In
an international environment it is especially important to consider the
foreign language aspect of UM. In governmental agencies in particular
it is common to speak and work not in a common language, but in the
local language, such as German.
If you add the UM server role,
only one default language is added—English. Thus, you need to define
the additional languages required for your users.
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Ankur Kothari
Senior Technical Product Manager, Exchange Server, Microsoft Corporation
A question I often receive is, "Why did you decide to ship X language and not Y for Voicemail Preview?"
Our speech model for voice
mail is highly tuned to each culture and language. Dialects, vocal
tones, grammar, background noise, and mumbling all challenge any voice
recognition technology. A language model can even have subtle
challenges, such as the method in which a phone number is recited in
England is very different than in the United States.
To address these
challenges, we created a unique language model for each potential
language that we planned to ship. After getting each language model to
an acceptable level, we ran the results through a user panel to
determine whether users found the results usable or not. Different
cultures, as you know, may interpret results uniquely, and we wanted to
determine whether our model met the bar. In the end, we decided to ship
seven languages/cultures for Voicemail Preview that exceeds both our
testing and the user experience. The four new languages in Exchange
2010 SP1 are Canadian English, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal), and
Spanish (Spain).
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1. Foreign Language Support
Unified Messaging provides language packs to satisfy international
UM requirements. In multiple-language environments, you should install
the applicable UM language packs because some UM users prefer their
voice prompts in a different language or because they receive e-mail
messages in multiple languages that they need to access using OVA. If
you do not install the UM language pack for a particular language,
e-mail messages in that language will be illogical and incoherent when
relayed to the user. OVA uses the following language selection behavior
in the release version of Exchange 2010:
Try to find an exact match from the OWA language setting.
If
no match is found, look for a language with the same parent language
name. If multiple languages with the same parent language name are
installed, the language that is last installed on the UM server wins.
If still no match, pick the latest language installed on the UM server.
Exchange 2010 SP1 changes the language selection behavior as follows:
Try to find an exact match from the OWA language setting.
If
no exact match is found, fall back to a matching fallback language (en
= en-US, fr = fr-FR, es = es-ES, pt = pt-BR, and so on).
If no fallback language is installed, use the default language of the UM dial plan.
Several key components
rely on UM language packs to enable users and callers to interact
effectively with Exchange Server 2010 UM in multiple languages. Each
language pack includes:
A Text-to-Speech (TTS) engine to read and convert messages when OVA users access their inboxes.
The prerecorded prompts used to configure UM dial plans and auto attendants.
ASR support for speech-enabled UM dial plans and auto attendants.
To install a language pack, use Setup.com /AddUMLanguagePack
found in the Exchsrvr\Bin directory of the Exchange Server
installation. Once you install your language packs, you can change the
default language configured for each dial plan.
Note:
Users
automatically use the default language if their configured language
setting in Outlook Web App is not available as a language pack. For
example, if you install only the English and German language packs, and
the English language pack is the default on the dial plan, a user with
the French language configuration in Outlook Web App will hear English
prompts.
In Exchange Server 2007,
each language pack included the TTS engine but only supported ASR for
U.S. English. In Exchange Server 2010, all available language packs
contain ASR support. However, not all language packs support Voicemail
Preview.
Note:
You can access and download all available UM language packs at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd638119.aspx.
2. Operating UM in a Multi-language Environment
Providing UM to
your users in a multi-language environment requires additional
considerations so that your users receive voice prompts for their local
language. Consider the following when planning a multi-language
implementation:
Create one UM dial
plan for every language you support. For example, if you set up a UM
server for Germany, you should configure a UM dial plan with its own
subscriber number that has German configured as default language in
Language Settings.
You
can only define a single text message in a UM mailbox policy. If you
are in a multi-language environment, you should consider either adding
a text message for all languages or using a common language only.
Minimize
the number of languages to only the needed ones. Every language
installed requires time for grammar generation and language specific
work. If you do install all 26 languages, this might never be finished.
Note:
You
should consider a Subscriber Access number for every primary language
that you want to support so that your local users can access their
mailboxes in their local language.
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Korneel Bullens
Team Coordinator Unified Communications, Wortell, Netherlands
One of the questions I
hear from my customers is "Why do I get my OVA greeting in English
while my colleague has a Dutch or English intro?" This is a simple
challenge. When your mailbox is created and you log on to Outlook or
OWA, you encounter a language selection process. The language you pick
is the language used on your voice mail. You can change this by opening
Outlook Web App and changing your regional settings back to your
desired language.
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