Mailboxes.
Q:Where are my messages stored?
A: By default, messages are stored in the C:\Program Files\CALLMaster\VOX folder.
However this setting is defined in the System Parameters “Prompt folder”, and can be changed.
Each message a mailbox receives is logged to the CALLMaster Messages table. You can view the message activity from the CM Manager/Manage/Messages.
You can convert the Speech File Id from the Messages table to the actual message file stored in the VOX folder by applying the alogrithm specified in Appendix A.
Q:I forgot my password. How do I get back into my mailbox?
A: The system administrator has password information.
Q:Why do I get messages when the person just hangs up?
A: Once the beep is played so the caller can leave the message, the recording will be in the box.
You can set the minimum message length to avoid very small messages. CALLMaster also supports the "Option to leave a message" feature,
which asks the caller if they would like to leave a message in the box before actually doing so.
Note: If you have activated "allow login during greeting" for your mailbox and the user presses the pound (#) to escape without leaving a message,
a login option will be given to the caller.
Q:Once the person hangs up, why is there a long silence or tone signal before
CALLMaster comes on again?
A: Most phone systems or Telephone company lines send a disconnect tone or (line) loop current drop which will terminate the call and recording.
To terminate the recording based on a disconnect tone, sometimes a dialtone is used, the tone must be defined in the CALLMaster Global Tone table.
You can run the Dialogic utility PBXPert to analyze and define the tones received and then use that information to define a disconnect tone, see Global Tones in Chapter 10.
Contact your Telco or your phone system vendor to make sure a disconnect signal is sent.
If disconnect signaling is absent then there is a system parameter called “Record Maximum Silence” that determines the amount of time silence will be recorded before the system stops recording.
The default is 15 seconds, which can be set lower. Be careful not to make it too low, as people do tend to be silent when they are thinking.
Q:Can I manage mailboxes, system recordings and settings remotely?
A: Yes, if you can log into CALLMaster as an administrator press star when you get the mailbox main-menu “Press one to Review Messages, two to Send or three for Personal Options”
you will then get the Administrator’s main menu see above chapter for details.
Q:How do I set
the allowable length of a mailbox greeting?
A: The maximum message length also applies to the maximum mailbox greeting
Q:Can I send one
message to multiple boxes?
A: Yes - read up on distribution lists, in this chapter.
Q:Can I store
multiple greetings for my box and interchange them when I need to?
A: The default answer to this is no. However, if you feel you're comfortable enough to use CALLBasic you can see the chapter entitled
"Sample Applications" for a way to do this through Audiotex.
Q:How does Unified
Messaging work?
A: When properly configured for email messaging, CALLMaster will send out an email message to the designated email address for the individual
mailbox with an audio file of the actual message as a .WAV format attachment. By entering a dash “-“ as the first character of your email address, you can choose to be only
notified by email without have the actual message emailed to you as an attachment. For email messaging to work, the computer must have:
You should first test the email delivery by manually executing steps 2 and 3 to send a test email message. Once you are sure that the email account profile has been set-up correctly
and have successfully sent a test email message, you are now ready to enable unified messaging using CALLMaster.
Call Routing.
Q:
How do
I log into my mailbox from Attendant?
A: There are two ways to accomplish this. The easiest way (by far) to login from the main Attendant menu
is to simply press the star (*) key. The second way is to create a password access to the voice mail main menu.
To do this, you must create an Attendant ID that opens some sort of access to the voice mail main menu.
You should make the action of the Attendant ID "Voice mail", “Login to Mailbox” or “Mailbox” if abbreviated login is set.
For example, to make the caller enter "999" before logging in, you must make the Attendant ID equal 999 with Type of Transfer set to “Voicemail”,
“Login to Mailbox” or “Mailbox”.
Q:
How do I
change the opening greeting?
A: The system administrator must log into the administrator mailbox and press star (*).
This will make the administrator options menu available. From this menu, pressing seven (7) will allow the user to change system
prompts. We recommend recording prompts 502-504 to say the time of day greeting only.
Prompt 505 should give callers their options (see next question.).
Q:
How do I change the options presented to the Caller?
A: The system administrator must log into the administrator mailbox and press star (*).
This will make the administrator options menu available. From this menu, pressing seven (7) will allow the user to change
system prompts. The opening Attendant main menu is prompt 505.
Q:
How do I perform a
transfer?
A: If you have flash-hook transfer capability, simply enter the number to dial in the
"Number to Dial" field. You should know whether CALLMaster is supposed to supervise the call or if the telephone
switch is supposed to do it. Consult your phone system dealer or your SpeechSoft sales representative if you're not sure.
Q:
What is a flash-hook
transfer?
