User's Guide To Voice Mail System

Previous Page TOC Next Page

Chapter 10: Branch Administration

Chapter 10: Branch Administration

Introduction

Overview

Branch Administration is simply the management and maintenance of a branch of your system tree by a Branch Administrator. You, the System Administrator, decide how much power the Branch Administrator has. The controls on the Branch Administrator's Prompt box allow you to do this.

This section discusses the types of Branch Administrators you may have, and the nature of their relationship with the System Administrator. Specifically, this chapter discusses:

Terms

Branch Administrator

This is a person who has control of a branch of Mailboxes. The System Administrator decides what the Branch Administrator can do with their Mailbox group, such as giving them the power to add Mailboxes, leave a message for the Mailbox owners, listen to all left messages, or enable and disable Mailboxes.

Branch Owner

This is a type of Branch Administrator that owns all of the Mailboxes in their Mailbox group. This differs from the standard type of Branch Administration, where each Mailbox has its own Mailbox owner.

System Administrator

You, the Center Owner. You call the shots, decide when the system is operating, decide how much to charge Mailbox owners, etc. This application is your domain. Your word is law here.

Branch Administration and Branch Ownership

There are two distinct forms of Branch Administration. They are 'Administration' and 'Ownership'. The following two examples allow you to see the basic differences between Administration and Ownership:

Administration - Suppose Joell Smith, manager and owner of the WordSmithy writing firm, decides to subscribe to your system. She requires a Mailbox for each of her staffed writers, as well as a general Mailbox for the firm (to act as a catch-all).

For this instance, you would set Joell up as the Branch Administrator of the Mailbox group, and then create a Mailbox for each of the writers on the staff.

Ownership - Suppose Harry Meeks, owner of Harry's Hard-to-Find Autos decides to subscribe to your Voice Mail system. Harry specializes in exotic sports cars and other collectible automobiles. He spends most of the work week looking for stock, so he's not in the office.

He wants you to set him up with a hotline-style Mailbox group in which each Mailbox represents a certain car. The parent Prompt would have his speech that explains how the caller may leave their name and a price offer in the Mailbox for the car they're interested in. Each Mailboxes' speech would give the run-down on the featured auto, then ask the caller to leave a message if they are interested.

As illustrated in the above examples, the Branch Administrator manages and maintains a group of Mailboxes owned by individuals, while the Branch Owner owns all of the Mailboxes in their Mailbox group. This section discusses both of these Branch Administrator types, as well as the System Administrator's part in Branch Administration.

About the Branch Administrator

The Branch Administrator is the person who manages and maintains a Mailbox group in which the Mailboxes are owned by individuals. They may have a little or a lot of power over the Mailboxes in their group, depending on how many controls the System Administrator activates on the Prompt box.

The advantage to having a Branch Administrator is that they (for the most part) manage and maintain their branch of the system tree. They may occasionally ask the System Administrator to add or remove objects from the branch, but they are to some degree responsible for the Mailbox owners in their branch. The amount of responsibility for the Branch Administrator increases as the System Administrator gives them more power over their branch (by enabling branch functions and features).

The Branch Administrator also has all of the powers of a Mailbox owner. This means that a Branch Administrator can access a Mailbox in his or her branch, and perform all of the tasks that the owner of the Mailbox can perform. This is useful when a Mailbox needs to be configured for a new Mailbox owner, as the Branch Administrator can edit the Mailbox for the new owner.

About the Branch Owner

The Branch Owner is the person who manages and maintains a Mailbox group in which they own all of the Mailboxes. Branch Owners tend to have more power over their Mailbox group than the standard Branch Administrator.

Also, a Mailbox group run by a Branch Owner contains Mailboxes with a slightly different configuration and purpose than the standard Mailbox. In the standard Mailbox group, each Mailbox is held by a different Mailbox Owner. A Branch Owner's Mailboxes are all under his/her direct ownership, so they are more likely to use features such as Group Retrieve as opposed to Group Broadcast.

The Branch Owner also has all of the control necessary to access and use each Mailbox in his or her branch to its fullest extent. This comes in handy when the Branch Owner configures their Mailboxes. Using Branch Administration to access the Mailboxes takes less time than accessing each Mailbox using the Mailbox owner remote access.

