What is the process of setting up “voice mail” accounts on the IVR Studio program? And what are the perameters of my options?

The voice mail account is setup with the Recording element. A recording element sets the IVR system up to record the phone audio to an audio file. The sample application that is included in IVR Studio is the simpliest voicemail application. You can open the application from the IVR Studio program main menu > Library > voicemail. The document for the voice mail application is avaible online.

The next thing to setup for a voicemail account is where to store the recorded audio file, which is a regular .wav audio file. You can save the audio file in a particular folder or save to a relational database. For example, one easy setup for voice mail accounts is to arrange them as separate folders, and use account number or extension number as folder name. But since the file is just a regular Windows file, you should be able to access or use it anyway you want. You could send the recorded audio file as an email attachment, as shown in the voicemail to email sample.

The service I am intending to provide will give each user a unique voicemail account. Callers wanting to leave a message for my clients, will call into a main number, enter the unique 4 digit account number when prompted, and leave a message. The message will be emailed by Voicent IVR Studio to the client.

This description is close to the Voicemail to Email sample. You can open the sample from the IVR Studio main menu > Library > Voicemail to email. The document for Voice mail to email is available online. The Java code for sending the recorded audio file is included in the sample. All you need to do to have the sample working is to set the correct values for email servers, recompile the Java code, and deploy the application.

Then I would like to have the option for my clients to be able to call in, enter a password, and be able retreive any messages from their voicemail.

This can be accomplished by given the caller a choice (press 1 for account holder and press 2 for other caller) at the beginning of the call. The choice can be implemented using the Choice element. The Auto-Attendant sample shows the usage of a choice element.

You could also provide another phone number for your customers. So when they call in, you simply direct them to their voice mail account. But this will require you to setup another IVR Studio on a different computer also.