User's Guide To Outbound Telenotification
Chapter 12: Advanced Functions and Features
Overview
This section contains some of the more advanced functions and features in the Outbound Telenotification program. These are concepts and procedures that aren’t necessary to use your system, or to design and build a standard or basic system. Some of these features may make it easier to use or design your system, while others may add versatility. Before you read this section, you should understand and be comfortable with the way the system tree (and the program as a whole) works.
In this chapter, you will learn about:
• Dial and Chain
• Place Holders: What they are and how they work
• Advanced Prompt considerations
• Advanced "Goto" control usage
• Changing tree object ID’s
• Chaining to other ECS Phone Applications
• Advanced recording features
• Importing and Exporting messages
• Making variants of the Outbound Telenotification program
• Copying between application variants
• Moving objects in the system tree
• Running multiple phone lines
Terms
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Application Variant |
This is a copy of the Outbound Telenotification application. The variant works exactly as the original application. |
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Chaining |
This is a feature that allows you to link one ECS Phone application to another. |
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Clipboard |
This is a temporary storage area in Windows. In the context of this program, you can copy speech files to the Clipboard so that you can edit them. |
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Paste Buffer |
A temporary storage area for objects cut from the system tree. The paste buffer stores the objects so you can paste them into another part of the tree. |
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Place Holder |
A special tree object that the program creates when you add a Question Header, Prompt, or Control Point that has a multi-digit Relative Touch Tone Number. The system creates Place Holders as required, and you generally don’t have to worry about them. You will only see Place Holders in the tree while using the "Full Expansion" viewing method. |
The On Completion Run function was designed to help you schedule and run your phone applications more efficiently.
You see, this feature allows you to start running another telephone application once your system completes your Outbound Telenotification calls. This capability is useful when your Outbound Telenotification calls are completed before your next telephone application is scheduled in Business Manager. Rather than sit idle until the next telephone application is scheduled, your system can immediately start running the application you’ve indicated in the On Completion Run field.
• To schedule a phone application to run once a phone list calling cycle is complete, locate the On Completion Run field in the System Greeting box as shown below:
Figure 175--The System Greeting Box Where the On Completion Run Field Is Featured
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Keep in mind that if your On Completion Run calls are not completed by the time the next telephone application is scheduled to run in Business Manager, your On Completion Run call cycle will be stopped and the phone line will be made available for the scheduled phone application. |
• The On Completion Run field, which features a drop down list of your other telephone applications as shown below, allows you to select the telephone application you want to start running once you’ve completed your current numbers list. All you have to do is press on the field’s down arrow to display the applications list, and then click on the application you want to run.
Figure 176--The On Completion Run Drop Down List For more information on the use of the On Completion Run function and why you would want to use this function, see "Chapter 4 Components" of your Outbound Telenotification manual. |
The dial and chain function can be used when you want to use Outbound Telenotification to dial your Outbound calls, but then you want to chain directly to another ECS phone application to use its special features.
For example, your Outbound Telenotification Sales and Marketing manual talks about Survey Services, an Outbound application that provides clients with an efficient and cost effective method for gathering information from a defined group about a particular subject. Outbound allows a great deal of flexibility in how a survey is used to gather information and how you get that information to a client after it is gathered.
In this section, we’re going to show you how to Dial and Chain using the Deluxe Opinion Survey sample from your Outbound Telenotification Sales and Marketing manual. In this sample, we’ve designed a survey for a hospital that gathers information from recent patients. Let’s see how this works.
Deluxe Opinion Survey
This sample survey asks a set of questions for Riverview Hospital and is designed to allow the client to transcribe the responses. Instead of using the Outbound Question Sets to ask and record responses, this sample survey uses Outbound to initiate calls and then chains to Inbound to complete the survey. The following is a sample Outbound System Tree for this type of survey.
Figure 157--The Sample Outbound System Tree
The System Greeting, Initial Prompt and Exit System Control Point are configured exactly as for a Standard Opinion Survey offering an option to participate at the Initial Prompt and serve the same functions (refer to your Outbound Telenotification Sales and Marketing manual). The difference is in what happens when a called party presses 1 at the Initial Prompt.
When a called party presses 1 at the Initial Prompt, the system moves the called party to the first control point pictured in the System Tree. This control point contains no speech. Its only job is to chain the called party to the Question Header in the inbound application which controls the Question Set and records the called party’s response.
