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Okay, so being named telco admin was all fun and good.
Then, I started on this project that has spanned over a year and a half.
Year before last, we finally got the budgeting to replace our voicemail server. This server is OLD, and the company who made the software had been out of business for a very very long time. So, support and training were out of the question.
We went with the Avaya Modular messenging system.
We had a wonderful omen, it crashed as soon as we got it up.
Modular messenging makes your voicemail mail box and your email box one in the same. You can check your voicemail from your email, and due to the wonders of a text to speech engine, you can call into the system, and it will read you your emails. (At last check, I have 1247 messages in my inbox. )
The users rejoiced, and the worst of our lusers whined about having the messages in the inbox.
So, as I said, the old voicemail server is old and we're worried about it's life expectancy. So, we started looking at what we had left on it, which was student mailboxes (we are sooooo not buying an additional 500 licenses so the students could use it also, as we only bought 250 licenses in the first place), and our toll free phone numbers, aka our phone trees.
While one tech set up the voicemail system, another tech showed me how to use caller applications, which, basically, is the phone tree system. He helped up set up the bare bones of it, and the dept head started telling everyone who needed to know that we were changing this, and getting suggestions of changes that needed to be made.
Time passes, and dept head tasks me with writing down what the 1-800 # said.
Then I remembered that AAFH (yes, the first), used to be a real secretary, and used to talk about doing dictation. So, I passed that onto her. She got it done in like 15 minutes. Woot.
So, then, a committee was set up, they looked at the old script, and re-did it, while I researched, and traced each path, marking who's extension was where.
Many months later, I get the new script, and create the actual caller application. I battle every step of the way, bug tech support often, and finally it's ready. I set it up on a test # on campus, so people can call in and make sure all is well.
All is not well.
Despite Dept head telling other dept heads to check it out, they don't. I get the red light to push it out, and our wonderful and very helpful server admin decides to clean up our Active Directory, and deletes the container that holds the stuff that ties in our email server and voicemail server.
We should have been able to fix it, but in the course of fixing it, our license bit the big one. So it sat for 3 months. People could leave voicemail, Faculty and staff could receive their voicemail, but I could not do anything administratively, like, oh, CHANGE PASSWORDS.
Finally, after we got back from Christmas, we rebuilt the server. I cheerfully went off to re-deploy my caller application, and get the 1-800 # live... and it wouldn't work.
I put in a call to the Tech from hell (TfH). Dept head came over yelling. I was almost in tears. I couldn't find anything wrong! I couldn't figure out what was going on, and she was yelling to get it up.
The tech from hell calls back, and this is where it gets fun.
He pretty much refuses to use WebEx to remote in to my computer or the server. He wants to dial in. I try to tell him that I don't have any information for him to dial in, the network admin doesn't have the information. HELP ME FIX THIS! He tells me to go to the server, look for the phone port on the back of the server, plug a phone in and call myself. That will give him the # he needs.
I go and tell the network admin this. He starts laughing. He, the server admin and I go over. There is no phone port. It's almost time to leave at that point, so I leave it for the morning.
The next morning, I call back and tell him there were no phone ports on the back on the server. "Well, yeah," he says, "It's a USB modem." That's NOT what he said before. So, still refusing to start up a WebEx session, I go BACK to the server. There's one USB port on the front, nothing plugged into it.
I call back. I tell him. There is one USB port in the front. There's nothing plugged into it. There's a power plug, VGA, keyboard, mouse, and two network ports. THAT'S IT! WEBEX NOW!
15 minutes later he calls back with the WebEx session.
4 bloody hours later....
He figures out that since the network admin installed a service pack from Terminal Services, rather than a VPN session or being at the physical server, that it broke the caller applications. TfH tries something to fix it, and breaks the system. Then he shuts down the system and starts uninstalling it, without telling me what he's doing. It's when I start getting yelled at by the work study and our labs person that people are calling saying that they can't get into voicemail that I find out exactly what he's doing and send out an email, so everyone knows what's going on. Which prompts the dept head to come down from a meeting and yell at me (jokingly) to quit breaking voicemail. Having my phone on mute at the moment, I yell that it's not my fault, TfH did it!. Everyone laughed... but me.
