SU to switch voice mail systems
Syracuse University will implement a new system April 4 to make voice mail more convenient and technologically advanced.
The new system, CallXpress, will replace the current Octel voice mail system. The university decided to make the change after Avaya, the company that created Octel, announced several years ago it would discontinue support for Octel by July 2011.
Though there were never any problems with Octel, the system was old and the university decided it was time to upgrade, said Ronald Kurdziel, director of communications at SU.
‘We’ve had that system from the 1990s,’ he said. ‘We thought that it was time to move on and get something that was not only continuing to support and advance, but could also start introducing us to some of the capabilities of unified messaging and unified communications, which is where things seem to be headed.’
Right now, individuals who use the university’s system are going through the process of setting up their new CallXpress voice mail. Even though the system will not be live until early April, individuals are now able to choose a new voice mail password and record a greeting, Kurdziel said.
Messages saved on the Octel system will not be transferred to CallXpress because the two formats are not compatible. However, individuals can get copies of their old voice mails made if they request it, Kurdziel said.
The university researched several different voice mail systems before deciding to choose CallXpress. During the process, other colleges were very helpful in sharing information about the positive and negative aspects of the various voice mail systems. Officials from colleges that had switched from Octel to CallXpress were very pleased with it, Kurdziel said.
CallXpress includes a new feature called Simple Unified Messaging. This feature sends an email and a .wav file of the message when a new voice mail is received, Kurdziel said.
‘We couldn’t do things like that if we stayed with the Octel,’ he said.
CallXpress includes other features as well, but Kurdziel said additional research is needed before they can be implemented. Right now, the focus is on transferring the university’s 4,000 mailboxes and menu boxes over to CallXpress.
‘We’ve spent all of our efforts converting Octel over to CallXpress,’ he said. ‘Once we get that stabilized and people comfortable with it, then we’re going to start looking at some of the capabilities beyond Simple Unified Messaging.’
Kurdziel said he predicts that once people start using Simple Unified Messaging, they’ll stop using their phones to check voice mail because they will be provided with the convenience of an email notification.
‘They’re always looking at email anyway,’ he said. ‘To now have an email that says, ‘You have a voice mail,’ … I think people are going to really like that.’
Published on March 20, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Contact Jessica: jliannet@syr.edu | @JessicaIannetta