The following is a sample of an Inbound System Tree used for this type of service:
Figure 158--The Sample Inbound System Tree
The Question Header manages the question set in Inbound. Upon reaching the Question Header, the system moves the called party to Question 0. The called party hears the recorded question and is asked to respond.
Once the Question plays its speech, the system moves the called party to the Question Header to record their response. The Question Header records this response and then moves the called party to the next Question. After recording the called party’s response to the last Question in the set, the Question Header plays its "Thank you/Good-bye" speech.
Once the Question Header plays its speech, it initiates the action chosen in the "Upon Completion" section of the Question Header dialog box. In this case, the choice is "Hangup Phone." This causes the system to unchain back to your Outbound application.
Upon reaching the Control Point in Outbound (object initiating the chain-to function), the system initiates the action chosen in the "Upon Completion" section of the Control Point dialog box. In this case, the choice is "Hangup Phone." This causes the system to disconnect the call. The system then repeats the process for each number in the calling list.
Once the system completes the calling list, your client may access the responses using Remote Access. (Instructions for Client Remote Access appear in your Inbound Telenotification Sales & Marketing Manual.) This is the best variation to use when you have clients wanting to collect responses. It puts the transcription process where it belongs--in the hands of your client.
Please Note: If your client is asking only one question in its survey, you may also use Parent/Teacher Hotline or Voice Mail to record responses from your client’s customers. If you are running one of these programs regularly, simply add a mailbox for your client, chain to the mailbox to deliver the question and it records the response. Your client may then access its responses remotely like any other mailbox owner.
A ‘Place Holder’ is a special tree object that the program creates when you create a Prompt, Question Header, or Control Point that has a multi-digit Relative Touch Tone Number. The system uses Place Holders to establish the complete touch-tone path from the Initial Prompt to any object, one touch tone at a time. You only see Place Holders in the tree when you display the tree in Full Expansion. Generally, you do not have to worry about Place Holders as the System Editor creates them as required and you cannot access or configure them.
For example, your tree has an Initial Prompt with the Object ID of "01." If you created a Question Header under that Prompt with a touch tone number of 103 (Object ID of "103") then the Editor creates two Place Holders with the Object ID’s of "1" and "10." The picture below shows this example in Normal and Full expansion, with the Detailed Information also shown:
Figure 159----Normal and Full Expansion, showing Place Holders
When a respondent wants to listen to the message, the following events occur:
• The respondent starts at the Initial Prompt.
• The respondent listens to the Initial Prompt and then presses 1 to begin the selection of the message, described in the Prompt’s menu as "103."
• The system moves the respondent to Place Holder #1.
• Place Holder #1 waits for the next touch tone from the respondent.
• The respondent presses 0 and the system moves the respondent to Place Holder #10.
• Place Holder #10 waits for a touch tone.
• The respondent presses the final touch tone, 3 and the system moves the respondent to the Question Header #103 and plays that message.
This order of events occurs because a Prompt can actually only accept one touch tone. Therefore, a Place Holder is a special tree object that does nothing except wait for a touch tone. The respondents never notice that this sequence of events occurs because the program actually moves them through the tree as fast as they press the touch tones.
When the System Editor creates the Place Holders, it is then creating an object that waits for just one touch tone and does nothing else. Thus, the program uses the Place Holders to check for valid touch tones and to move the respondent to the correct objects in the tree, one touch tone at a time.
Outbound Telenotification uses Prompts less often than most other phone programs. This section discusses a couple of useful ways that you might use Prompts.
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You can use this in a multiple branch format by simply putting more than one message under the Prompt and mentioning it in the speech. |
The first is to set up a Prompt when you want to use Polite Unattended mode, and you want respondents to move to a Prompt other than the Initial Prompt. This way you can assign a new ID number to an object and present the respondent with a choice like "Press 1 to hear the message, press 0 to hang up." With this set up, your tree would look like the one below: |
Figure 160--Your system tree with a Prompt
• To set your system up this way, the first thing you need to do is add a Prompt, using the techniques discussed in the last chapter. Make sure to add it under the Initial Prompt.
• Then go ahead and add a Control Point under the Prompt. The program will assign the object the relative ID number 0. If you want to use a different number, enter it when the "Insert Tree Object" box comes up.