A: A flash-hook transfer is a little like a 3-way call.
The only difference is that when the person that initiated the 3-way call hangs up, the other two parties are still connected.
For example, if you have a WE2500 handset (a home phone) and party A calls you, then you tell party A to hold on and you hit
the flash-hook button. The flash-hook button is commonly used to answer a call coming in while you're on the phone.
Most phone companies call this call waiting. Now that you have put party A on hold with the flash-hook, you get a special dial tone.
Most times there will be a stutter, then a regular tone. If you are on a telephone switch, you should get a dial tone from your switch.
Call the number you want to transfer the caller to and wait for someone to pick up. Party B picks up and you say you're going to send
party A to them. You hit the flash-hook button or hang up the phone, and party A will now be transferred to party B.
This is how a flash-hook transfer works..
Q:
Do I have to
fill in all of the fields?
A: Definitely not. If you are not sending to a mailbox, don't fill in the mailbox field.
If the field has nothing to do with what the Attendant ID record is trying to accomplish, leave the unimportant fields blank.
If you are not performing "Retry" as an "Alternate Action",
the "Number of Retries" field is unimportant and can be left blank.
Q:
How do I
access the protected fields?
A: We do not recommend altering these fields, thus the protection.
If you need to do this, see the section on "Protected Fields" in Chapter 4 for more information.
Q:
What goes in the
directory entry field?
A: This field is a protected field, and be managed by the administrator.
It should contain the first or last name of the person or party associated with this extension, in numeric letters.
For example, the name "Smith" would be entered as 76484. Unlike the Voice mail directory, the Attendant directory is not
generated automatically. You need to have control over what extensions have directory entries because Attendant IDs that
do not lead to extensions should not have directory entries.
The Administrator can log into their mailbox and using the Administrator options (*9) enter the Attendant Directory entries.
Q:
Do I need to change the
alternate actions?
A: These fields are only
for screened and supervised transfer use. You do
not need to change these settings if you are not
using these transfer actions.
Q:
What happens if the caller doesn't enter anything at
the main menu?
A: If the caller enters nothing, the default Attendant ID of ‘0’ (zero) will be used.
If you do not create an Attendant ID of zero (0), the caller will hear "There is no such extension."
We recommend that you make a zero (0) Attendant ID since there are rotary phone callers that will be unable to enter any sort of touchtone..
Q:
How do I teach
CALLMaster the signals from my PBX?
A: Try running "PBXpert", which can be found by clicking on the Start/Program Files/Dialogic group.
Q:
Audiotex tells me
that there is no such module and hangs up on me.
Why?
A: The "Audiotex" Type of Transfer sends the caller to the module defined in the phone ports database
for this port. If you have not set one, it tries to go to module zero (0). If module 0 is not defined then CALLMaster fails and hangs up.
If you have defined a module in the phone ports database, it goes there.
If you want a specific starting point, set the Type of Transfer to "Audiotex Key",
choose the specific module number in the Audiotex Key field and it should fix the problem.
Q:
What Attendant
IDs does CALLMaster use on a holiday or a closed day?
A: The "Evening" IDs, if available. Otherwise, it will use the "All Day" ID.
Q:
Why is there a pause
after I enter the digits before the transfer
sequence starts?
A: If you have the Attendant Parameter called " Max Extension Length " set for a number that is
higher than the extension you entered, then CALLMaster is waiting for more digits. For example, if your extensions are all 3 digits,
set the Attendant parameter listed above to 3. In this case, a caller entering 1 for information
might have to wait a second or two before accessing that area, since CALLMaster is waiting for 3 digits before transferring the call.
Q:
How do I return
callers to the Attendant Main Menu (prompt 505)?
A: Assuming you started your phone port with Attendant, give them a digit choice to do this
and make an Attendant ID record that goes to a single Audiotex module.
That module should have an action of "Last Module.
Q:
What happens if the
caller enters an extension that is not in the
Attendant table?
A: There is an Attendant parameter “Allow Any Transfer” which defaults to yes,
in which case the system will transfer the call to the extension dialed. There is another Attendant parameter
“Call Analysis on Default transfers” which determines if these transfers are supervised for busy / no answer or not,
the defaults is no. If this is set to yes then if a default transfer fails the call goes to the mailbox defined in the Voicemail parameter “default account”.
IVR / Audiotex.
Q: How do I access the Audiotex table?
A: By selecting "Audiotex" from the Manage option in the CALLMaster Manager.
Q: How do I make a path with Audiotex?
A: The first thing you should do is write-up a plan and a flowchart.
The next thing you should do is to take the tour of CALLMaster. If, after taking the tour, you still don't know
how to create a call path, go step by step and plan how you will use Audiotex to implement each part of your flowchart.
