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These sections introduce rules and rule-sets and provide instructions about how to use them:
The following sections define rules and rule-sets:
A rule for Cisco Personal Assistant is much like an instruction that you would give to a human personal assistant. Rules tell Personal Assistant to send some of your calls to certain numbers and other calls to different numbers based on the identity of the caller, the time of day, and your calendar.
You can change the characteristics of your rules as frequently and dramatically as you need to. For example, you can make a rule that sends all calls from Philip Elton to your mobile phone; then later change the rule to effectively send all calls except those from Philip Elton to your mobile phone.
Rules can be general, such as, "Send all my calls to voice mail." Or rules can be specific, such as, "Send calls from Jane Fairfax to my mobile phone if she calls between 9:00 am and 10:00 a.m., and screen the call."
A rule-set is a group of one or more rules that you can activate on certain days, according to your schedule. Personal Assistant requires that you create a rule-set before you can add rules to it.
When your incoming calls are processed through rules, Personal Assistant uses the first rule in a rule-set that matches the conditions of the incoming call and applies it. Therefore, the way you order your rules within a rule-set is important. In general, order rules from most specific to least specific.
Rule-sets are ordered lists of rules. You can schedule a rule-set by days of the week or by date range.
A rule needs to be built inside of a rule-set; you cannot build a rule for your Personal Assistant unless you first create the rule-set to which you want the rule to belong.
When a rule-set contains more than one rule, Personal Assistant tests each rule in sequence to see if it matches the conditions of an incoming phone call. Personal Assistant applies the first matching rule to the call.
Use the following procedure to create a new rule-set.
Personal Assistant opens the Rule-Sets page.
Step 2 In the Rule-Set Name field, enter a name for the new rule-set, as shown in Figure 6-1.
Step 3 Click Add Rule-Set.
Personal Assistant creates the new rule-set and adds it to the List of Rule-Sets, as shown in Figure 6-2.
Step 4 You can add rules to the rule-set now or later. For instructions, see the "Building Rules" section.
To delete a rule-set, click the delete icon to the right of the rule-set. Active rule-sets cannot be deleted. To de-activate a rule-set, select "click to select" in place of the rule-set name in the Activate Rule-Sets page.Use the following sections to help you build and use rules:
Use this procedure to add a new rule. For help with understanding rules, see the "What Are Rules and Rule-Sets?" section.
Before adding a rule, you need to create a rule-set. For instructions, see the "Creating a New Rule-Set" section.
Personal Assistant opens the Rule-Sets page.
From the Rule-Sets page, click the Add Rule button for the rule-set within which you want to build a rule.
If the Add Rule button is hidden, click the plus or minus icon to open it.
Personal Assistant opens the Rule page.
Step 2 In the Rule page, enter the information that you want Personal Assistant to use when forwarding your calls. At a minimum, you must choose a destination or destination group (a phone number or group of numbers to which Personal Assistant can forward your calls). Other fields on the Rule page are optional.
See Table 6-1 for Rule page options.
| Rule Page Section | Required or Optional | How to Use this Section | Where to Get More Details |
|---|---|---|---|
Specify a caller, caller group, or caller's phone number that you want to include in your rule. |
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Specify hours of the day when you want your rule to apply to your calls. |
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Specifying Calendar Status in a Rule Note Your system administrator determines the availability of this feature |
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Specify a destination or destination group where you want Personal Assistant to forward your calls. Use the call-screening field in this section to tell Personal Assistant whether or not to screen calls. |
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View a text version of your rule before adding it to your rule-set. |
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Note Pager destinations do not appear in the Destinations drop-down menu because pagers cannot exist alone in a rule; a pager needs to share a destination group with at least one phone number. |
Step 3 In the Destination section of the Rule page, use the drop-down arrow to choose a destination or destination group.
Step 4 Choose "screen the call" or "do not screen the call" from the drop-down menu, as shown in Figure 6-4.
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Note Personal Assistant automatically screens calls that you send to a destination group. Therefore, you cannot choose to de-activate the call-screening feature on the rule page once you select a destination group for a rule. |
Step 5 To see your rule after choosing a destination, click the Preview Now button. Personal Assistant will show you a text version of your rule so far.
Step 6 Click Save to add your rule to the rule-set. Or specify more criteria for your rule.
You can add multiple rules to a rule-set.
In the Rule-Set page, click the delete icon to the right of the rule that you want to remove from a rule-set. Click on the delete icon that corresponds to a rule-set to delete the entire rule-set.Use the Caller Identity section of the Rule page to include individual callers, caller groups, or a caller's phone number in a rule.
Personal Assistant opens the Rule-Sets page.
From the Rule-Sets page, click the Add Rule button for the rule-set within which you want to build a rule. See Figure 6-3.
If the Add Rule button is hidden, click the plus or minus icon to open it.
Step 2 Find the Caller Identity section of the Rule page, as shown in Figure 6-5.
Step 3 If you want to specify one or more individual callers (as opposed to caller groups) in your rule, perform the following steps:
a. Choose "is one of" or "is not one of" from the first drop-down menu. Then click the Select Callers button.
Personal Assistant opens the Caller Search window, as shown in Figure 6-6.
Personal Assistant displays the results of your search.
c. To select a caller from the list, check the Select check box to the right of the caller's name. Click Add Selected and Close.
You can add more than one individual caller to a rule. To remove callers from a rule, select the caller's name in the Rule page and click the Remove Callers button.
