand dollars. It seems like a pretty simple application, so I'm uncertain whether they are trying to pull a swifty, or whether that is simply the going rate. We are a small business with a small budget, and cannot justify spending that much for this purpose.

So, my questions are:

1. Is there any way to differentiate messages emailed from a hunt group's mailbox, between messages left in the mailbox, and recorded calls left in the mailbox? Is there any way to treat them differently, so as to forward them to the correct places (ie messages to the user, calls to our archive)?

2. Is there any alternative to the ContactStore application, which integrates with IP Office?

3. What would one expect to pay for ContactStore, given that we own Voicemail Pro already?

4. Alternatively, if the cost we have been quoted is excessively high, can anyone here sell us a legitimate license? (note that we are not interested in any form of pirated software).

I come from an IT background, so understand the technical issues involved in the system.

Thanks heaps in advance for your replies.

Cephas

The cost you were quoted for ContactStore is probably correct. However, there is a simple way to do what you want.

In the "Groups" section in VMPro, create a new Leave callflow for the huntgroup in question. It should simply route directly to a leave mail token, which instructs the system to leave a voicemail in a second huntgroup mailbox - a dummy one if you like. What will happen is auto-recorded calls to the huntgroup will store in the regular huntgroup mailbox. Actual voicemail messages left for the group will be stored in the "dummy" huntgroup mailbox.

Note that one of the biggest advantages of ContactStore is that you will use a LOT less hard drive space to store your calls. Another is easier locating of a particular call.

Peter

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PSNZ

Hi, Cephas.

I will try this tomorrow, and let you know how it goes.

Thanks heaps for helping me on this.

ajshaikh

I'll share with you what we do....

We too have created dummy mail-boxes for all inbound/outbound call recordings. We then give folder-access to specific user to their respective dummy VMPro folder. Every weekend we simply run a Wave-to-MP3 convertor (www.acoustica.com) which then converts all folder contents into MP3, thereby reducing the overall size to 1/10th.