PBX Auto Attendant and msDS-PhoneticDisplayName

Brass Contributor

We have some users who are not pleased with the way the Auto Attendant pronounces their names.  We are running a hybrid environment, so we have an AD server on site and AADC.  We have been experimenting with one user's name to try to fix this problem.

 

  1. We tried using the PowerShell command.  It returned a message to the effect that we cannot control that function through PowerShell. 
  2. We changed the msDS-PhoneticDisplayName in Attribute Editor in the local AD server.  We waited 24 hrs. to see if the PBX servers would pick it up, but there was no change.  
  3. We changed the msDS-PhoneticLastName and msDS-PhoneticFirstName to see what that would do after resetting the PhoneticDisplayName to <not set>.  No change.
  4. We tried changing all three PhoneticDisplayName options.  No change.
  5. We tried removing the user from the Auto Attendant after making the PhoneticDisplayName change, then putting him back in after 24 hrs.  No change.

It appears that the PBX servers are not picking up the changes.  We are out of ideas and welcome any suggestions.

 

Julie

3 Replies
Did you figure this out?

@itsbrad 

As far as I know, there is no way to do this with the current controls.  Here's what we did as a workaround:

  1. Account 1 is the original Active Directory (AD) and Skype account with the correctly spelled AD name.
  2. Set up a second AD and Skype account (jointly referred to as Account 2).
  3. Be sure to assign the appropriate phone licenses to Account 2.  I'm attaching a snap of what we assigned to our Account 2.
  4. In Account 2, change the spelling of the name in the AD name field until the auto attendant pronounces it correctly.
  5. List Account 2 in the Skype auto attendant (instead of Account 1).
  6. Forward Account 2's Skype to Account 1's Skype.

You get the correctly spelled name for e-mail purposes and the correctly pronounced name for auto attendant purposes. The downside is paying for an additional account.

 

Obviously this is not a great fix for more than about 5 users, but it worked for us because we only had one user who was high priority.

Thanks for posting your workaround, @Julie Fisher!

 

Please consider voting for this suggestion on the Teams UserVoice site:

Voicemail - Customize name pronunciation by setting phonetics – Microsoft Teams UserVoice