Hi Yvonne,
Contacts can only be reached via the Directory or via the VUI
How Contacts Are Used in Cisco Unity Connection 8.x
If you have staff, vendors, or partners who do not have mailboxes on the system, but need to communicate with users, we recommend that you create contacts for them. Administrator-defined contacts are available to all users, unlike user-defined contacts that would need to be set up individually for each user. In addition, users are able to add the contacts to their personal call routing rules and caller groups, and can use voice commands to call the contacts. Also, if the contact information changes, you update it in only one place. Note the following details:
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VPIM Messaging—Administrator-defined contacts can be configured for VPIM messaging. These contacts represent users on other VPIM-compatible voice messaging systems. When contacts have been set up to represent the VPIM users, Connection users can send and receive messages to and from the VPIM users on the other voice messaging systems.
•Directory Access—When you create contacts in Cisco Unity Connection Administration and enable them to be listed in the directory, they can then be accessed by users from the Connection directory. This allows callers to transfer to the extension of the contact.
•Name Dialing Access—Users have the ability to quickly and easily place phone calls to contacts when using the user speech recognition conversation—as long as the contact has transfers enabled.
•Personal Call Transfer Rules—Users can add other users, administrator-defined contacts, and user-defined contacts to their personal call transfer rules and caller groups.
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/connection/8x/user_mac/guide/8xcucmac085.html
Cheers!
Rob