He keeps uninstalling and reinstalling, and icky icky bah bah. HR sends an email out that we're under a tornado warning. I start imagining how fun it would be to tell TfH that "sorry, but I'll brb. There's this tornado..."
FINALLY, it's time to leave, and he's no where near done. As I'm poor little hourly worker, I hand the call over to the network admin, and go home and die.
I come in the next morning, and find out that they had to rebuild the server... AGAIN. Thankfully, this time, I didn't have to re-enable all 200 accounts by hand. My caller apps work! WOOT! Dept head and I go over everything one last time, and that's when I notice that when we use the directory search feature (where you spell the person's last name using the phone), you would go straight to the person's voicemail.
So, yet another call to TfH. He's finally done arguing with me about dialing in. I explain everything, and he says that's exactly how the feature is supposed to work. Totally not believing him, I go and talk to the dept head, and repeating everything he said made even less sense. I call him back, and he gets a WebEx session set up.
Then we find out, it DOESN'T have to work that way, it CAN go to an extension, rather that straight to voicemail, only because we had set up an option under the # key from the main menu, it will only go to voicemail. The big problem, is that to fix it, we have to get rid of the # menu option... which had been printed out about 1000 brouchers, of which 350 had gone out.
So, we put it up because we don't have a choice.
Then, this morning. I start out with an email from University Relations whining about the dial by name going to voicemail. She also said that we should remove the "if this is an emergency.." message to the end. Sure, let me just re-record the main prompt. Sure.
Dept head was nice, and said that it isn't our decision, and it's the CFO or the Head of Admissions's decision.
Then, the Head of Admissions called.
Apparently, the
didn't check it AT ALL during the MONTHS that I had it up for testing. Dept head said it might end up with just changing us about everything. 
So, this is probably going to kill me.
Then, I started on this project that has spanned over a year and a half.
Year before last, we finally got the budgeting to replace our voicemail server. This server is OLD, and the company who made the software had been out of business for a very very long time. So, support and training were out of the question.
We went with the Avaya Modular messenging system.
We had a wonderful omen, it crashed as soon as we got it up.
Modular messenging makes your voicemail mail box and your email box one in the same. You can check your voicemail from your email, and due to the wonders of a text to speech engine, you can call into the system, and it will read you your emails. (At last check, I have 1247 messages in my inbox.
)The users rejoiced, and the worst of our lusers whined about having the messages in the inbox.
So, as I said, the old voicemail server is old and we're worried about it's life expectancy. So, we started looking at what we had left on it, which was student mailboxes (we are sooooo not buying an additional 500 licenses so the students could use it also, as we only bought 250 licenses in the first place), and our toll free phone numbers, aka our phone trees.
While one tech set up the voicemail system, another tech showed me how to use caller applications, which, basically, is the phone tree system. He helped up set up the bare bones of it, and the dept head started telling everyone who needed to know that we were changing this, and getting suggestions of changes that needed to be made.
Time passes, and dept head tasks me with writing down what the 1-800 # said.
Then I remembered that AAFH (yes, the first), used to be a real secretary, and used to talk about doing dictation. So, I passed that onto her. She got it done in like 15 minutes. Woot. So, then, a committee was set up, they looked at the old script, and re-did it, while I researched, and traced each path, marking who's extension was where.
Many months later, I get the new script, and create the actual caller application. I battle every step of the way, bug tech support often, and finally it's ready. I set it up on a test # on campus, so people can call in and make sure all is well.
All is not well.
Despite Dept head telling other dept heads to check it out, they don't. I get the red light to push it out, and our wonderful and very helpful server admin decides to clean up our Active Directory, and deletes the container that holds the stuff that ties in our email server and voicemail server.