System Administrator's Part in Branch Administration

Although Branch Administrators and Branch Owners can perform most of the necessary everyday tasks, they will most likely stay in close communication with the System Administrator. They call on the System Administrator to perform tasks that they cannot do, such as removing unused Mailboxes, enabling long distance Message Forwarding, and branch modifications that only the System Administrator can perform.

It is also important that the System Administrator takes a look at these other branches every now and then. Since you are the System Administrator and this is your system, you have total control of the system. You want to make sure that the Branch Administrators and Owners are using their branches properly and efficiently, and not abusing their power or privileges. After all, this is your system.

The biggest part that the System Administrator plays in Branch Administration is as the provider of services. This could include offering Message forwarding to a Mailbox owner, or the power of Group Broadcasting to a Branch Administrator. Once you have subscribers to your system, you should try to improve upon their basic service. People are willing to pay more for a more versatile Mailbox.

Beginning to Use Branch Administrator Remote Access

To begin their remote access session, the Branch Administrator calls (using a touch tone phone) when the system is up and running. The Branch Administrator uses the following procedure to access the Branch remote user portion of your Voice Mail system:


• They begin by dialing your system's phone number. When the System Greeting plays, they press the # key followed by the 2 key. The Branch Administrator must make sure to press these keys during the System Greeting.

• If they pressed the keys in time, they hear a beep. At this point the Branch Administrator enters their Branch ID (the ID number of their Prompt), followed by the # key. Another beep sounds, and the Branch Administrator enters their Branch Password followed by the # key. When they finish entering their Password, the Branch Administrator menu plays.

• If the Branch Administrator enters their ID or Password incorrectly, then the call continues as a normal call. This is so a nosy caller can't access the system. All that they can do is listen to the Mailboxes, menus etc.

Now that you know how the Branch Administrator gets in, let's look at their options. The next section details the Branch Administrator's remote access menu structure.

The Branch Administrator Remote Access Menus

Appendix B contains the Instruction Sheets for your Branch Administrators. You give these instructions to your Branch Administrators so that they may access their branch and perform the necessary tasks.

These are the actual menus that the Branch Administrator uses to perform administrative tasks within their branch of the tree. The menus consist of a Main menu, which then branches into a number of more specific submenus. This section discusses these menus and their usage.

Remote Access Main Menu

This is the first remote access menu that the Branch Administrator hears when they reach the parent Prompt of their branch. This menu contains the following in speech form: Prompt Menu

You should be aware that this menu contains options that are similar to the System Administrator Remote Access menu, even if some of the options are not enabled. If the Branch Administrator attempts to use an option that is not enabled (and therefore not allowed to them), then the message "I can't do that right now" plays. This means that even though the menu stays the same, the Branch Administrator still only has the power you give them.

Now that you know what the options are, let's take a closer look at what each of these options does:

0 Change The Branch Password - This option allows the Branch Administrator to change their Password. When the Branch Administrator presses the 0 key (zero, not the letter "O"), a speech tells them to enter the new password, followed by the pound (#) key. If they press the pound key without entering any numbers, they return to the Remote Access Main menu. If they enter the new password and press #, then they are asked to enter the number again to verify the change.

1 Enable Or Disable This Prompt - This option is not available to the Branch Administrator. If they choose this option anyway, then the message "Sorry, I cannot perform that function" plays.

2 Change ID Speech - This allows the Branch Administrator to change the ID speech of the Prompt. When the Branch Administrator selects this option, they have five options:

3 Change Main Speech - This allows the Branch Administrator to change the Main speech of the Prompt. When the Branch Administrator selects this option, a message tells them whether or not the Main Speech is enabled. They may press the 1 key to change the current setting. Pressing any other key (or waiting five seconds) keeps the current setting. If the Main speech is enabled or the Branch Administrator enables it, they then have five options:

4 Enable Or Disable Auto Menuing - When the Branch Administrator selects this option, a speech tells them if the Auto Menuing option is currently enabled or disabled. The Branch Administrator may then press 1 to disable or enable Auto Menuing, or wait for about five seconds. If the Branch Administrator waits (which they would do if they don't want to change the setting), they return to the Prompt Edit menu.

