Thanks but I do not see an Action that allows me to set the caller input to a user's Alternate contact number. The options are Call Action, Call Handler, Interview Handler, Directory Handler, Conversation and User with VM. And in the fields avavilable for those options I can not see an Alternate contact number. Thanks

My apologies, this is not offered in Unity Connection 2.x. Only in Unity 5.x (4.2 as well.)

The admin will have to configure a alternate contact number for the subscriber as a call handler.

How I do it:

Have the user record their greeting. "Hi this is Pam, Im out of the office, but if you need immediate assistance, you may press 4 now to be connected to me. (or whatever number you want for caller input.

Configure a Call Handler for Pam. On the "transfer" rule, select ring extension and place the person home, cell or whatever number in the extension. 91xxx-xxx-xxxx Make sure you have restrictions lifted so the call can be made by Unity or it will not leave the Unity system to CUCM.

Configure Pam's Caller Input to for Option 4 to connect to the Call Handler Pam.

This is the manual way we used to do it before "Alternate Contact Number" In Unity 5.x, subscribers can change their Alternate contact number through the TUI which is nice.

cheers

Hi Beth/Tommer,

Nice answer Tommer (+5 points for this excellent workaround :)

Just thought I would add this feature is coming in the soon to be released UC 7.0;

Unified Communications Applications: Unity Connection 7.0 EFT Opportunity

http://forum.cisco.com/eforum/servlet/NetProf?page=netprof&forum=Unified%20Communications%20and%20Video&topic=Unified%20Communications%20Applications&CommCmd=MB%3Fcmd%3Dpass_through%26location%3Doutline%40%5E1%40%40.2cbeeab0

Hope this helps!

Rob

Team,

To add to the highly rated posts of Tommer and Rob - The current version of Unity Connection has the same follow-me, time of day routing, selective call screening and other features that were in the application we used to call Personal Assistant. The benefit of enabling these features is that it allows the subscriber to configure their own personal settings without burdening the administrator to create the custom settings for different users.

Some of the features in Unity Connection are:

Caller Groups

Using groups can help you organize callers in a number of ways. For example, you could create a caller group of your top-priority clients and co-workers. To ensure that these callers can reach you when you are in meetings, you would create a rule set with one rule that transfers calls from anyone in the group to your mobile phone during your meeting times and another rule that transfers other calls to voice mail.

Destinations

Destinations are phone numbers or e-mail addresses to which Cisco Unity Connection can transfer your incoming calls or send text messages as a part of personal call transfer rules. There are three types of destinations:

Destination groups contain multiple destinations arranged in a sequence and stored under a single group name. For example, to ensure that you receive calls from a specific personal contact, you might create a destination group with your primary extension, mobile, and home phone numbers, then create a rule that tells Cisco Unity Connection to transfer calls from the personal contact to the destination group.

Personal call transfer rules

Personal call transfer rules allow you to consolidate how and where you want to receive calls. Using the Personal Call Transfer Rules web tool, you can create rules to transfer and screen calls based on caller identification, time of day, and meeting schedules. You can also set Cisco Unity Connection to transfer selected calls to a destination or destination group.

You can change the characteristics of your rules as frequently as you need. (For example, you might create a rule that sends all calls from a co-worker to your mobile phone and later change the rule to send all calls except those from the co-worker to your mobile phone.)

Rules can be general, such as "Send all my calls to voice mail." Or they can be specific, such as "Send calls from Jane Smith to my mobile phone if she calls between 9:00 am and 10:00 am, and screen the call."

These and other features are described here:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/connection/2x/user/guide/2xcucug190.html

Regards,

Michael.

Wow! That is great information. I did not know about the caller groups. I have a client looking for the exact solution.

thanks much!

Tommer,

Thanks for the work around though I haven't gotten it to work. I get the message that the extension is not available. Anyway, this is ok for one or two subscribers but I suspect I will have hundreds of users who would like to caller input go to their cell phone. Do you see the old Unity 5.x feature where users could set it themselves to a numebr coming back? Thanks! Beth

Try something simple with the transfer for the call handler like another extension. If it does ring that extension, then the call handler is working, and caller input. If you put in 91xxx (the subscribers cell number) and it does not work, you have a restrictions problem for outbound dialing that needs to be adjusted.

In Unity 4.2 and Unity 5.x, the subscribers can set their own Alternate Contact Number *IF*, the administrator enabled it on the caller input on their profile. The subscriber can log into the TUI or the PCA interface to change or update their Alternate Contact Number

Hi, That is exactly what I did. First I tried the cell phone number preceeded with a 9, then I tried an internal 5 digit extension.

The other question about creating a call handler for all of the users who want the caller input option to go to their cell phone. Is it true that each user would need a call handler?

Thanks!

Since you are on Unity Connection, this would be the only way to do this. Does the internal 5 digit extension work or no? what do you get when you try to do this?

Thanks for the answer on the call handler and caller input.

No I still have not gotten it to work. The Cisco Unity lady says the extension is not available. I do have a demo version of Unity Connection and I am starting to wonder if that is the problem.

Thanks, Beth

I still think you have a Restrictions issue. What is in your Restrictions Table for outbound dialing?

http://cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/connection/2x/administration/guide/2xcucsag110.html

Thanks Rob! Glad it was useful information. You guys do a great job here already sharing your great wealth of knowledge with this community.

Regards,

Michael.