We should have been able to fix it, but in the course of fixing it, our license bit the big one. So it sat for 3 months. People could leave voicemail, Faculty and staff could receive their voicemail, but I could not do anything administratively, like, oh, CHANGE PASSWORDS.
Finally, after we got back from Christmas, we rebuilt the server. I cheerfully went off to re-deploy my caller application, and get the 1-800 # live... and it wouldn't work.
I put in a call to the Tech from hell (TfH). Dept head came over yelling. I was almost in tears. I couldn't find anything wrong! I couldn't figure out what was going on, and she was yelling to get it up.
The tech from hell calls back, and this is where it gets fun.
He pretty much refuses to use WebEx to remote in to my computer or the server. He wants to dial in. I try to tell him that I don't have any information for him to dial in, the network admin doesn't have the information. HELP ME FIX THIS! He tells me to go to the server, look for the phone port on the back of the server, plug a phone in and call myself. That will give him the # he needs.
I go and tell the network admin this. He starts laughing. He, the server admin and I go over. There is no phone port. It's almost time to leave at that point, so I leave it for the morning.
The next morning, I call back and tell him there were no phone ports on the back on the server. "Well, yeah," he says, "It's a USB modem." That's NOT what he said before. So, still refusing to start up a WebEx session, I go BACK to the server. There's one USB port on the front, nothing plugged into it.
I call back. I tell him. There is one USB port in the front. There's nothing plugged into it. There's a power plug, VGA, keyboard, mouse, and two network ports. THAT'S IT! WEBEX NOW!
15 minutes later he calls back with the WebEx session.
4 bloody hours later....
He figures out that since the network admin installed a service pack from Terminal Services, rather than a VPN session or being at the physical server, that it broke the caller applications. TfH tries something to fix it, and breaks the system. Then he shuts down the system and starts uninstalling it, without telling me what he's doing. It's when I start getting yelled at by the work study and our labs person that people are calling saying that they can't get into voicemail that I find out exactly what he's doing and send out an email, so everyone knows what's going on. Which prompts the dept head to come down from a meeting and yell at me (jokingly) to quit breaking voicemail. Having my phone on mute at the moment, I yell that it's not my fault, TfH did it!. Everyone laughed... but me.
He keeps uninstalling and reinstalling, and icky icky bah bah. HR sends an email out that we're under a tornado warning. I start imagining how fun it would be to tell TfH that "sorry, but I'll brb. There's this tornado..."
FINALLY, it's time to leave, and he's no where near done. As I'm poor little hourly worker, I hand the call over to the network admin, and go home and die.
I come in the next morning, and find out that they had to rebuild the server... AGAIN. Thankfully, this time, I didn't have to re-enable all 200 accounts by hand. My caller apps work! WOOT! Dept head and I go over everything one last time, and that's when I notice that when we use the directory search feature (where you spell the person's last name using the phone), you would go straight to the person's voicemail.
So, yet another call to TfH. He's finally done arguing with me about dialing in. I explain everything, and he says that's exactly how the feature is supposed to work. Totally not believing him, I go and talk to the dept head, and repeating everything he said made even less sense. I call him back, and he gets a WebEx session set up.
Then we find out, it DOESN'T have to work that way, it CAN go to an extension, rather that straight to voicemail, only because we had set up an option under the # key from the main menu, it will only go to voicemail. The big problem, is that to fix it, we have to get rid of the # menu option... which had been printed out about 1000 brouchers, of which 350 had gone out.
So, we put it up because we don't have a choice.
Then, this morning. I start out with an email from University Relations whining about the dial by name going to voicemail. She also said that we should remove the "if this is an emergency.." message to the end. Sure, let me just re-record the main prompt. Sure.
Dept head was nice, and said that it isn't our decision, and it's the CFO or the Head of Admissions's decision.
Then, the Head of Admissions called.
Apparently, the
didn't check it AT ALL during the MONTHS that I had it up for testing. Dept head said it might end up with just changing us about everything. So, this is probably going to kill me.
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