5 Branch Administration - This option gives the Branch Administrator access to controls that allow them to broadcast a message to all Mailboxes in their group, or to retrieve messages from the Mailboxes. When the Branch Administrator selects this option, the following menu plays:

• If the Branch Administrator presses the 1 key on their phone, then the following speech plays:

A tone sounds, and the Branch Administrator may begin recording their message. When they finish, they press # or *, depending on if they wish to send the message or erase the message. They then return to the Prompt menu.

When a message is broadcast, the same message is left in every Mailbox in the branch. If any of the Mailboxes have forwarding options set, then the system forwards the message as if a normal caller left a message.

• If the Branch Administrator presses the 2 key on their phone, then they begin the process of retrieving messages from all Mailboxes in their branch. They go to the first Mailbox in their branch, and a speech says "Now on Object ID ___ " and the Mailbox ID plays, followed by the Mailbox ID speech. A speech then tells the Branch Administrator how many new messages and how many old messages are in the Mailbox (a 'new' message is a message that has not yet been listened to, while an 'old' message is a message that has been listened to).

The following menu then plays to the Branch Administrator:

If the Branch Administrator presses 1 or 2, the first new or old message plays. Before the message, the date and time the message was received plays. When the message finishes playing, the following menu plays:

After deciding what to do with the message, the Branch Administrator continues to listen to the rest of the new or old messages.

If the Branch Administrator presses the 3 key to move to the next Mailbox, then they go to that Mailbox. The Mailbox ID number plays, followed by the Mailbox ID speech. Then the number of new and old messages in this Mailbox plays.

After the Branch Administrator moves though all of the Mailboxes, they return to the Prompt menu.

6 Add a New Child - Selecting this option allows the Branch Administrator to add a Mailbox as a child of their Prompt. Once the Branch Administrator presses 6, a system speech asks them to enter the reference number of the Mailbox to add, relative to the parent Prompt. This simply means the Branch Administrator would enter the Mailboxes' relative ID (i.e., The ID it has under the originating Prompt, not its absolute ID). The Branch Administrator presses the pound (#) key after they enter the reference number. If the Branch Administrator enters an ID that already exists, a message tells them that the operation cannot be performed. The Branch Administrator returns to the Prompt Edit menu, and they may choose a new ID.

If the system accepts the new ID number, it plays the number back to the Branch Administrator. If this is the correct ID number, they press the 1 key. Pressing any other key tells the system that this is not the correct number, and the Branch Administrator may enter the ID number again.

Once the Branch Administrator adds the Mailbox, they then hear the Mailbox menu. At this point, the Branch Administrator may configure the Mailbox using the Mailbox Edit menu.

Keep in mind that this option will not allow the Branch Administrator to access other parts of the system tree outside of their branch. This is so the Branch Administrator cannot modify or otherwise tamper with the rest of your system.

7 Enter a New Object ID to Edit - This option allows the Branch Administrator to move to another object in their branch of the tree. When the Branch Administrator presses 7, a speech tells them to enter the object's ID relative to the parent Prompt, then press #. If they enter an ID number that does not exist or is not within their branch, a message tells them that the operation cannot be performed. The Branch Administrator returns to the Prompt Edit menu, and they may press 7 again and enter a new ID. Once they enter the ID number of an object in their branch and press #, they go to that Mailbox. The reference number for that object plays, followed by the Mailbox menu. The Branch Administrator may then make the necessary edits, and has all of the powers of a Mailbox owner, and more.

Performing Specific Branch Administration Tasks

In the following procedures, we assume that the Branch Administrator has already called the system, and arrived at the Branch Administrator (Prompt) menu.

This section contains the procedures that the Branch Administrator and Branch Owner use to manage and maintain their branch of the system tree. At the beginning of each procedure, there is a discussion of the tasks (if any) that the System Administrator must perform to allow the Branch Administrator or Owner to do the procedure.

Broadcasting a Message to a Mailbox Group

This procedure allows the Branch Administrator to send a message to every Mailbox in their Mailbox group. Before the Branch Administrator may do this, the System Administrator must first enable the "Enable Group Broadcast" control on the branches' parent Prompt.

