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Cisco Personal Assistant 1.4 Installation and Administration Guide
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Planning for Personal Assistant
Before you install Cisco Personal Assistant into your production network, you should take the time to
understand it and how it fits in the rest of the IP telephony network. You should also determine the best
server configuration to support your users.
Use the following sections to learn about the features and components of Personal Assistant, how it
works, and how it fits into your IP telephony network:
• Understanding Personal Assistant, page 1-1
• Understanding the Personal Assistant Server and Speech-Recognition Server, page 1-8
• Creating Server Clusters, page 1-10
• Intercepting Calls with Personal Assistant, page 1-16
• Customizing Implementation of Personal Assistant, page 1-23
• Preventing Toll Fraud, page 1-24

Understanding Personal Assistant

Personal Assistant can selectively handle your incoming calls and help you make outgoing calls. The
following sections provide you with an overview of Personal Assistant and its role in the IP telephony
network:
• Personal Assistant Features, page 1-1
• Cisco IP Telephony Terminology, page 1-3
• Role of Personal Assistant in the Cisco IP Telephony Network, page 1-5
• Personal Assistant and User Interactions, page 1-7

Personal Assistant Features

Personal Assistant provides the following features:
Follow-Me Call Transferring
Users can tell Personal Assistant to use an alternate phone number as their primary location for a period
of time. Personal Assistant routes calls to the follow-me phone. For example, a user could route calls to
a hotel room phone during a business trip.