User's Guide to Computerized Monitor Service
Overview
The primary requirement for making your Computerized Monitor Service calls is that you create and commit a schedule of calls. As long as your computer is turned on, Windows and Monitor are running and you have a schedule of calls, your system can make Computerized Monitor Service calls.
Computerized Monitor Service is designed to share a phone line (or lines) with other ECS phone applications. There must be at least one other ECS phone application running in order for Computerized Monitor Service calls to be made or Computerized Monitor Service must be scheduled. When it's time for a Computerized Monitor Service call to be made, Monitor frees the line for the call.
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If you're not going to be around, you may turn off your computer's screen. |
Your system can make calls when you're working in other applications, and even when you're not going to be around, you can leave your computer running to make calls just like you do with your other telephony programs. Computerized Monitor Service schedules your clients' monitoring and reminder calls even when you're not there. |
Making Computerized Monitor Service calls really is this simple. We designed it so you can be assured that if you schedule your clients' calls in your CMS Client Manager, the calls will be made, and you will still be able to work on other applications while your Computerized Monitor Service calls are being made.
In this chapter, we describe to you:
Terms
We use the following special terms in this chapter:
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Phone Line |
This is the actual line your system uses to call people. Each phone line has its own unique phone number to identify it, and is accessible through a phone jack. |
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Standard Information Tone (SIT) |
A standard information tone is three tones followed by an operator message. |
You have created a calling schedule for each one of your called parties as you have added the called party information. Each called party may be receiving 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 scheduled calls per day with a specified target time for each call. You also have specified which days of the week the calls are to be made for each called party. The call times are the same on each day calls are made.
When you start a calling cycle, Computerized Monitor Service scans all of your called parties and then creates a daily call schedule. As Computerized Monitor Service calls the numbers on the schedule, it automatically adds any necessary retries and emergency calls to the schedule. If a regular call or a retry call is scheduled at the same time as an emergency call cycle, the emergency call cycle is completed first and the regular call is postponed.
You should schedule the regular calls at two minute intervals to allow for the normal time it takes to answer and respond to a call. However, if a particular day has a lot of regular calls scheduled near the same time and many retries and emergency calls are required, the actual calling time for a scheduled regular call may be delayed. As the day progresses and Computerized Monitor Service finds slack time, it eventually gets the regular calls back on schedule, and in any case, no calls are ever omitted.
As Computerized Monitor Service makes the calls, it creates a record of each call as the calls are completed, with the type and results of the call shown. For information on printing logs read "Chapter 10: Logs."
Starting the Calling Cycle
To make Computerized Monitor Service calls, all you have to do is:
Have Monitor running.
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If you're using Windows 95, you can tell if Monitor is open if the Monitor button appears at the bottom of your window. |
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You can tell if Monitor is open if the Monitor icon appears in the lower left-hand part of your screen. If this does not happen when you start your computer, contact the ECS Technical Support Department. For more information on Monitor, review "Chapter 7: Using the Monitor Program" in your User's Guide for Business Manager. |
Once you have real clients for whom you've created calling schedules, and you are ready for your Computerized Monitor Service calls to be made, you will turn on the Run Schedule option.
To turn on the Run Schedule option, go to the Computerized Monitor Service File menu. If there is a check mark (ü) beside Run Schedule, it is running. If there is not, click on the Run Schedule option. The check mark (ü) indicates that your schedule of calls is running whenever Monitor is running.
Figure 53--Run Schedule Option
When you are first learning about your CMS Client Manager and are testing, there are options in the CMS menu (Figure 54) in Monitor and in the Monitor dialog box that show you if your Computerized Monitor Service calls are being made. The options also allow you to view what is happening with your Computerized Monitor Service calls and allow you to manually start and stop the calling schedule. Let's take a look at the options in the Monitor dialog box.
CMS Options
Figure 54--CMS Menu in Monitor
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Please note: These options in the CMS menu of the Monitor dialog box are not intended to be used for day-to-day operations. They are intended for you to use when you are learning how to use your Computerized Monitor Service you are testing its operation. |
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Since emergency calls can be so critical, you would not want to use this to stop an emergency call cycle in a real-life situation.