• The last thing to add is the message. If you are using a message that is already in your system, you can move it by clicking on the Question Header and dragging it down to your Prompt. All of the Questions will move with it. If you are adding a new message, you will have to first add a Question Header, then the Questions. Either way, the program will assign it the object ID number of one. If you want to change the ID number, type the new number in the "Insert Tree Object" box.
• The next step is to configure the new objects. Start with the Prompt.
Figure 161--The New Prompt box
• Open the Prompt box up and enter a name for it in the "Description" field. You won’t need to record the ID speech unless you want at some point to use this on an Auto-Menu. The program has already enabled the Prompt, so now you are ready to enter your speech. Type it into the "Prompt Script" field, and then record it. The speech should include the descriptions and touch tone numbers of the exit point and the message. You could say something like, "Press 1 to hear the message, or press 0 and I will hang up right now." Then make sure that the Auto-Menu is disabled (the little white box should be empty) and the speech is enabled (the little white box will have an X in it). Click "OK." You have configured the Prompt.
• To configure the Control Point, open it up. It will appear similar to the one below:
Figure 162--The New Control Point box
• The first thing you need to do is enable it. The controls will change from grey to black and you will be able to finish configuring it. Type a name into the "Description" field--you don’t need to record it because it won’t be playing on any Auto-Menu. Then, in the "Control Action" field, click on "Hangup Phone." The black dot in the white circle will disappear from the "Goto" control and appear in the "Hangup" control. Click "OK." You have configured the Control Point.
• If you have moved an already existing message under your Prompt, then it is already configured. Open up the first Question, containing the advertising speech, to double check that it says what you want it to say. Now that it is in a slightly different context you might want to change the speech a little bit.
• If you are creating a new message, you will need to configure the Header and Questions using the procedures discussed in Chapter 11. You will configure these just like any other message.
• The last thing you need to do to finish configuring the system is open the System Greeting.
Figure 163--The System Greeting box
• In the "Next Prompt" field, enter the ID number of the new Prompt. This tells the program to take the respondent directly to the new Prompt, rather than to the Initial Prompt or a message. In the example, the ID number of the new Prompt is 500, so you would enter 500 in the "Next Prompt" field.
• Make sure to commit these changes. Now the system is ready to go in Polite Unattended mode.
You might also want to use a Prompt to break your messages down into sections. This is an extremely uncommon setup, but if you can figure out a way to use it, the program will do it. If you want to run more than three or four messages in a multiple branch format, you might want to break them down into categories. This way a respondent hears a list of three or four categories rather than a list of nine or more specific services. Remember though, the more you ask respondents to do, the fewer you will find to respond.
As mentioned earlier in the manual, the "Goto" control allows you to redirect the flow of a call so the respondent goes where you want them to.
This, however, is not the extent of the "Goto" control’s usefulness. You could enter the absolute ID number of any object in the tree, except for a Question, and the respondent would go there when the current object completes its tasks. This section discusses some of the other possibilities of the "Goto" control, as well as the "No TT Jump" control on the Initial Prompt (which is a special type of "Goto" control).
On the Initial Prompt
The Initial Prompt box contains a special type of "Goto" control called the "No TT Jump" control. You only need to use this control if you are running the system in a multiple branch format, where respondents have to choose from a list of messages, or in Polite Unattended mode, where respondents have to indicate that they want to hear your message. This control allows you to determine where to send respondents that are not using touch tone phones. The way that this control works in the flow of the call is as follows:
The respondent answers using a non-touch tone phone. They hear the System Greeting message, then the instructions and auto menu on the Initial Prompt. At this point the respondent cannot press a touch tone to select an option, so they wait. When the Initial Prompt realizes that this is a respondent without a touch tone phone, it sends the respondent to the object that has its ID number in the "No TT Jump" field.
The basic reason for this field is so respondents get something for their troubles. It might be a good idea to include a sentence or two in your Prompt instructions about non-touch tone respondents staying on the line to hear whichever message you are sending them to. You might let them know that if they are not interested in the message the program routed them to, they can record the name of the service that they are interested in along with their name.
Be aware that if you don’t use this control, you may lose your non-touch tone respondents or lie in non-compliance with auto dialing regulations. Refer to your Sales and Marketing manual for information on regulations.
