Problem configuring Unity 8.6 to send voicemail messages

[Chris Jacobsen]

I have a request to setup a shared phone line where, when a voicemail message is left, the message will either be sent to multiple people or will be sent to a single person. I created a hunt group/list/pilot and confirmed the line works, but I'm having problems with how voicemail is handled.  I've researched Message Dispatching, but there are usability preferences that it does not meet.  I created a local Unity user account for the HG, but specifying an Exchange distribution group doesn't seem to work; nor does speficying either then email address of an existing Unity user (someone who already has a voicemailbox on the Unity system) or an Alias of an existing user.  Am I missing something or are these options really not available?  Do I have to create an AD user, give it a mailbox, and then give all the members of the HG access to that mailbox/AD user account?  Thanks!

Chris

[lindborg]

of course I'd like to hear about the usability issues with dispatch messages - it's almost always superior here and offers much more flexibility unless the user list spans clusters.

Typically if you want to leave a message for a group of users you will direct the call to a call handler (assign it an extension that is forwarded in for and the call is routed there automatically) - record the greeting you want and have the message recipient be a public distribution list that contains the users (and other lists possibly) that you want the message distributed to.

I'm not understanding what you mean by "specifying an Exchange distribution group doesn't work" in relation to the user you created... maybe I'm not understanding what you're trying to do but group distribution of messages is done using the public distribution list object in Connection - these can be "linked" to Exchange groups manually or with scripted tools but ultimately that's how you send messages to more than one user at a time.

[David Hailey]

Like Lindborg, I'm not fully understanding what you're trying to do...however, if sounds to me as if you are trying to facilitate a message relay to a distribution list in your Exchange.  If that's the case then the members of that distribution list would receive a COPY of the message from Unity Connection but it would not sync back up in terms of status with the actual mailbox in Unity Connection.  Also, each user would receive a separate copy via the distro list.