Skype Academy: Voicemail Transcript

[Thomas Binder]

We are happy to announce that Voicemail Transcript is now in Office 365 and is enabled, by default, for all Cloud PBX voicemail users (with the ability for administrators to disable it – see below for details).

Benefits
Voicemail Transcript automatically transcribes all incoming voicemails and delivers the text version together with the audio file to your inbox. There are multiple benefits to both read and listen to your voicemail:

• You cannot listen to your voicemail at that moment: whether you are in an environment where it is too noisy or not able to listen to the voicemail. The transcript allows you to read the message without having to play the audio recording.
• Someone leaves you a phone number: There is no need to write down a phone number someone left you via voicemail. The transcript will write down the phone number on your behalf.
• Accessibility: For some, it might be difficult to listen to a voicemail due to hearing impairment. Transcript allows users to leverage the benefits of transcript voicemails.

How it works

• Cloud platform: The technology behind the voicemail transcripts is a smart platform leveraging the power of Azure. This service will improve over time in recognizing speech and also adding additional functionality.
• Voice mail languages: Currently, voicemail Transcript transcribes messages in the following languages (for the most recent list, please refer to Languages for voicemail greetings and messages from Skype for Business)
  • Chinese
  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Portuguese
  • Spanish

• Change recognition language: The language used to create the transcript, is based on the user’s language setting for their voicemail. An administrator can change the default language for the whole tenant following the process described in Change the default language for voicemail greetings and emails in your organization.
  Individual users can change the language in their voicemail settings after they sign in to the Office 365 portal. In the portal, go to Settings and change the language to the language of your choice. Please refer to Languages for voicemail greetings and messages from Skype for Business, to learn what languages are  available in this voicemail feature.

Admin experience
Administrators, do not have to do much to implement this feature. Apart from the ability to change the tenant default language (see above) the only other option is to turn the Voicemail Transcript off for your entire organization or for individual users.

• To turn off transcription for your entire organization, use the following cmdlet:

  Set-CsOnlineVoicemailPolicy -EnableTranscription $false

• To disable the transcription for an individual user (in this example: amosmar@contoso.com), use the following cmdlet:

  Grant-CsOnlineVoicemailPolicy -PolicyName TranscriptionDisabled -Identity sip:amosmar@contoso.com

More information can be found at Set up Cloud PBX voicemail - Admin help.

Let your users and helpdesk know
Don’t forget to inform your users and your helpdesk. The page Check Skype for Business voicemail and options, describes how users can set up and use their voicemail. Make sure users are familiar on how to use it, and that your helpdesk can assist users if they need assistance. Also, don’t forget to update any related training material.

Call to action

1. Test Voicemail Transcript. Ask someone to leave you a voicemail or call from your mobile phone and leave one.
2. Inform your helpdesk so they are aware if people have questions around the Voicemail Transcript.
3. Create user excitement. Make sure users understand that their voicemail just learned a new skill.
4. Any questions or comments? Discuss with us in the Community!