You could also use this control in conjunction with any number of "Goto" fields on other objects, allowing you to move the respondent around the tree. Remember, though, that these "Goto" entries will also affect your other respondents if they move to an object with an activated "Goto" control.
On Question Headers
There are several possibilities for this control. You can enter the absolute ID number of any object in the tree, except for Questions, into this field. This allows you to move through the tree in a number of different ways. Here is one idea for using the "Goto" field:
• Enter the ID number of another related message into the field. Let’s say you are targeting realtors, whom you are calling to advertise your Voice Mail service. You might forward them to the message for your Bi-Weekly Mortgage service. Even if they don’t leave another message, they will learn that you offer mortgage services.
If you ever find the need to change a tree object’s ID, there is a simple and quick way to do so. Simply drag the tree object to its parent and drop it. The Paste Item(s) box appears, and you can enter the object’s new relative ID in the "Touch Tone Number" field, then click the "OK" button. The object (and any children it may have) appears with the new number.
When looking at Control Points, we mentioned that the "Chain To" control allows you to link this program with other ECS Phone Applications. The purpose for this feature is so you can utilize the special features of the other ECS Phone Applications through this program. Each of these applications has special or unique features that are not available in Outbound Telenotification.
For example: Suppose you want your Outbound Telenotification program to use the system tree in your Inbound Telenotification application. The respondent will answer the phone, hear the System Greeting, and then be routed to a Control Point which moves them directly to the Initial Prompt or particular message of the Inbound Telenotification application you want them to hear.
This section discusses the procedures necessary to configure a Control Point to use chaining. For a more detailed discussion of the "Chain To" feature, refer to "Chapter 8: The Combination Application" in the User’s Guide to Business Manager.
The best way to understand the workings of the "Chain To" control on a Control Point is to use an example. Let’s use the above example, where you configure a Control point to chain to the Inbound Telenotification program so that you can use its system tree:
• The first step is to add and configure the Control Point. Make sure you add it under the Initial Prompt. We’ve gone through the procedure of adding Control Points to the system tree, so let’s skip to the configuration.
• Double click the Control Point, and the Control Point box appears. Enable the Control Point by clicking the "Enable" check box, then type a description of this object in the "Description" field. You don’t need to record the Control Point’s ID speech because you won’t be using any auto-menus.
• Now click the "Chain To" check box to enable the chaining feature. You have now enabled the feature.
• Click the List button on the right side of the "Chain To" box. A List button is a button that contains an arrow pointing down to a horizontal line. When ‘pressed,’ a box containing options appears below the field. In this case, a box listing your ECS Phone Applications appears, similar to the one shown:
Figure 164--The ECS Phone Application list
• The names of the other ECS Phone Applications that you have in your computer appear in this box. If the list is longer than the list box itself, you can use the scroll bars to move up and down through the list.
• Select the program you wish to chain to by clicking that option (for this example, Inbound Telenotification). The selected program now appears with a blue bar around it. Also, the list box closes and the selected program appears in the "Chain To" field.
• Now complete the "Goto" field. The number you enter into this field tells the Control Point where to go once it chains to the other application. Entering 0 takes the respondent to the System Greeting of the other program, while the entry 01 takes the respondent to the Initial Prompt of that program. Otherwise, enter the ID of the object you wish the respondent to go to.
• You must make sure that the respondent encounters an activated "Hangup Phone" control in the application being chained to. This makes sure that when the respondent finishes in the application being chained to, they will return to the originating application. The easiest way to do this is to activate the "Hangup Phone" control on the tree object you send the respondent to.
• After you’ve completed all of the information for the chaining feature, you must decide where you want the respondent to go from here. You can either use the "Goto" control or the "Hangup Phone" control in the Control Action group. Using the "Goto," you could send the respondent back into the rest of the tree, or you could use the "Hangup Phone" control to hang up the phone. Once you’ve made a decision on this, click the "OK" button to confirm the configuration of this Control Point.
Obviously, this example is specific to Inbound Telenotification, but if you wish to use the special properties of another program, you use a similar setup to chain to that program. The basic procedure is the same, only the name of the program changes. See your Sales and Marketing manual for more examples.
This section discusses in detail the Message Mover control group of the Record box. This is the box that appears whenever you record a tree object’s speech.