The Calls Made Viewer is featured in Figure 55.
Figure 55--Calls Made Viewer
The Calls Made Viewer features the following six columns of information:
Name. This is the name of the called party.
Date. This is the date the call was made.
Time. This is the time the call was completed.
Status. This is the outcome of the call. Following are the seven status options:
OK. This indicates the called party responded by pressing a "1."
Not OK. This indicates the called party responded by pressing a "0."
No response. This indicates the call was answered, but was not responded to with the called party pressing a "1" or a "0." This could happen if an answering machine picks up, the called party presses the wrong button or the called party doesn't press any button at all before hanging up.
Busy. This indicates there was a busy signal when the call was made.
No Answer. This indicates there was no answer when the call was made.
Standard Information Tone (SIT). A standard information tone is three tones followed by an operator message. This commonly occurs when a telephone number is entered incorrectly. For example, an SIT occurs when the 1+ the area code before the phone number is omitted for a long distance call. Another example is when the number dialed does not exist. In these cases, you need to assure that the number provided to you is correct or that you've entered the number correctly in the called party screen.
Incomplete. This indicates that the call did not go through because either there was no dial tone before the dialing began or an incomplete phone number was entered.
Call Type. This is the type of call that was made.
Phone. This is the phone number that was called.
Status Line
The status line in the Monitor dialog box (Figure 56) keeps you informed of what Computerized Monitor Service is planning to do next. It tells the time and the type of call for the next call to be made. It also tells whether or not Computerized Monitor Service is making calls.
Figure 56--Status Line in Monitor Dialog Box
The Activity List
This is a list of the phone lines connected to your computer, and what's happening on each line. When an application is running on a line, then the name of the application appears next to the phone line on which it is running. If a line is not scheduled to run an application, then it is listed as available. If you close a line, then the message has been stopped! appears next to the halted line.
Figure 57--The Activity List in the Monitor Dialog Box when Computerized Monitor Service is Actually Calling Someone
Greetings
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Please note: If you record your own greetings, you must be sure to make it clear to the called party the action that they are to take. |
Whenever any Computerized Monitor Service call is answered, a client greeting or a standard greeting is played. You may record your own client greeting or you may use the standard greetings we've recorded for you. Following is a list of the standard greetings we've provided for you and the scripts for each greeting. |
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You will want to create your own names for your CMS types of services that better reflect your business and how you are using and marketing the services. |
"This is a monitoring service computer calling. Press "0" if you need assistance. If you do not require assistance at this time, press "1." Please press the "0" on your phone for assistance or the "1" if you do not need assistance."
"This is a monitoring service computer calling. Press "0" if you need assistance. If you do not require assistance at this time, press "1." Please press the "0" on your phone for assistance or the "1" if you do not need assistance." |
"This is a monitoring service computer calling with your reminder."
Emergency Speeches
Whenever any Computerized Monitor Service emergency call is answered, a client-specific emergency greeting or a standard emergency greeting is played. It is combined with the Caller ID speech (the client's name) and the appropriate problem speech. Following are the scripts for the standard emergency greetings and speeches we've recorded for you.
"This is a monitoring service computer calling to inform you that for . . ."
"This is a monitoring service computer calling to inform you that for . . ."
Problem Speeches
Combined with the emergency greeting and Caller ID speech, the problem speech tells the emergency contact the reason for the emergency call. There are four problem speeches. They are:
". . . has personally requested assistance. Press "1" if you can assist. If you cannot assist at this time, press "0." Please press the "1" on your phone to assist or the "0" if you cannot assist."
". . . all of our calls have received a busy signal. Press "1" if you can assist. If you cannot assist at this time, press "0." Please press the "1" on your phone to assist or the "0" if you cannot assist."
". . . none of our calls have been answered. Press "1" if you can assist. If you cannot assist at this time, press "0." Please press the "1" on your phone to assist or the "0" if you cannot assist."
". . . may require assistance. Press "1" if you can assist. If you cannot assist at this time, press "0." Please press the "1" on your phone to assist or the "0" if you cannot assist."
