Direct Voice-Mail Transfer of Calls - The Cisco Learning Network

Introduction 

Direct Voice-Mail Transfer of Calls 

Sometimes when you are on a call and you need to transfer the call, you may want to transfer it directly to the 

voice mailbox because the person at that extension is not available to answer the call. Of course, you can always 

transfer the call to the phone extension and then wait for the phone to ring until it is automatically forwarded to the 

voice mailbox. But this document can help you learn how to skip this waiting time. 

Requirements 

The configuration information and screen capture in this document are based on the following software and 

hardware versions: 

Cisco Unified Communications Manager Release 6.1 

Cisco Unity Release 5.0 

The first solution (without additional configuration), described in the next section, applies only to the Cisco Unity 

system, and it works on most versions of Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco Unity. 

However, the second solution (with additional configuration as outlined in “Detailed Configuration Steps”) applies 

to nearly all versions of Cisco Unified Communications Manager and various voice-mail systems, including Cisco 

Unity. For setup on a different system, please check the appropriate configuration documents for that system. 

Solution 

There are multiple ways to transfer a call directly to a voice mailbox without ringing the phone. They can be 

summarized in two categories: without and with additional configurations. 

1 Direct Voice-Mail Transfer of Calls www.cisco.com/go/learningnetwork © 2008 Cisco Systems, Inc.

1. Without Additional Configuration 

The solution discussed in this section works only with the Cisco Unity system. 

Overview 

Without any additional setup in both Cisco Unified Communications Manager and Cisco Unity, you can still 

transfer the call directly to a voice mailbox in Cisco Unity without ringing the phone, if you follow several 

steps. 

This method of direct voice-mail transfer to Cisco Unity is feasible only because you can skip the Call 

Transfer settings and go directly to the greeting of a Cisco Unity subscriber by dialing to the Opening 

Greeting and then dialing the subscriber mailbox number followed by “#2”. 

When you want to transfer your call to a voice mailbox, you simply blind transfer to the Cisco Unity 

Opening Greeting by pressing the Message button. While you are being asked for the password, you can 

skip the sign-in and go directly to the Opening Greeting by pressing #. During the Opening Greeting, you 

can go directly to a personal greeting by dialing the destination number followed by “#2”. Then you can 

complete the blind transfer by pressing the Transfer button again. 

How to Transfer the Call 

To transfer the call directly to a voice mailbox in Cisco Unity without ringing the phone, follow these steps: 

Step 1 While you are on a call, ask the caller to hold while you transfer the call. 

Step 2 Press the Transfer button. 

Step 3 Press the Message button to call the Cisco Unity system. 

Note: Your phone Message button should have already been configured to the same destination Cisco Unity system. If it 

has not, then you need to know the Cisco Unity Voice Pilot number and manually dial it instead of simply pressing 

the Message button. 

Step 4 While you are being asked for your password, press the # key to go to the Opening Greeting. 

Step 5 While hearing the Opening Greeting, dial the destination extension followed by “#2”—for 

example, 1000#2. 

Step 6 Press the Transfer button again to complete the blind transfer. 


2. With Additional Configuration 

The solution discussed in this section works with the Cisco Unified Communications Manager and any 

voice-mail system (including Cisco Unity). 

Overview 

With some additional setup in Cisco Unified Communications Manager, you can make a direct voice-mail 

transfer much more easily than by using the preceding solution. Although there are multiple ways to do it, 

the steps described in this section are the simplest. 

When you want to transfer your call to a voice mailbox, you simply blind transfer to a computer telephony 

integration (CTI) route point with a directory number equal to a prefix (like “*”) plus the actual extension of 

the destination mailbox. The CTI route point forwards your call unconditionally to the appropriate voicemail 

system (like Cisco Unity), but the specially created voice-mail mask will mask out the prefix and pass 

out only the extension of the destination mailbox to the voice-mail system. Therefore, the caller will finally 

hear the personal greeting of the destination mailbox. 

Summary of Configuration Steps 

The configuration steps in Cisco Unified Communications Manager can be summarized as follows: 

Step 1 Choose a prefix for the direct voice-mail transfer—for example, “*” (asterisk). 

Step 2 Create a voice-mail profile with the voice mailbox mask to strip off the preceding prefix. 

Step 3 Create a CTI route point with the new voice-mail profile and forward it to your voice-mail 

system. 

How to Transfer the Call 

After successful configuration in Cisco Unified Communications Manager, follow these steps: 

Step 1 When you are on a call, ask the caller to hold while you transfer the call. 

Step 2 Press the Transfer button. 

Step 3 Dial the direct voice-mail transfer prefix and then the destination extension—for example, 

*1000. 

Step 4 Press the Transfer button again to complete the blind transfer. 


Detailed Configuration Steps 

Step 1 Choose a prefix for direct voice-mail transfer—for example, “*” (asterisk). 

Note: In this document, although the asterisk (*) is used as an example for the direct voice-mail transfer prefix, you can 

always use any unique sequence of numbers (including * and #) instead. But the asterisk (*) is a good example, 

since most phone extensions do not start with it. 

Step 2 In the Cisco Unified Communications Manager configuration menu, create a new voice-mail 

profile named DirectTransferToVM with a specific voice-mail mask, like XXXX, to strip off the 

prefix that you chose in step 1 (for example, “*”). Also, choose the correct voice-mail pilot for 

the voice-mail system. 

Note: Depending on the length of extensions inside the Cisco Unified Communications Manager system, you can use 

any length of “X” in the voice-mail mask. In the example, all extensions have a length of four digits. 

Note: If you have already created a voice-mail pilot for the voice-mail system that is assigned to the phone, you can use 

the Message button to check the outstanding voice mail. If you have not created a voice-mail pilot yet, you can 

create it from the Voice Mail Pilot Configuration page. 

Note: Do not make this voice-mail profile the system default. 


Step 3 Create a CTI route point named DirectTxferToVM. As with any other device inside Cisco 

Unified Communications Manager, you need to choose the correct device pool, location, and 

so on for this device. 

Step 4 Click Line [1] of the CTI route point in the preceding figure, and assign the appropriate 

wildcard for the directory number. If the direct voice-mail transfer prefix is “*” and the length 

of the extension is four digits, the appropriate wildcard will be *XXXX. Besides the directory 

number, you need to choose the correct voice-mail profile (DirectTxferToVM, which you 

created earlier) and check the Voice Mail box, next to Forward All. 

Step 5 Now, you can blind transfer the call to a voice mailbox by using the direct voice-mail transfer 

prefix plus the destination extension.

Direct Voice-Mail Transfer of Calls - The Cisco Learning Network

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