First, let’s look at a Record box:
Figure 165--The Record box
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Please be aware that sound cards or sound editing programs are not part of the Center Owner package. You must purchase these separately. |
Locate the Message Mover control group. This group contains four buttons: The "Transfer" button, the "Replace" button, the ."WAV Copy" button, and the ."WAV Paste" button. The first two controls allow you to move speech from the selected tree object to another tree object (either in this program or another ECS Phone Application). The second two controls allow you to move speech from the selected tree object to a sound editing program. |
"Transfer" and "Replace"
You would use these Message Mover controls when you want to use a copy of an object’s speech on another tree object. The target tree object may even be in another ECS Phone application’s system tree. You use the "Transfer" button to make a copy of the speech to the Paste Buffer. You then go to the object you want to put the speech on, and click the "Replace" button.
Use the following procedure to use the "Transfer" and "Replace" controls:
• First, double click the tree object whose speech you wish to transfer. Next, click the "Record" button so the Record box appears. (If you want to transfer the ID speech, click the "Record ID" button instead).
• Look in the script box to make sure this is the speech you want. If it is, click the "Transfer" button. This copies the speech to the Paste Buffer.
• Once you move the speech file to the Paste Buffer, you can close the Record box and the Object box. Select and double click the tree object where the copied speech belongs, then click either the "Record ID" button or the "Record" button (whichever is appropriate).
• Once the Record box appears, click the "Replace" button. The transferred speech file copies from the Paste Buffer to this Record box, replacing the existing speech (if any) with the transferred speech. You can then click "OK" to confirm the recording. "Cancel" will remove the transferred speech and return the original one.
If the object you are transferring the speech to is in another ECS Phone application, then you must exit this application and bring the target application into the System Editor.
You would use this procedure any time you want to move a speech file to another object. This feature may end up saving you some recording time.
."WAV Copy" and ."WAV Paste"
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Please be aware that sound cards or sound editing programs are not part of the Center Owner package. You must purchase these separately. |
You would use these Message Mover controls when you want to edit a speech. You copy the speech to a file, using the ."WAV Copy" button. The, with a sound editing program and a sound card, you can edit the speech however you wish. You can then move the speech file back to the tree object using the ."WAV Paste" button. |
This function of your program allows you to use the capabilities of your sound card and editor to create special effects or modify files.
Supported Sound Clips
You do not really need to worry about all this technical jargon if you are simply using your sound editor program to clean up tape hiss or edit out blank spaces in recordings that you made using your phone program, or that you purchased from ECS specifically for your phone programs.
However, if you are attempting to bring sound files into your program from collections of sound clips, which sometimes save files at 4 bits to conserve space, you will need to be aware of these specifications.
Your telephony programs support most .WAV files. Specifically, you can paste in files that are uncompressed, 8 or 16 bit, mono or stereo, and 11, 22, or 44 kHz.
Most sound editing program will allow you to convert a file from 4 bits to 8 bits, and once you have made the conversion, you will be able to use the file in your telephone program. See the User’s Guide for your sound editing program to learn more about this procedure, and look at the literature that came with your sound clip software to see what the specifications are for those files.
Using the File Selection Dialog Box
When you copy or paste .WAV files, you will be using a standard Windows file selection box, which will look similar to the one below:
Figure 166--A File Selection dialog box
The "Directories" field allows you to select the directory to place the file into or pull the file out of. In Figure 167, the "copyvce.wav" file is in the "Windows" directory. This directory is the default directory. Every time you open this dialog box to copy or paste a file, you will use the Windows default directory, unless you select a different directory. Once you select a different directory, that becomes your default directory.
The "File Name" fields allow you to name a file to save or select a file to open. In the illustration, the name of the file that you are saving is "copyvce.wav."
This is the default setting that all of your telephony programs will use. If you do not wish to save the file for any purpose beyond making the particular edit that you are working on at the moment, then you would use this default file name. Every time you save a .WAV file to the ‘copyvce.wav’ file name, you replace whatever was in the file before with the new file information.
If you want to save a .WAV file, and not allow it to be copied over, you will need to save the file under a different file name than "copyvce.wav." To save a file to a different name, delete "copyvce.wav" from the "File Name" field, then type in the new name.
