Voicemail is one of the greatest tools employed on modern phone systems like the Avaya IP500 Office pbx. It allows callers to leave detailed messages. These voice mail messages can be retrieved at any Avaya handset or even sent to a users email inbox. This way they can get messages no matter where they are.
With the Avaya IP500 phone system there are two very different versions of Voicemail available – Voicemail Lite and Voicemail Pro. It depends which software version you choose for your Avaya IP Office pabx (Essential Edition (lite) or Preferred Edition (pro)). For most users there is no requirement to upgrade to the Preferred Edition software at additional expense. The Avaya Voicemail Lite that comes embedded or free with the Essential Edition is incredibly powerful and will suit 95% of customers.
Where you may choose to upgrade to Avaya Voicemail Pro is where you have:
- Multiple sites on an SCN (Avaya Small Community Network). This allows you to share your Voicemail Pro resources across all sites.
- Unified messaging requirements*
- Where you are operating a Microsoft Exchange Server
- Call recording
*Avaya Messaging enables users to manage all of their messages, in particular emails and voicemails, in one place. Since the main messaging platform is typically email, the Avaya IP Office Preferred Edition enables voicemails to be managed via the email system in order to keep all messages synchronized through one user interface. Essential Edition also enables some basic messaging through the ability to forward voicemail messages to the user’s email inbox.
Avaya IP Office Voicemail options available are:
Avaya IP Office Essential Edition Software (Voicemail LIte):
- Embedded Voicemail
IP Office Preferred Edition (Voicemail Pro:
- Voicemail Pro – for single site use but use in a Multi-site Networking (SCN) from remote users
- Distributed Voicemail Pro – for multi-site use in a Small Community Network (SCN)>
- Centralized INTUITY Audix / Modular Messaging Voicemail – for use with Avaya Communication Manager
Avaya IP Office Preferred Edition is available for Windows and Linux OS. The Preferred Edition on Linux provides the same functionality as described further in this chapter, with the following exceptions:
- Web Voicemail is provided by the user productivity application Avaya one-X™ Portal for IP Office which comes with Office Worker, Teleworker and Power User licenses.
- VPNM
- IVR related actions (Database and VB Scripting)
- Voice Recording Library Authentication
Avaya IP 500 voicemail comparison:
| Feature |
Avaya IP Office Preferred Edition Voicemail Pro |
Avaya IP Office Essential Edition
|
| Supported IP Office Systems | IP500 V2 IP500 |
IP500 V2 IP500 |
| Mailboxes | IP Office creates mailboxes for each user and hunt group on the system based on channel licenses | |
| Message Storage Capacity | 1MB per minute up to hard disk capacity | Up to 15 hours. |
| Maximum Simultaneous Calls | Up to 40[1] | IP500 V2 = Up to 6[2]IP500 = 4 |
| Resilience and Backup | Yes | No |
| Small Community Network (SCN) centralised operation | Yes | No |
| Distributed Voicemails in an SCN | Yes | No |
| Voicemail to email forwarding | Yes | Yes |
| Unified Messaging (UMS) | Yes | No |
| Microsoft Exchange Server 2007/2010 Integration | Yes | No |
| Centralised operation. | Yes | No |
| Queue Announcements | Yes | Yes |
| Auto Attendant | Yes | Yes |
| Call Recording | Yes | No |
| Intuity Emulation | Yes | Yes |
1.Up to 40 in a single-site environment, additional ports can be added in a SCN environment by Distributed Voicemail Pro.
2.The first two ports are included in the basic IP Office system price. Additional 4 ports(sold in pieces of 2) can be purchased and licensed separately.
