How to Configure Business Hours for a Unified Messaging Auto Attendant

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 business hours for a UM auto attendant in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Unified Messaging (UM). When you configure business hours on a UM auto attendant, you define the hours of the day that your organization is open and the business hours greetings and menu prompts that callers will hear when they call an extension number that is configured on the auto attendant. If a caller reaches the auto attendant during hours that are outside the business hours that you defined, the caller will hear the non-business hours prompts and greetings.

There are several default schedule options that are available in the Exchange Management Console. For example, most businesses are open from 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., Monday through Friday. However, sometimes the default options will not fit your needs, and you will want to customize the schedule. If your business hours vary from one of the schedules defined by the system, you can define a customized schedule for the auto attendant.

By default, the Always Run setting is selected. If you leave the Always Run setting selected, the UM auto attendant will play the business hours prompts and greetings regardless of the time of day that callers dial in to the auto attendant.

Note

When setting the schedule for business and non-business hours on a UM auto attendant, make sure that you verify that the time zone is configured correctly.

Before You Begin

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

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

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

  • A UM dial plan has been created.

  • A UM mailbox policy has been created.

  • A UM auto attendant has been created.

Procedure

To use the Exchange Management Console to specify business hours for a UM auto attendant

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

  2. Click Unified Messaging.

  3. In the work pane, click the UM Auto Attendants tab.

  4. Select the auto attendant that you want to modify, and then, in the action pane, click Properties.

  5. On the Times tab, under Schedule Times, under Business hours, select from the available options or select Use Custom Schedule.

  6. If you select Use Custom Schedule, click the Customize button.

  7. On the Schedule page, select the hours that you want to use as your business hours for each day of the week, and then click OK.

  8. Click OK again to save your changes.

To use the Exchange Management Shell to specify business hours for a UM auto attendant

  • Run the following command:

    Set-UMAutoAttendant -Identity MyUMAutoAttendant -BusinessHoursSchedule 0.10:45-0.13:15,1.09:00-1.17:00,6.09:00-6.16:30
    

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

For More Information

For more information about UM auto attendants, see the following topics: