Multiple Holiday Schedules on one Call Handler

Question

Hello, I search previously for a solution to this problem, but have been unsuccessful.  I am running Cisco Unity Connection 8.5.1.
Current Setup:
Company has a system call handler named "Company AA" that serves as their autoattendant for answering incoming calls.
Company has a holiday schedule associated to "Company AA" which includes recognized holidays, and an personalized greeting recording stating they are closed for the holiday.
What needs done:
Company has scheduled staff meetings throughout the year.  These need to be input into the system so that on these dates/times, a different personalized greeting recording plays stating that they are closed.  This needs to be a different recording than the normal Holiday greeting (so I cant just add the dates to the already existing holiday greeting).
Is this possible with Cisco Unity Connection?
Thanks!
Derek

Answer 1

Hello Derek,
It is possible, however, you will need to create a different Call Handler and Schedule per Holiday, in this example I am going to use just 3 holidays (July 4th, January 1st and December 25th. The process is kind of complex, but here we go.
1st: Create the Call Handlers:
Create a CallHandler for the Company AA
Create a CallHandler for January 1st
Create a CallHandler for July 4th
Create a CallHandler for December 25th
2nd: Create the Holiday Schedules
Create a Holiday Schedule for the Company AA CallHandler and add all the holidays here (January 1st, July 4th, and December 25th).
Create a Holiday Schedule for the January 1st CallHandler and add just the July 4th, and December 25th holidays here
Create a Holiday Schedule for the July 4th CallHandler and add just the December 25th holiday here
Create a Holiday Schedule for the   December 25th CallHandler and do not add any holdays
3rd: Create the System Schedules
Create a System Schedule for the Company AA CallHandler and associate it to the Company AA Holiday Schedule (Define your working/after hours schedule here).
Create a System Schedule for the January 1st CallHandler and associate it to the January 1st Holiday Schedule (Make it 24/7)
Create a System Schedule for the July 4th CallHandler  and associate it to the July 4th Holiday Schedule (Make it 24/7)
Create a System Schedule for the December 25th CallHandler and associate it to the December 25th Holiday Schedule (Make it 24/7)
4rd: Call Handler configuration
Company AA
Go to the Company AA CallHandler, and under Active Schedule select the Company AA System Schedule.
Setup the Closed and Standard Greetings/Transfer Rules as you wish.
Go to the Holiday Greeting and select Nothing and uncheck the Play the "Record Your Message at the Tone" Prompt options under Callers Hear.
Under the After Greeting section, select Call Handler >> January 1st >> Go Directly to Greetings.
Check the Greeting Enabled with No End Date and Time option and save the configuration
January 1st
Go to the January 1st CallHandler, and under Active Schedule select the January 1st System Schedule.
Go to the Standard Greeting and setup the message that you want to play during January 1st here, if you want to transfer the call, you will need to change the Standard Call Transfer Rule as well.
Go to the Holiday Greeting and select Nothing and uncheck the Play the "Record Your Message at the Tone" Prompt options under Callers Hear.
Under the After Greeting section, select Call Handler >> July 4th >> Go Directly to Greetings.
Check the Greeting Enabled with No End Date and Time option and save the configuration
July 4th
Go to the July 4th CallHandler, and under Active Schedule select the July 4th System Schedule.
Go to the Standard Greeting and setup the message that you want to play during July 4th here, if you want to transfer the call, you will need to change the Standard Call Transfer Rule as well.
Go to the Holiday Greeting and select Nothing and uncheck the Play the "Record Your Message at the Tone" Prompt options under Callers Hear.
Under the After Greeting section, select Call Handler >> December 25th >> Go Directly to Greetings.
Check the Greeting Enabled with No End Date and Time option and save the configuration
December 25th
Go to the December 25th CallHandler, and under Active Schedule select the December 25th System Schedule.
Go to the Standard Greeting and setup the message that you want to play during December 25th here, if you want to transfer the call, you will need to change the Standard Call Transfer Rule as well.
Go to the Holiday Greeting and select Nothing and uncheck the Play the "Record Your Message at the Tone" Prompt options under Callers Hear.
Notes:
     As mentioned above, this process is complex and the best way to achieve this will be to create an excel table with the settings of every CallHandler so you can check them before implementing this in production, please note that the last Call Handler Holiday Schedule is empty, as well as the Holiday Greeting of this CallHandler since it will only play the Standard Greeting (24/7) schedule.
     The second
     The third thing you need keep in mind is that if you need to change the working hours schedule, you will do it on the main CallHandler only (Company AA), since the other system schedules are used only for holiday and during the holiday those are set to work 24/7.
Explanation:
     This implementation of distinctive holidays works because when the  AA CallHandler check the holiday schedule during July 4th, it will send the the call to the holiday greeting since it is marked as a holiday on its schedule, the holiday greeting of the AA will send the call to the January 1st Call Handler; then, the January 1st CallHandler will do the same, since July 4th is marked as a holiday, it will forward the call to the Holiday Greeting which will send it to another CallHandler (July 4th). When the call gets to July 4th CallHandler it checks its schedule, since no holidays are marked on this particular CallHandler for July 4th, it will check whether it should play the Standard or Closed greeting, since this schedule was setup as 24/7, it will play the Standard Greeting of the July 4th CallHandler and stop hunting.
I hope you this helps you and feel free to shoot me with any questions you might have.
HTH
--espereir