Regular Call Responses
There are seven possible responses to CMS Type 1 or CMS Type 2 calls. What happens next in the calling cycle depends on the type of response to a call. The possible responses are:
If the called party presses a button other than the "1" (OK) or the "0" (Not OK), the system plays a speech saying, "sorry that touch tone is unavailable." Then the entire CMS speech is played again. The called party is given three chances to press either a "1" or a "0." If neither is selected, the emergency cycle begins.
Not OK. When the called party presses a "0" to indicate that he or she needs assistance, the emergency cycle begins immediately.
No response. A no response call is when the called party hangs up without pressing a "1" or a "0." A no response call is recalled immediately. Then if after three tries the called party doesn't indicate that everything is okay by pressing a "1" or that he or she needs assistance by pressing a "0," the emergency cycle begins.
Busy. When there is a busy signal, the retry cycle begins set at the interval specified for the client in the Called Party form. The retry cycle ends when:
No Answer. When there is no answer to a call, the retry cycle begins set at the retry interval specified for the client in the Called Party form. The retry cycle ends when:
Standard Information Tone (SIT). A standard information tone is three tones followed by an operator message. This commonly occurs when a telephone number is entered incorrectly. For example, an SIT occurs when the 1+ the area code before the phone number is omitted for a long distance call. Another example is when the number dialed does not exist. In these cases, you need to assure that the number provided to you is correct or that you've entered the number correctly in the Called Party form. When a SIT is received, the system does not reschedule the call. Since there is probably something wrong with the number that is being dialed, there is no need to keep trying the same number.
Incomplete. An incomplete call is when a call doesn't go through because there is no dial tone. The most common occurrence of an incomplete is when the phone is not connected to the computer. This also may happen if a person called in to another running ECS phone application at the same time your computer is accessing the line to make a Computerized Monitor Service call or if an incomplete phone number was entered (ex., six digits rather than seven).
If an incomplete occurs, the call is treated as a non-called number and is tried again at the retry interval. The retry is handled as if it were the first attempt to contact the called party.
Emergency Call Responses
Emergency calls can result because of:
Just as for a regular call, there are seven possible responses to emergency calls. The response to each type of call may vary depending on the number of emergency contacts (up to three possible). The possible responses to an emergency call are:
Yes, I Can Help. When the emergency contact presses a "1" to indicate that he or she can help the called party, the call is completed.
No, I Cannot Help. When the emergency contact presses a "0" to indicate that he or she cannot help the called party, the emergency calling cycle continues.
No Response. A "no response" call is treated the same as if someone pressed a "0" to indicate that he or she could not help.
Busy. If a busy signal is received on an emergency call, the emergency retry cycle continues at the retry interval indicated in the Called Party form.
No Answer. When there is no answer to a call, the emergency retry cycle continues at the retry interval indicated in the Called Party form.
Standard Information Tone (SIT). When a SIT is received, the system does not reschedule the call. Since there is probably something wrong with the number that is being dialed, there is no need to keep trying the same number.
Incomplete. If an incomplete occurs, the call is treated as a non-called number and is rescheduled.
Emergency Calling Cycle
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Please note: If a scheduled call comes due for a called party during a request for help or a "no response" emergency cycle for that same called party, the scheduled call is abandoned and the emergency calling cycle continues. If a scheduled call comes due for a called party during a "busy" or a "no answer" emergency calling cycle for that same called party, the emergency cycle is stopped and the scheduled call takes place. |
During the calling cycle, if the emergency contact presses a button other than the "1" (OK) or the "0" (Not OK), the system plays a speech saying that that touch tone was unavailable, and asks the emergency contact to press a "1" for OK or "0" for Not OK. The emergency contact is given three chances to press either a "1" or a "0." If there is only one emergency contact person, the retry cycle to that emergency contact begins set at the retry interval in the Called Party form. The retry cycle ends only when the emergency contact responds by pressing a "1" and the call is completed. If there is only one emergency contact, the only response the system accepts is the emergency contact pressing a "1." Otherwise, the emergency call cycle continues. If there are two or three emergency contacts, a different course of events takes place. If the call to the first contact does not result in the contact pressing a "1" to indicate that he or she can help the called party, a call is placed immediately to the second emergency contact. If that call is responded to with the emergency contact pressing a "1," the emergency cycle ends. If it does not, the emergency cycle continues with a call to the third emergency contact, if there is one. If the third emergency contact responds to the call by pressing a "1," the emergency cycle ends. If not, the emergency retry cycle continues at the retry interval The emergency cycle ends when any emergency contact responds by pressing a "1," when the cycle has run 12 hours or when you stop your Computerized Monitor Service calls. |
Reminder Call Responses
There are five possible responses to a reminder call.
