Telephone Setup

[jsumner]

Lets start with a bit of background information on the phone setup. We have a T1 running to our office, but the 4 telephone lines are analog as now we have them run to a normal phone form a store. There is already a rollover on the providers side so if one line is busy it rolls to the next number. We would like to set up an IVR and I have a script setup and ready to go, but we are unable to transfer calls with the voice modem. I am looking into Dialogic cards now and I have a question.

• With an analog line setup, can we have call waiting or a calling queue where music plays?
• Also I would like to make it where the system could transfer a call to a phone. Similiar to a pbx switch, but without an actual pbx switch. Can Voice Guide take a call from a Dialogic card and transfer it to a modem which is used for internal use only?
• Which Dialogic card is best fit for our application (voicemail, ivr, and faxing)?

Also I have come across a great text to speech application that is free. There is a limit to the number of words and the format is different, so you have to use sound recorder to put the files together and convert the format, but overall its worth the extra work. The link to this application is http://www.naturalvoices.com/demos/

 

Thank in advance!

[SupportTeam]

can we have call waiting or a calling queue where music plays?

VoiceGuide can play music to the caller, but implementing a queue where a call is transferred to an extension when it becomes free requires some sort of integration with the phone system which would alert VG when the handset goes on-hook - so that VG can then transfer a call to it...

Can you tell us more about what each of the lines (analog & T1) are plugged into an what are the various extensions you have plugged into...

Can Voice Guide take a call from a Dialogic card and transfer it to a modem which is used for internal use only?

Not using the modem, but with a Dialogic card it's possible. If you want VG to place a call to another line and then connect two lines together you will need to use the "Dial and Conference" option of the Call Transfer module - please see Help file for more details.

Which Dialogic card is best fit for our application (voicemail, ivr, and faxing)?

Sounds like you should use a D/41JCT card. Please note that VG does not support faxing.

 

TTS:

Natural Voices can be bought for $35 (see http://www.voiceguide.com/vgDownload.htm ) - and then you can create the sound files you want (as long as you want and in the correct format) right on your computer, as well as using the Natural Voices TTS in your scripts...

[jsumner]

From the lines run to a punch down block and then there are cables run over to the phones. Each line has a phone number so they are all direct lines. Three of the lines that we have are roll over so if one is busy it goes to the next until all of them and it goes to voicemail (we want to eliminate the voicemail from the provider). Right now we just have a multi-line phone for the front desk and a hands free device. Right now we don't have a 'phone system' and we would like to get one, but don't have a lot of money to spend.

 

How would we use the dialogic card to transfer the calls without a phone system? How would it transfer the call from line 1 (xxx-xxx-3101) to say line 3 (xxx-xxx-7023. Would it initiate a a blind transfer or what? By chance could we have the line running to the computer with voice guide and then the phone connected to the computer so it just rings if they go to the operator?

 

As to the faxing, I have created a VB script to take the numbers entered by the user and send it to the fax server provided with Microsoft Windows 2000.

 

Overall we would like the phone system only to monitor 3 lines with a way for 2 desks to pick up and make calls. Upon recieving the call Voice guide would take the end user through a list of menus and the obvious option of pressing 0 to talk to a live operator.

[SupportTeam]

How would we use the dialogic card to transfer the calls without a phone system? How would it transfer the call from line 1 (xxx-xxx-3101) to say line 3 (xxx-xxx-7023. Would it initiate a a blind transfer or what?

I think what you need here is to use a "Dial and Conference" option. Please read the VG Help file section on Call Transfer module.

[jsumner]

Ok, I read into that and that seems like it would work. There is one thing I am wondering that it doesnt specify in the manual. If I have a 4 line setup and someone calls in on line 1 and presses 0 to talk to an operator... it will call the number I specify on another line (line 2) and connect the calls. When that happens, will it hang up the original line (line 1) and just use line 2 OR well it act as a three way call and use line 1 and line 2?

[SupportTeam]

Two lines are used when doing a "Dial and Conference" - the original caller and the call to another number are just conference together - the D/41JCT card essentially acts like a switch/PBX.