The Branch Administrator uses the following procedure to broadcast a message to each Mailbox in the group:

• From the Prompt menu, the Branch Administrator presses the 5 key to select the "Branch Administration" option. The following menu plays:

• The Branch Administrator presses the 1 key on their phone, then the following speech plays:

• A tone sounds and the Branch Administrator begins recording their message. When recording is finished, a menu will play that says:

If the Branch Administrator presses 3, a message states either: "Operation completed" or "Operation Failed" depending on whether or not the message was successfully broadcast.

When a message is broadcast, the same message is left in every Mailbox in the branch. If any of the Mailboxes have forwarding options set, then the system forwards the message as if a normal caller left a message.

Retrieving Messages from a Mailbox Group

This procedure allows the Branch Administrator to retrieve messages from every Mailbox in their Mailbox group. Before the Branch Administrator may do this, the System Administrator must first enable the "Enable Group Retrieve" control on the branches' parent Prompt.

The Branch Administrator uses the following procedure to retrieve messages from all of the Mailboxes in the group:

• From the Prompt menu, the Branch Administrator presses the 5 key to select the "Branch Administration" option. The following menu plays:

• The Branch Administrator presses the 2 key on their phone, then they begin the process of retrieving messages from all Mailboxes in their branch. They go to the first Mailbox in their branch, and a speech says "Now on Object ID ___ " and the Mailbox ID plays, followed by the Mailbox ID speech. A speech then tells the Branch Administrator how many new messages and how many old messages are in the Mailbox (a 'new' message is a message that has not yet been listened to, while an 'old' message is a message that has been listened to).

• The following menu then plays to the Branch Administrator:

• If the Branch Administrator presses 1, the first new message plays. Before the message, the date and time the message was received plays, and a speech also plays if this message was forwarded from another Mailbox. When the message finishes playing, the following menu plays:

If the Branch Administrator decides to forward the message to another Mailbox, then the system prompts them for the object ID of the destination Mailbox. The Branch Administrator then enters the ID number of the destination Mailbox, then presses the # key to send the message to that Mailbox.

After deciding what to do with the message, the Branch Administrator continues to listen to the rest of the new messages.

• If the Branch Administrator presses 2, the first old message plays. Before the message, the date and time the message was received plays, and a speech also plays if this message was forwarded from another Mailbox. When the message finishes playing, the following menu plays:

After deciding what to do with the message, the Branch Administrator continues to listen to the rest of the old messages.

• If the Branch Administrator presses the 3 key to move to the next Mailbox, then they go to that Mailbox. The Mailbox ID number plays, followed by the Mailbox ID speech. Then the number of new and old messages in this Mailbox plays.

• After the Branch Administrator moves through all of the Mailboxes, they return to the Prompt menu. If the Branch Administrator wishes to stop the message retrieval process, they may press the * key to return to the Prompt menu.

Adding a Mailbox to the Mailbox Group

This procedure allows the Branch Administrator to add a Mailbox to their Mailbox group. Before the Branch Administrator may do this, the System Administrator must first enable the Enable Group Add control on the branches' parent Prompt.

The Branch Administrator then uses the following procedure to add a Mailbox to their group:

• From the Prompt menu, the Branch Administrator presses the 6 key to select the Add a new tree object option. A system speech asks them to enter the reference number of the Mailbox to add, relative to the parent Prompt.

• The Branch Administrator enters the new reference number, then presses the pound (#) key. A speech then asks the Branch Administrator if they wish to add a Mailbox, Prompt, or Control Point. They can only choose to add a Mailbox, as the other two options are not available to Branch Administrators. Once the Branch Administrator chooses the Mailbox option, the Mailbox with the new ID is now added to the branch.

• The Branch Administrator now hears the Mailbox menu. At this point, the Branch Administrator may configure the Mailbox using this Mailbox Edit menu. This means that they may record an ID speech and a Main speech for this Mailbox.

Retrieving Messages from a Single Mailbox

This procedure allows the Branch Administrator to retrieve a message from a Mailbox in their Mailbox group. The Branch Administrator uses the following procedure to do so:

• From the Prompt menu, the Branch Administrator presses the 7 key to select the Enter a new object ID to edit option.