Step 4 If you want to specify a caller group (as opposed to individual callers) in your rule, do the following:
a. Choose "belongs to" or "does not belong to" from the drop-down menu.
b. Choose a caller group from the next drop-down menu.
c. Click Save to add your rule to the rule-set, or specify more criteria for your rule.
Step 5 Additionally, you can specify a caller by phone number, as shown in Figure 6-7.
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Note Enter the number that Personal Assistant associates with the caller (typically a work extension); this number is not necessarily the same number from which the person might place the incoming call. |
Use the Time of Day section of the Rule page to limit the hours when you want a rule applied to your incoming calls.
Step 2 Use the drop-down arrow to choose "arrives" or "does not arrive."
Step 3 Choose an hourly range from the drop-down menu.
Use this feature to specify your calendar status or meeting schedule in a rule. This feature works in tandem with your corporate calendar system. Your system administrator determines the availability of this feature.
Choose "in a meeting" or "not in a meeting" as shown in Figure 6-9.
You can preview a text version of a rule while you are building the rule by clicking the Preview Now button on the Rule page. See Figure 6-10.
Use this procedure to change a rule that you have already created.
Personal Assistant opens the Rule page for that particular rule.
Step 2 In the Rule page, change the information as necessary.
Step 3 Once you have completed the changes, click Preview Now. If you are satisfied with the changes you made to your rule, click Save.
Personal Assistant returns to the Rule-Sets page. The rule text reflects the changes you made to the rule.
Step 4 When you have finished adding rules to and creating rule-sets, click the Activate Rule-Sets link to apply the rule-set to your incoming phone calls.
If you add multiple rules to one rule-set, arrange your rules from most specific to least specific. Because Personal Assistant tries to match rules in a top-down order as they appear on the Rule-Sets page, this arrangement ensures that Personal Assistant matches calls to a specific rule before trying to match a call to a general rule.
Use the following procedure to change the order of multiple rules in a rule-set.
Step 2 Click the up and down arrows to rearrange the order of the rules, as shown in Figure 6-12.
Click the delete icon to the right of the rule that you want to remove from a rule-set. You can click on the delete icon that corresponds to a rule-set to delete the entire rule-set.
Activating a rule-set means to schedule it to take effect on certain days or dates. Activate a rule-set to tell Personal Assistant when to apply rules to your incoming phone calls.
You can activate a rule-set by days of the week or within a range of calendar dates. For example, you can tell your Personal Assistant to apply your "vacation" rule-set from March 1 to March 8 and your "London Trip" rule-set from March 8 to March 11. Once the trip is over, you can activate your "Work Week" rule-set on Monday through Friday, as usual.
Personal Assistant only allows one rule-set to be active at any given time. When one rule-set is active, other rule-sets are simultaneously de-activated for the same time period.
The following sections describe your options for activating a rule-set:
Use this procedure to apply a rule-set to one or more days of the week. For example, every Tuesday, every weekday, every weekend, and so on.
Personal Assistant opens the Activate Rule-Sets page.
Step 2 To activate a rule-set according to days of the week, click any of the drop-down menus for days of the week and select the rule-set that you want to activate, as shown in Figure 6-13.
You can select a rule-set for one or more particular days of the week, or you can select a rule-set for "Everyday," which applies the rule-set to every day of the week.
Step 3 Once you have selected the rule-set or sets that you want to activate by days of the week, click Update.
Step 4 From the main menu, choose Rules > Rule-Sets. You can see the activation results under the "Active Period" section of the Rule-Sets page, as shown in Figure 6-14.
Use this procedure to apply a rule-set during a range of calendar dates.
You can schedule up to three date ranges in advance. Because Personal Assistant uses the first date range that matches, order your rule-sets from most specific to least specific. Place your most general, or "default" rule-set last. This ordering ensures that all the date ranges can take affect. For example:
Personal Assistant opens the Activate Rule-Sets page.
Step 2 To activate a rule-set according to specific dates, choose a date range in the From and To drop-down menus.
Step 3 In the Rule-Set column, choose a rule-set for each row you want to use, as shown Figure 6-15.
Step 4 Click Update.
Step 5 Choose Rules > Rule-Sets to see the activation results on the Rule-Sets page, as shown in Figure 6-16.
Adding call screening to a rule lets you have options about how to handle screened calls before allowing those calls to connect.
Figure 6-17 shows the call screening drop-down menu in the Rule page.
Because the call screening feature is part of a rule, you need to follow the procedure for setting up a rule-set before you can add a rule with call screening. For instructions, see the "Creating a New Rule-Set" section and the "Building Rules" section.
Note that call screening applies automatically to rules that specify destination groups.
For a description of what Personal Assistant says to you and your callers, see the "What Call Screening Sounds Like" section.
When you receive a call to which a call screening rule applies, Personal Assistant tells the caller to hold while it lets you decide if you want to take the call.
If the caller is included in your corporate directory, Personal Assistant recognizes the caller and identifies the caller by a name or phone number.
If the caller does not belong to the corporate directory, Personal Assistant does not recognize the caller and asks the caller to record his or her name after a prompt. Personal Assistant then plays the recorded name to identify the caller for you.
Next, Personal Assistant gives you the following options over the telephone:
Meanwhile, Personal Assistant tells your caller, "Please wait while locating."
If you are not available to pick up a screened call, Personal Assistant sends the incoming call to your default destination, which typically is your desk phone and integrated voice mail system.
Posted: Thu Apr 24 14:16:41 PDT 2003
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