Boston University’s voice mail system will be replaced with a new Unified Messaging system. The changeover process will begin on Saturday evening, February 5th and be completed by Sunday morning, February 6th. In order to make this system change as seamless as possible, we will be moving all recorded names, greetings, passwords, and messages from the old system for you. In addition, since the most commonly used keypad entries and prompts are all the same, you will already know how to use the new system on day one!

As always, if you have any questions about the system, or if you experience any issues with your mailbox service before or after this change, please contact Telecommunications at phone@bu.edu or 353-2097.

What to expect from your voice mail system on Saturday night February 5th, 2011:

  • The current voice mail system will be taken off-line at 10 PM and the migration of subscribers’ names, greetings, passcodes and messages to the Unified Messaging system will begin.
  • All calls forwarded to voice mail will be sent into the Unified Messaging system and receive a generic greeting stating the mailbox number. Callers will be able to leave messages for you in the normal manner; they just won’t hear your personal greeting at this time. NOTE: If your number is forwarding to a Quick Access Call Tree, that forwarding will continue to function as usual throughout the migration time period.
  • The migration of mailbox data will continue from Saturday at 10 PM into Sunday morning, completing around 10 AM. Since your passcode is a part of the data being moved, you will be unable to retrieve your messages until your mailbox has been migrated.
  • The migration process will move all of your information from the existing system including:
    • Passcode
    • Name recording
    • Custom greeting
    • Busy greeting
    • Extended absence greeting (called Alternate greeting in the new system)
    • All messages (new and saved)
    • Account-specific entries such as:
    • Pager notification destination
    • Special Delivery notification destination (called Outcall Notification on the new system)

What will remain the same:

  • Main number to access voice mail system (353-9999)
  • System voice prompts (even the same voice talent!)
  • Prompts from keypad for all comonly used functions including:
  • listening to messages (press1)
  • sending a message (press 2)
  • user options (press 9)

What is different in the new system:

  • Subscribers who are part of a Quick Access group will now be able to record their greeting in the user options (press 9) menu.
  • New Messages will be presented as last message recorded will be played back first.
  • Extended Absence Greeting is now called Alternate greeting and is recorded differently in the user options menu (press 9). Callers are not forced to listen to the entire greeting before leaving a message. Please note when calling in to retrieve your messages, it will not remind you that your alternate greeting is active.
  • Changes to Pager notification and Special Delivery must be made by the voice mail system administrator rather than the subscriber.

New Features you will immediately see in the system:

  • Caller ID information will be presented on messages from external callers as well as internal callers.
  • When you log into your mailbox account, you will be reminded with a voice prompt when your mailbox has reached 80% of its capacity.

New features that will be delivered in the near future:

  • Email delivery of voice mail messages
  • Subscriber option for a text alert when a voice mail message is received. The alert message will contain caller ID information.
  • Subscriber option for an alert (text or email) that provides caller ID information when a caller hangs up without leaving a message
  • A subscriber portal to set your name, email address, passcode, login, message preferences, outcall notification (special delivery), text alert, and missed call notification via text

Features that are not in the Unified Messaging system:

  • No reminder feature (press “3” from main menu)
  • No return receipt option when sending a message