Q: What does "Concatenate" mean?
A: This is a rarely used action that gathers the responses of the caller and joins it to
the current record key number. For example, if you are in record 30,
and the caller enters 45, concatenating the digits would give you record number 3045 as the next destination.
Q: What should I put into the "Text for File Output" field?
A: Anything you want. This field lets you print whatever you type here into the
CMCalls_(DATE).TXT file for debugging and reporting. By putting an exclamation point (!) in front of an entry,
it will print a numeric value to the file. This is used to test variables and capture response information.
For example, you want to count the number of times a certain record has been hit, you would use a CALLBasic command in
the script that adds one to a variable (e.g. var = var + 1). In the “Text for File Output” field, you would then type !var
to have the number in the variable called "var" printed to the CMCalls.TXT file.
Very useful for debugging! Try to stay away from punctuation marks of any kind in your label field.
This field can also contain the mailbox number(s) that could make the audio recording for this Audiotex module.
If all mailboxes are to be given permission to make the recording for this audiotex module then this field should contain RECORDALL.
Q: How do I use Audiotex to interact with the databases?
A: CALLBasic database commands used CALLBasic scripts perform this function.
For more information on the commands themselves, refer to the CALLBasic chapter.
Q: What do I put in the TT Index Table?
A: Unless your action is "Touch Tone Index", don't put anything there.
If your action is "Touch Tone Index" and you don't know what to put here, you should refer to the "Touch Tone Index"
portion of this chapter to learn about its functions.
Taking the CALLMaster tour will also help you use TT Index Tables.
Q: When should I use a response length?
A: The response length is used when the action is set to Touch Tone Index and you want to get some digit(s) from the caller.
For example, if you are getting a one-digit response to a question and placing it into a variable, make the response length one (1).
Q: What databases does Audiotex interact with?
A: CALLMaster easily interfaces with any database including Oracle, Informix, SQLServer and many more) can be accessed.
Q: Why doesn't my Audiotex routine work?
A: Well, because you did something wrong. The way to deal with this is to debug the routine.
This is accomplished by setting the “Write above Text to File?” to "Yes" and entering details of the record's function in the Text
for File Output field. Run the routine, and then look at the CMCalls(DATE).TXT file. In this file you will see each record and
where things went wrong. Watch the system carefully to see where this happens by observing the port's activities.
For more information about the label field, read the description of the field in the beginning of the "Audiotex" section.
The CMCalls.TXT file is defined by the Logging Parameter “Call Log File”, and can be viewed while CALLMaster is running.
It would be helpful to turn off the status screen first so you don't get a jumble of data on the screen.
Another way to debug is to make a recording in each record. An Audiotex key will play the message first.
The last message you hear before the system freezes is the one you need to check for the problem.
Q: How can I repeat the same prompt for several records without having to record them individually?
A: Access the protected fields and put the desired Message ID number into the records you want to repeat the message in.
To learn how to access the protected fields, see Protected Fields..
Out Dial.
Q: Where do I start? The tour says nothing about Out Dialing.
A: Firstly, you need to choose if you want to use List Dialing or Schedule Dialing. Follow steps below to set-up based:
List Dialing
Schedule Dialing
Q: How can I enter a large list of numbers into the Out Dialing database?
A: There are several ways to load numbers.
List Dialing
Schedule Dialing
Q: How do I reset the calls that have been marked as "Failed" so I can call them again?
A: You have 2 choices. If you are List Dialing, then you can select an individual record and
edit the status field, or you can use the Loadphon™ utility to change all the records at once.
Loadphon™ utility is in the CALLMaster program group.
If you are using Schedule Dialing, then use the MS Access capabilities outlined above.
Q: Can Out Dialing call a randomized range of numbers automatically?
A: Out Dialing can call the numbers in its database. How you get them there and how you generate them,
is up to you. A spreadsheet can usually generate a text file of numbers, in any order you create them.
Many different programs have been used for this purpose..
Q: How do I halt the Out Dial in the middle of a series of calls?
A: Open the CALLMaster Main Windows, hit the BIG RED button to stop all lines, or highlight
the line you wish to stop and hit the SMALL RED button.
CALLMaster will stop making calls and will finish with the calls currently being performed.
Q: Can CALLMaster differentiate a response from an answering machine, a fax and a human?
A: There are 2 system variables in CALLMaster ($Contype, $CR), which indicate if the response was by a human, fax or answering machine.
You can then branch out accordingly in CALLBasic.
List Dialing
Check $CR first and then check $Contype. (see Chapter 13 – Sample Applications, Example 4)
Q: Once I have finished with my numbers, how do I clear them from CALLMaster?
