Developing A New Telephony Application...

[SupportTeam]

Jon Spector wrote:

 

I am developing a new telephony application, and am interested in

understanding whether I could use Voiceguide to do it.

 

I'd like to keep an Access database of registered phone numbers. Upon

receiving a call from a registered number I want to forward the call to

an outside number and record the details of the call (time, date,

length) in an Access database. Speed is the primary criteria I am

interested in - answering the call before the first ring if possible,

identifying the calling party immediately (using caller-ID?), and

forwarding it immediately if the phone number is in the registered

database.

 

If the number is not found in the database then it would branch to a

message, or perhaps an IVR menu with some options, and I would handle

the call without forwarding to the outside number. I'm sure Voiceguide

can do this part.

 

So my questions are:

 

1. I noticed in the knowledge base somewhere that the speed of

answer (with caller-ID enabled) may be slower on some modems, or perhaps

on all modems (?) - so can you comment on that as well and recommend the

fastest hardware I might buy?

 

2. I'm not a telephony expert (as should be obvious from my

questions!) - so if there is another solution besides using caller-ID to

identify the person calling, that would be very helpful. In particular,

is there other information other than caller ID that I can pull off an

incoming call to identify the caller without the caller having to input

anything? FYI - I am prepared to use whatever incoming lines I need to

facilitate this service - e.g. PRI - if it won't work on regular analog

phone lines.

 

3. Re: hardware - how many lines can a fast PC running Voiceguide

handle with no perceptible delay? I see from the modem side I can buy a

modem with 16 ports (or maybe 24?). What are the PC requirements

(processor speed, memory) to handle this volume simultaneously with no

perceptible delays? Or do I need to split it up across several

machines?

 

4. After I forward the call - am I tying up two phone lines, or

none?

 

5. What would be the cost of a Voiceguide license to handle 24 or

48 incoming lines, with call forwarding capability?

 

6. And finally - if Voiceguide can indeed handle the above

requirements, do you provide customer development for solutions like

this?

 

I realize there are a lot of questions here, but based on my cursory

look at competing apps it seems that Voiceguide may be a very

cost-effective way for me to tackle this situation, and I'd like to

learn more.

 

Thanks.

 

Jon Spector

[SupportTeam]

1. I noticed in the knowledge base somewhere that the speed of

answer (with caller-ID enabled) may be slower on some modems, or perhaps

on all modems (?) - so can you comment on that as well and recommend the

fastest hardware I might buy?

A PRI (T1) connection will allow you to answer the call immediately - there will always be a delay of at least around a second on analog connections.

 

2. I'm not a telephony expert (as should be obvious from my

questions!) - so if there is another solution besides using caller-ID to

identify the person calling, that would be very helpful.

Caller ID is it... there is no other information sent from the telephone company to identify the caller.

 

3. Re: hardware - how many lines can a fast PC running Voiceguide

handle with no perceptible delay? I see from the modem side I can buy a

modem with 16 ports (or maybe 24?). What are the PC requirements

(processor speed, memory) to handle this volume simultaneously with no

perceptible delays? Or do I need to split it up across several

machines?

A fast PC (2GHz, 512MB RAM) will easily handle 60 simultaneous calls. You should not use modems for such size applications - you will need a Dialogic card (D240).

 

4. After I forward the call - am I tying up two phone lines, or

none?

As you are using Digital connections the simplest way to forward a call is to have a second call made on another line and have the two calls 'conferenced' together - so the answer is 2.

 

5. What would be the cost of a VoiceGuide license to handle 24 or

48 incoming lines, with call forwarding capability?

24 line VoiceGuide Professional+Dialer $2499

48 line VoiceGuide Professional+Dialer $3699

 

6. And finally - if Voiceguide can indeed handle the above

requirements, do you provide customer development for solutions like

this?

We offer script development services - VoiceGuide is however quite easy to work with and you will probably find you’ll need no outside assistance in creating the script - VoiceGuide has been designed to be pretty intuitive - if after using it for a while you feel you still need some assistance in developing your application please post your requirements here and we can indicate the costs involved if our staff were to create the script.