Manage messages and announcements with AT&T Collaborate

As an administrator for the AT&T CollaborateSM service, you can:

• Add audio files to a site’s announcements that features such as Auto Attendant and Music on Hold can use.
• Upload custom answer confirmation messages and pre-alerting announcements for your company.
• Manage audio files for sites and users you manage.

To use a custom answer confirmation message or pre-alerting announcement, you create and upload an audio file (in WAV format) to your site’s announcements.

Note: The Pre-alerting Announcement feature is available à la carte.

Audio file guidelines
Announcements
Pre-alerting announcements
Answer confirmation messages

Audio file guidelines

Announcements must follow these guidelines:

• CCITT u-Law or A-Law
• 8.000 kHz
• 8-bit Mono
• WAV file type

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Announcements

Announcements contain audio files used for music and greetings that play when callers are on hold, and for voicemail greetings and other announcements. For example, you can upload greetings that let your customers know your business hours and holiday closure schedule. You can also control when each greeting is played.

Change an existing announcement

You can change the name of an announcement or upload a new file to replace an existing one. If you want to upload a new file while retaining the current one, see Create an announcement.

1. On the Collaborate homepage, click Select a site or click Switch sites, and then search for or select a site to manage.
2. In the message that appears, click Save.
3. On the left menu, expand Call handling, and then click Announcements. The Manage announcements page appears.
4. Do 1 of these things:
   • To manage an announcement, next to the announcement, click the Edit icon.
   • To delete an announcement, next to the announcement, click the Delete icon.
   • To delete multiple announcements, from the Actions menu, click Delete, select all the announcements you want to delete, and then click Save.
5. Update the name of the announcement.
6. To replace the announcement with a new recording, enter a file name, click the REC icon, and then start speaking.
7. To replace the announcement with a different audio file, click Upload, and then locate and select a file or drag the file you want from your computer.
   Note: Files must be in WAV format and smaller than 5MB. For more details, see the Audio file guidelines.
8. Click Save.

Create an announcement

1. On the Collaborate homepage, on the left menu, expand Call handling, and then click Announcements. The Manage announcements page appears.
2. From the Actions menu, select Create. The Create announcements page appears.
3. Enter the name of the announcement.
4. To record an audio file, enter a file name, then click the REC icon and start speaking.
5. To upload a new file, click Upload, and then locate and select a file or drag the file you want from your computer.
   Note: Files must be in WAV format and smaller than 5 MB. For more details, see the Audio file guidelines.
6. Click Save.

Record an announcement on your desktop phone

1. On your desktop phone, enter the phone number or extension to access your voicemail. By default, the number is 99 unless you changed it.
2. When prompted for your passcode, press the star key (*) to interrupt the announcement.
3. Enter the group voicemail extension followed by the pound (#) key.
   Note: This is the same number that you entered in step 1.
4. Enter the group voicemail password.
5. For the Announcement menu, press 5.
6. For the Announcement Recording menu, Press 1.
7. When prompted, record your greeting. When you’re finished, press the pound (#) key.
8. Your recording is played back. To accept the recording, press 1.

Your recording will be listed in your site’s announcements by the time and date it was recorded.

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Pre-alerting announcements

When you assign a pre-alerting announcement to a user, callers hear a default (company-provisioned) announcement before the user’s phone rings. You can configure Pre-alerting Announcement so the caller can interrupt it. You can use the default announcement, or you can record a custom announcement.

Set up pre-alerting announcements

1. On the Collaborate homepage, on the left menu, expand Users, and then click Manage users. The Manage users page appears.
2. Search for or select the user you want to manage.
3. Click Adjust settings. The Manage settings page appears.
4. Click À la carte. The À la carte features page appears.
5. In the Pre-alerting Announcement section:
   • Under Status, click Off to turn the feature on.
   • To make changes, click Edit. The Pre-alerting Announcement page appears.
6. To use a custom announcement, in the Audio file settings section, select Use a custom audio file.
   – You can record or upload a new greeting. For more information, see the Edit an existing announcement section.
7. To change the pre-alerting announcement schedule, click Add criteria. For more information about schedules, see Manage schedules.
8. When you’re finished, click Save.

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Answer confirmation message

Answer confirmation messages play when features with this option, such as Virtual Office, are turned on. To make sure callers always hear the announcement, the pre-alerting announcement plays before the call recipient’s phone rings.

Answer confirmation asks users to confirm when they answer a call. This is a convenient way to prevent a business call from ending up in a user’s personal voicemail when they forward calls to their mobile device or home phone number. Use answer confirmation for user features that route calls to an alternate destination, such as Virtual Office, Simultaneous Ring, and Sequential Ring.

When a call is routed to a Virtual Office or other destination, the user hears this default answer confirmation message: “Please press any digit to complete this call.”

Change the answer confirmation message

To use a different message, such as one that tells users that this call was routed by their business service, add and apply a custom answer confirmation message.

1. On the Collaborate homepage, on the left menu, expand Administration, and click Enterprise settings. The Company settings page appears.
2. In the Answer confirmation section, click the Edit icon. The Answer confirmation page appears.
3. Under Select a message, select Custom message.
4. Do 1 of these things:
   • To record a new message, click the REC icon.
   • To upload an existing audio file, click Upload, and then locate and open the audio file you want to use for the message.
5. Click Save.

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