On newer releases, Contactsore has been replaced with Media Manager.
IP Office ContactStore (referred to as “ContactStore”) provides a simple-to-use yet powerful search and retrieval interface that allows you to exploit the voice recording capabilities of your Avaya IP Office system. ContactStore requires no proprietary hardware and runs on industry standard PC servers. The basic system consists of a PC server – normally the same server on which you run VoiceMail Pro (VMPro). ContactStore collects, compresses and stores recordings made using the VMPro’s recording capabilities. The server also supports an optional DVD+RW drive for archival of recordings. The ContactStore server runs on Windows 2000, Windows 2003, or Windows XP as shown in the following illustration:
IP Office ContactStore provides the functionality described in the following sections.
Voice recording
ContactStore provides controlled access to recordings of telephone calls made on Avaya IP Office systems and applications at release 3.0 or later.
Storage of recordings
Recordings are stored as follows:
Recordings are stored on a single hard disk partition on the recorder server itself or on a network share. Avaya recommends RAID 1 (mirrored) or RAID 5 (striped) redundant storage for maximum security of recordings.
Recordings are compressed to G.726 (16kbps) by ContactStore’s central processing unit (CPU) after the call completes.
Recordings are saved as industry standard .wav files, in a hierarchical directory structure.
Details of all recordings are stored on disk in industry standard .xml files, alongside the audio to which they refer.
On locally mounted partitions, the oldest recordings are automatically deleted as the disk partition assigned for recording reaches a specified minimum free space threshold.
Archival of recordings
The recorder uses a single disk partition on which to retain the most recent recordings, deleting older calls as needed to free space for new ones. To access recordings older than can be held on this single disk partition, you can archive recordings on a DVD+RW drive within the ContactStore server.
ContactStore supports single-sided 4.7GB DVD+RW media are supported.
In this 7.2 release the ContactStore server supports a single DVD+RW internal drive only for archival.
Searchable database of recordings
In addition to .xml and .wav files, which contain the details about the recordings and the audio contents of the files resepectively, the details of each recording are inserted into a industry standard database (Microsoft’s MSDE) for ease of retrieval. ContactStore administers and manages this database automatically.
The details stored allow searching by:
Call start date/time
The name(s) and number(s) where provided of any party on the call (including ANI and/or DID where provided by the switch)
Call duration
Target number. This is the number dialed, which may be different from the number that actually answered the call.
Call search and replay
The replay mechanism supported for replay of calls recorded and stored on the ContactStore is a very simple and intuitive browser-based interface, requiring Internet Explorer Version 5.0 or higher. The Search and Replay application is hosted on a web server running on the ContactStore server itself.
Users can enter specific parameters to search for calls to replay, although access restrictions determine which calls individual users are able to replay. Each user is given access to calls recorded by one or more stations.
The user can play and view details of any call listed. When playing a call, a graphical representation of the audio level of the call is displayed. The audio wave form shows silence and tones, so the user can click beyond irrelevant sections and pinpoint parts of the call that are of interest.
The user can also search for calls using date/time range, call duration, number dialed and according to parties on the call, for example station number or name, as the criteria.
System administration
ContactStore offers system configuration and status monitoring through a browser interface that is compatible with Internet Explorer 5.0 and higher.
System configuration
Through the ContactStore administration tool, System Administrators may maintain:
Details of the ContactStore server configuration�including the e-mail address(es) to which alarms and alert messages are sent.
The list of authorized users and their access rights (administrator rights or not; restriction on search/play)
A number of other detailed configuration options that determine how the other features operate.
Status monitoring
Through the ContactStore administration tool, System Administrators can access:
Alarms and warning messages from the ContactStore server. The ContactStore for IP Office System Administration Guide provides a full listing of alarm and warning messages.
Basic statistics showing numbers of calls recorded (ever and today) and the age of the oldest call held on the disk.
You can specify that alarms and events be forwarded, by email, to a specific address list, so that they do not go unnoticed. A daily “heartbeat” email message ensures that catastrophic failure does not go unnoticed for more than 24 hours. You can also monitor the system using other tools such as HP OpenView to provide earlier warning of total system failure.
Time synchronization
Recordings are timestamped by VoiceMail Pro as they start, so it is important that this server is time-synched to a reliable clock – ideally the same as the IP Office switch itself.
International support
IP Office ContactStore release 7.2 of is provided in several languages. Specifically, international support includes:
Platform support . ContactStore is supported on Windows 2000 Server and Professional, 2003, and XP. Refer to Avaya Technical Bulletins for information on specific service pack information. Local keyboard support is selected as part of the installation of the operating system.
Time zone and DST support. All dates and times are stored in the database in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). However, when you view records using the search and replay application, these are converted to your local time. If you view the records using a database query tool, the times will be shown in the time zone of the client machine, which may be different from the server time. Note that the XML files relating to the recordings include ISO standard timestamps, giving both UTC and offset from Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
Application support. The browser-based Replay application and the Administration application are provided in several languages. US English, UK English, Dutch, Italian, German, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Latin Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.