Having a personal assistant could be very useful to help with everyday tasks. 

To that end, one company, CallFire, developed “Auto Dialer” software, as an effective way to send a message to various people at once, by recording a message and and then sending it to as many people as needed. CallFire’s Auto Dialer will send the message to each person, giving it to them upon picking up the call or if the number dialed is non-responsive, the Auto Dialer software will know to leave a message.

 

CallFire’s Auto Dialer software uses three components: phone lines, server and software.

 

Voice over IP is expected eventually to replace the existing Plain Old Telephone Systems, or POTS infrastructure. VoIP allows quality sound at lower costs, and the technology can work with standard phone lines that give users the ability to communicate easily and directly using computers or devices specifically manufactured for the purpose, such as IP Phones.

 

The server needs a few basic parts to work with audio content and to interface with phone or VoIP lines. Officials at CallFire say their company uses a Digital Signal Processor (News - Alert) or DSP, a device that converts audio content – analog – to a digital format and vice versa, so a computer can manipulate and understand it.

 

In the past, Auto Dialer machines were built using embedded Digital Signal Processing systems. These processors are dedicated to the conversion of analog to digital and nothing else, resulting in quality service.

 

Using DSP, the computer can detect human versus answering machine, playback messages and properly report back to the user regarding the various possible codes that it encounters, company officials said.

 

Finally, the software that manages the computer and phone lines is, according to CallFire, the heart of any autodialing system. Responsible for reporting the status of a campaign, the disposition of individual calls and for optimizing connections, the software can dynamically alter its dialing habits to fit the list. For example if the system encounters a large number of busy dispositions, it increases the total quantity dialed or alerts the campaign manager.

 

CallFire incorporates these components together to form an Auto Dialer system that adheres to FCC (News - Alert) regulations. The complete package of the company’s Auto Dialer system includes a campaign that consists of a list of phone numbers to dial and a group of messages to play to the receiving party. A list will commonly also include number specific information such as the target contacts name, address or relevant demographic information.

 

Call centers that use the Auto Dialer system will be glad to know that all information that goes through the system is scrubbed against the Do Not Call registry, which is an opt-in list run by the FCC.

 

For more information about CallFire, be sure to visit their Web site or check out their Auto Dialer or Voice Broadcast channels here on TMCnet.