Incomplete. This indicates that the call did not go through because there was no dial tone. If an incomplete occurs, it is treated as a non-called number and is rescheduled.
Standard Information Tone (SIT). When a SIT is received, the system does not reschedule it. Since there is probably something wrong with the number that is being dialed, there is no need to keep trying the same number.
Uncompleted Calls
At midnight, Computerized Monitor Service rebuilds its schedule for the next day. If there are any uncompleted calls at midnight, then they are included in the schedule for the next day, and the calling cycle continues.
The three reasons that there would be uncompleted calls at midnight are:
2. A retry cycle for a call that was scheduled late in the day has not been made yet.
3. A scheduled call that has floated due to emergency and/or retry calls delaying the scheduled call's call time.
These calls are rescheduled at midnight. In any event, no calls are ever omitted.
Automatic Restart of the Calling Cycle
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Note: We strongly suggest that you have a battery backup for your system to assure that your Computerized Monitor Service calls can continue to be made if the power goes off and to reduce the chance of damaging files. |
It is possible for the calling cycle to be unintentionally stopped. The computer could be accidentally reset or the power could go off momentarily or for some period of time. If you purchased a ECS computer with Computerized Monitor Service installed by ECS, then a power-on restart sequence is already activated. The key for the power-on restart to work, is that your system is set so that Windows and Monitor automatically restart. This is the standard if you have a ECS computer. If you do not have a ECS computer or you purchased Computerized Monitor Service after you purchased your computer, and your computer powers up to Windows, then the installation process created a power-up restart sequence for you. If your computer does not power-up to Windows, then call our Technical Support Department for advice. As your computer, Windows and Monitor restart, Computerized Monitor Service starts scheduling calls. What happens next depends on where in the calling cycle the power-off event occurred. |
On the restart any regular calls or retry calls are made that fall within the Schedule Cutoff Time in the Settings dialog box. This is normally set at one hour, but you can change the time to better reflect your business needs. This setting allows you to tell your system how far back to go to make up missed calls.
If any emergency calling cycles were in progress when the power-off event occurred, the emergency calling cycles continue. All emergency calls are made no matter how far back they occurred.
You need to decide how to handle the missed calls. You may wish to call them manually, or if the called party is due for another scheduled call soon, you may wait for Computerized Monitor Service to call. You must make the decision, however, as Computerized Monitor Service cannot make that decision for you.
The Calls Made List
As Computerized Monitor Service completes each call, it creates a record of every call made, for whatever reason, in the pre-billing Calls Made list. This list always contains all the calls that have been completed but not yet billed to the clients. During the billing procedure, this call information is transferred to the Master Log and removed from the Calls Made Log.
You may either view this list on the screen or print the list. To view or print the Calls Made list from Computerized Monitor Service, open the program by double clicking on the Computerized Monitor Service icon. Then click on the Calls Made Log option in the Logs menu.
Figure 57--Calls Made Dialog Box
The Calls Made Log features the following columns of information:
Help requested. This indicates the called party responded by pressing a "0."
No response. This indicates the call was answered, but was not responded to with the called party pressing a "1" or a "0." This could happen if an answering machine picks up, the called party presses the wrong button or the called party doesn't press any button at all before hanging up.
Busy. This indicates there was a busy signal when the call was made.
No Answer. This indicates there was no answer when the call was made.
Standard Information Tone (SIT). A standard information tone is three tones followed by an operator message. This commonly occurs when a telephone number is entered incorrectly.
Incomplete. This indicates that the call did not go through because there was no dial tone or an incomplete phone number was entered.
