How to Configure a Personal Operator for a UM-Enabled User

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Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 will reach end of support on April 11, 2017. To stay supported, you will need to upgrade. For more information, see Resources to help you upgrade your Office 2007 servers and clients.

 

Applies to: Exchange Server 2007, Exchange Server 2007 SP1, Exchange Server 2007 SP2, Exchange Server 2007 SP3

This topic explains how to use the Exchange Management Console and the Exchange Management Shell to configure a personal operator for a Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 recipient who is enabled for Unified Messaging (UM). The personal operator extension setting on a UM-enabled user's mailbox can be used when an administrative assistant or personal assistant will answer incoming calls for a specific user instead of a voice mail message being generated for the user. For example, if a UM-enabled user will be out of the office and wants callers to have the option to talk to a human operator or to leave a voice message for them. By default, an extension number is not defined.

For a caller to be transferred to a personal operator, the caller must press 0 on their telephone keypad while the user's custom voice mail greeting is being played. Therefore, we recommend that if a user is going to use a personal operator, they include instructions in their custom voice mail greeting that tell callers how to access their personal operator.

If the user has not created a customized voice mail greeting, the default system greeting will be used and the system will add the operator prompt automatically. For example, "Please leave a message for Tony Smith. To speak to an operator, press 0." If the caller does not press 0 during the voice mail greeting, they can leave a voice message for the user.

If you have not configured a personal operator extension for a user, or if you have not correctly configured the dialing rules on the UM dial plan that is associated with the UM-enabled user, the Unified Messaging server will use the operator extension number that is configured for the dial plan. The default digit to reach the dial plan operator is 0.

You can enter an internal or external telephone number that has from 1 to 20 digits in the Personal operator extension field that is available on the UM-enabled user's mailbox Properties. If you use an external telephone number, you must verify that you have correctly configured the appropriate outdialing rule groups and entries to enable this functionality. For more information about how to configure outdialing entries, see How to Create a Dialing Rule Entry on a Unified Messaging Dial Plan.

Before You Begin

To perform the following procedures, the account you use must be delegated the Exchange Recipient Administrator role.

For more information about permissions, delegating roles, and the rights that are required to administer Exchange 2007, see Permission Considerations.

Also, before you perform these procedures, confirm the following:

  • The Exchange recipient has an Exchange 2007 mailbox.

  • The Exchange 2007 recipient is enabled for Unified Messaging.

  • A UM dial plan has been created.

  • A UM mailbox policy has been created.

  • The extension number that is assigned to the Unified Messaging user is valid according to the UM dial plan that is defined.

Procedure

To use the Exchange Management Console to configure a personal operator for a UM-enabled user

  1. In the console tree of the Exchange Management Console, expand the Recipient Configuration node.

  2. In the result pane, select the user's mailbox that you want to view.

  3. In the action pane, click Properties.

  4. On the Mailbox Features tab, click Unified Messaging, and then click Properties.

  5. On the Unified Messaging Properties page, in the Personal operator extension field, enter the extension number for the personal operator that will be used for this user.

  6. Click OK to accept your changes.

    Important

    After you accept the changes that you made by using this procedure, you must set the AllowExtensions parameter to True by using the Set-UMDialPlan cmdlet. For the correct syntax, see the following procedure. You cannot set the AllowExtensions parameter to True by using the Exchange Management Console.

To use the Exchange Management Shell to configure a personal operator for a UM-enabled user

  • Run the following commands.

    Set-UMMailbox -identity tonysmith@contoso.com -OperatorNumber 12345
Set-UMDialPlan -identity MyUMDialPlan -AllowExtensions $true

For more information about syntax and parameters, see Set-UMMailbox.

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