• A speech tells the Branch Administrator to enter the object's ID relative to the parent Prompt, then press #.

• The Branch Administrator enters the ID number of the Mailbox in their branch that they wish to edit, and presses # to go to that Mailbox. The reference number for that object plays, followed by the Mailbox Edit menu. The Branch Administrator now has all of the powers of a Mailbox owner.

The Mailbox menu is as follows:

• The Branch Administrator presses 1 to retrieve the messages left in the box. If there aren't any, then the speech "Sorry, no messages" plays. If there are messages, then the system prompts the Branch Administrator to:

• At this point, the Branch Administrator presses 1 or 2, depending on which messages they wish to retrieve. After they choose which messages to listen to (new or old messages), the messages play. After each message, a menu allows the Branch administrator to save, repeat, or erase the message before moving to the next one.

• The Branch Administrator may stop listening to the messages by pressing the * key. This returns them to the Mailbox menu.

Enabling and Disabling a Mailbox in the Mailbox Group

This procedure allows the Branch Administrator to enable or disable a Mailbox in their Mailbox group. This is a useful feature if a Mailbox in the Branch Administrator's branch is no longer in use. Before the Branch Administrator may do this, the System Administrator must first enable the "Allow Branch Enable/Disable" control on the branches' parent Prompt.

The Branch Administrator then uses the following procedure to enable or disable a Mailbox in their group:

• From the Prompt menu, the Branch Administrator presses the 7 key to select the "Enter a new object ID to edit" option.

• A speech tells the Branch Administrator to enter the object's ID relative to the parent Prompt, then press #.

• The Branch Administrator enters the ID number of the Mailbox in their branch that they wish to enable or disable, and presses # to go to that Mailbox. The reference number for that object plays, followed by the Mailbox Edit menu.

The Mailbox menu is as follows:

• The Branch Administrator presses 5 to select the Enable or disable this Mailbox option. A speech then tells the Branch Administrator whether the Mailbox is currently enabled or disabled. The Branch Administrator presses the 1 key if they wish to change the current setting, or they may press any other key to keep the setting the same. They then return to the Mailbox menu.

The 'Sub Branch Administration' Structure

This section makes the assumption that you have read and understood all of the manual sections so far, as this section is largely based on previously covered information.

'Sub Branch Administration' simply means that a branch contains one or more Prompts under the parent Prompt, and that each of these Prompts has a Branch Administrator. A structure like this is more commonly found in a large branch in your Voice Mail system. Here is an example of sub Branch Administration:

A telecommunications company has a number of departments, and the owner feels that it is important for the employees in each department to have a Mailbox. Instead of grouping all of the employees under one Branch Administrator (if there were over a hundred Mailboxes, a single Branch Administrator could get quite busy), you decide to group the Mailboxes by department. This involves adding Prompts to the branch, then adding Mailboxes as children of these Prompts. You would make each department head a Branch Administrator, and they could keep track of the Mailboxes in their sub branch of the branch. There could still be a Branch Administrator for the originating parent Prompt, and the Sub Branch Administrators would make his or her job easier.

In the above example, the Branch Administrator for the entire branch would still have access to all of the Mailboxes in their branch. This means that all sub groups are still accessible by the Branch Administrator (i.e., they can still perform group broadcasts, group retrieves, etc.). Sub Branch Administrators only have access and control over the mailboxes in their sub branch. They cannot access the Mailboxes in another sub branch.

You could also apply this structure to the 'message hotline' style of Branch Ownership. This would allow the Branch Owner to group a large list of services, items for sale, etc. into many smaller groups. This would allow the Branch Owner to check for left messages in a fashion that is much less tedious than retrieving messages from a long list of Mailboxes.

The biggest advantage to this structure over the normal structure is that the caller doesn't have to listen to a long list of Mailboxes. A caller can only remember about five items at a time, and a long auto-menu may discourage or intimidate them. With sub branches, the caller may have to press more buttons to get where they need to be, but they will feel more comfortable getting there.

Previous Page TOC Next Page