Adding Phone Lines
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You should monitor the volume of your phone applications business before adding lines to assure that your business warrants additional lines. |
While Computerized Monitor Service calls are designed to share phone lines with other ECS phone applications, if your other phone applications are constantly busy, then your Computerized Monitor Service calls may be delayed. Likewise, your Computerized Monitor Service calls could delay callers' access to your other phone applications. |
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The standard ECS system has four Megabytes of memory, which allows you to run up to four separate lines at once if your Computerized Monitor Service calls are being made or five separate phone lines at once if no Computerized Monitor Service calls are being made. If you need to run more lines, your computer will need more memory. |
If the volume of your business warrants, you may want to purchase additional voice/telephone cards from ECS so you can add lines to your system. For more information on why and when you would want to use multiple phone lines, read the "Configuring Multiple Phone Lines" section of "Chapter 4: Configuring Phone Lines" in your User's Guide for Business Manager. Scheduling CMS Calls If you have numerous Computerized Monitor Service calls clustered around the same time and want to guarantee that a line is available so your calls can be made, you can schedule your Computerized Monitor Service calls in the Business Manager Application Scheduler. |
The Business Manager Application Scheduler features time slots for each day of the week. Here you can schedule an application to assure that a line is available during that time period.
For more information on how to use the Business Manager Application Scheduler, read the "Application Scheduler" section of "Chapter 6: Scheduling Application" in your User's Guide for Business Manager.
Business Manager Stop Line Activity
The Stop Line Activity option in your Business Manager application list tells your system to stop any phone line activity on the selected line at the selected time. If you inadvertently schedule all your lines (or your only line) to be stopped simultaneously and Computerized Monitor Service needs to make calls, your Computerized Monitor Service calls override this option as long as your computer is turned on, Windows is open, Monitor is running and the Run Schedule option (Figure 58) in the Computerized Monitor Service File menu is checked.
Figure 58--Stop Line Activity Option
For more information on the Stop Line Activity and how to use the Business Manager Application Scheduler, read the "Application Scheduler" section of "Chapter 6: Scheduling Application" in your User's Guide for Business Manager.
Setting Your Computer's Date And Time
This section discusses the procedures for setting your computer's date and time. This is an important procedure, as your Computerized Monitor Service relies on the date and time for scheduling purposes and dating reports. The time and date on your computer may lose or gain a few minutes each month (don't worry--they all do), so you may wish to check the time and date monthly.
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To set your computer's date and time, double click on the Control Panel icon from the main program group window. The Control Panel window appears similar to the one shown in Figure 59 |
Figure 59--The Control Panel Window
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Now double click the Date/Time icon in the Control Panel window. The Date & Time dialog box appears as shown in Figure 60. |
Figure 60--The Date & Time Dialog Box
There are two fields in this box: The Date field, and the Time field. Entries in the Date field are organized using the 'Month / Day / Year' format, and the Time field is in the 'Hour / Minute / Second / A.M. or P.M.' format.
Use the following procedure to set your computer's date and time:
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If you enter an invalid value for any of the Date or Time settings, the setting returns to the previous value. The j+v key combination allows you to move back through the settings. |
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If you do not want to save the settings you made, click the Cancel button. The settings return to their default values, and you return to the Control Panel window.
If you require assistance or information about the Date and Time, click on the Help button. This help works similar to the Windows On-Line help.
There are other ways to change the Date and Time settings. You may select a setting and use the arrows to the right of the Date and Time fields. The upward pointing arrow increases the numerical value of the setting, while the downward pointing arrow decreases the numerical value of the setting.
Killing
This is a violent stopping of all running telephony applications. You would only do this if you must stop the running application(s) immediately. If there are calls being made or received in any of the running applications, then the system hangs up on them rather abruptly. If you kill running applications, you may get some complaints from your called parties. Please use this function with care.
To kill running applications, you must be viewing the Monitor box. Then press and hold down the Ctrl and Alt keys while pressing the K key. All of the currently running applications and Monitor are closed immediately. The killed applications remain stopped until you re-enter Monitor.
Close All
Choosing the Close All option in Monitor's File menu basically does the same thing as the Ctrl + Alt + K key combination by stopping all running applications except it doesn't close Monitor. It also does not hang up on any calls being made or received.