A: For List Dialing, use the Remove function in Loadphon. For Schedule Dialing, if you select
the option to delete existing numbers before loading new numbers, the existing numbers will be appended to the OutcallScheduleSave table.
Q: The Out Dialing log has all kinds of numeric codes for Call Analysis Events. Where can I find what those codes mean?
A: In the Appendix entitled Dialogic Events and Results Reference. The EVENT DATA section near the end of the Appendix will list these events for you.
Q: How do I import numbers from a CD-ROM or diskette into CALLMaster?
A: You are responsible for creating a text file like the one shown in the previous question, above.
How you do it is your business. We recommend contacting the manufacturer of your CD-ROM or the list house from which you purchased your
software and consult with them on how to create such a text file or spreadsheet.
Once you have that file, you may use Loadphon or MS Access to enter the numbers into CALLMaster.
Q: Can CALLMaster just dial a range of numbers?
A: No. Since in many areas this is an illegal practice, CALLMaster has never included this functionality, nor has Loadphon.
Notification.
Q: Why does the mailbox get a message and yet notification does not take place?
A: Read the section on how “To Activate Notification”. Retrace the steps outlined and
make sure your Mailbox, settings,
Notification Record Settings, Ports Record and the System Parameters are set correctly for notification.
Q: How do I keep paging if a box holder doesn't log into their mailbox?
A: The " Call Attempt Schedule" fields deals with this problem, specifically the “If login fails retry” count.
Q: Can I have the caller enter the pager number to be called?
A: Yes, the mailbox greeting can direct the caller to press 2 to be paged. CALLMaster will then ask
the caller to enter their call back number. A notification record with type = Beeper is required for this functionality.
You can also do it via CALLMaster IVR scripting capabilities.
You would have Audiotex set-up to get the pager number from the caller and then do a Dial command to connect to the pager.
Q: Can I change settings for my notification from remote?
A: Yes, as long as the administrator has set-up a notification record for your mailbox.
As a regular user you can change notification indicator on or off, change the phone number for notification and the earliest and latest hour to notify.
You cannot, however, add a notification record if one does not already exist.
Q: What happens if the box gets a message during the hours when notification is off? Does it start notifying as soon as notification is on again?
A: Yes, it does. CALLMaster will not make a notification attempt outside the Earliest and Latest hours to notify.
However, it will store the request for later notification. If you have multiple notification records, put the record with the lowest availability last.
The reason for that is if the first record is invalid, CALLMaster will not go on. For example, if record 1 is valid from 1-3 pm, notification will only be activated from 1 to 3 pm.
The first record must be valid and then exhausted before moving on..
Faxing.
Q: What kind of files can I send/receive?
A: .TIF, .RAW, and ASCII files are allowed. To make these files, you can fax the document into a fax board
(saves as a .RAW file) or convert a file into .TIF with typical graphics programs. There are other ways to save files as .TIF or .RAW, but
that depends on the software you are using to create the document. Consult the software manual that came with your graphics program(s) for
"Save As" options. You can save the document as a .RAW file by printing to
the Microsoft Fax program and mailing it to yourself. The resultant item being sent will be a .RAW file, ready for faxing.
Q: How do I know what to do with the resolution?
A: If you are sending an ASCII file, you should make the resolution 200x100. Otherwise, don't tamper with the 200x200 default.
Q: How do I send multiple documents in a single request?
A: You need to use multiple FaxSend commands during the same call.
Q: I have my system set to voicemail and I also have a D/4PCIU-F board but I am unable to receive any faxes?
A: Make sure that you have purchased the CALLMaster Fax software license. You should also make sure that the Fax tone has been defined in the Global Tone table.
Phone Ports.
Q: Can each port perform a different function?
A: Yes. You can be performing Attendant in one port, Audiotex in another, and Voice mail in yet another.
CALLMaster's port settings are completely customizable. In addition, you can perform different Audiotex routines for each port, and even
perform dedicated Out Dialing functions
on each port by initializing each port with a different Audiotex Start Key. It all depends on how you set up this database.
Q: How do I know what greeting should be in the greeting fields?
A: That depends on your application. If you are performing an Attendant application, you might
want to use prompts 502-504. You can use any prompt you want here, including ones you have created outside of the originally provided prompts.
Simply record the prompt desired and put the prompt number in the proper field.
For more information about the greeting fields, read the appropriate information found in this section.
Q: How do I get CALLMaster to allow for outbound dialing for pagers and message lights?
A: Edit the port number you want to notify on. In the "Port/Line Type” section, check-off “Outbound Notifications”.
See Fig. 10-7 for more information on "Port/Line Type" field.