Now that you know the principles behind the file selection dialog box, the next section will explain specifically how to copy and paste .WAV files.
Copying a wave file
Use the following procedure to use the ."WAV Copy" function:
• First, double click the tree object whose speech you wish to edit. Next, click the "Record" button so the Record box appears. (If you want to edit the ID speech, click the "Record ID" button instead).
• Look in the script box to make sure this is the speech you want. If it is, click the ."WAV Copy" button. The "Copy WAVE File to:" dialog box will open up, looking similar to the one shown:
Figure 167--The "Copy WAVE File to:" selection box
• If you are using the default file name ‘copyvce.wav,’ and the default directory "Windows," all you need to do is press e or click "OK."
• You can change the name of the file, or the directory you save it to, if you want to.
• An advisory message will appear, letting you know that the file already contains information that you will be replacing.
Figure 168--The advisory message
• If you do not want to save the file to this file name, click on the "No" button or press e to close the message box and return to the selection box.
• Click on the "Yes" button to go ahead and save the file as "copyvce.wav."
• When you click on the "Yes" button, your program will begin converting the file that your program uses into a file that can be edited. You will see message boxes telling you that the program is first changing the file from a 24kbs file to a 64kbs one, and then that the program is converting the 64kbs file into a Wave file.
• All this information does is let you know what your program is doing and how close it is being done. When it is finished, your speech file is saved as a wave file, and you can open it from within your sound editor program and edit it however you want. Save the edited file in the sound editor program as "copyvce.wav," or as some other appropriate file name if you wish.
Pasting a Wave file
• Once you have made your edits and saved the wave file from your sound editor, you can switch back to the Outbound Telenotification System Editor. Select and double click the tree object where the new speech belongs, then click either the "Record ID" button or the "Record" button (whichever is appropriate).
• Once the Record box appears, click the ."WAV Paste" button. The file selection box opens back up, now labeled "Paste WAVE File from:."
Figure 169--The "Paste WAVE File From" dialog box
• To select the file that you want to paste into your tree, click on it where it appears in the "File Name" list, or press your y key to move the highlight bar down to the name you want, and press e or click "OK."
• If you do not see the file in the "File Name" list, make sure that you are in the directory that you saved the file to.
• Your program goes through the reverse of the process that it went through when you copied the file. Message boxes tell you that the Wave is being converted to 64kbs, and then that the 64kbs is being converted to 24kbs.
• When the conversions are finished, the edited file is inserted into your phone tree. You can click on the "Play" button in the "Record" box and listen to the new version of the message.
• You would use this procedure any time you want to edit a speech file, such as trimming the start and stop places, adding background music or sound effects, or any other modification.
This feature allows you to maintain a library of messages on floppy disks that you can use on either Inbound or Outbound Telenotification. This is an advantage if you run a seasonal service that you do not want to advertise all year long, or if you want to run different messages for a particular service at different times of the year. Another advantage of this system is that it allows you to purchase professionally recorded messages and load them into your system. It is an extremely simple function to work with.
Exporting Questions
• To export a question set, all you need is a floppy disk that fits in your computer. Since computers and preferences vary, you may be using 5 1/4" disks or 3 1/2" disks, and either one might be your A or B drive. So, figure out which drive is which, and put in the disk that fits.
• Open the Question Header of the message you want to export to disk by double clicking on the name where it appears in the tree.
• The "Import/Export Questions" section is in the lower right corner of the Question Header box.
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You can select either the "Drive A" option or the "Drive B" option, but never both. |
Select "Drive A" or "Drive B," whichever one your disk is in, by clicking the white circle. A black dot will appear in the one you have chosen, and the circle will be white in the one you have not chosen. |
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Important note: You must have questions under the Question Header to be able to import or export. |
• Press the "Export" button. A message box will appear like the one below:
Figure 170--The Export message box • If your disk is in the drive, click "OK." The light on your disk drive will come on for a moment, and the program has copied your message to the disk. If you decide not to go ahead with the Export, click "Cancel" and you will return to the Question Header box. |
• The Program will not remove a message after copying it, so you will have to Delete or Disable the message if you do not want it to run.
Importing Questions
• To import a question set, all you need is a message saved to a floppy disk that fits in your computer. This might be a message you have previously Exported to the disk, or it may be one that you purchased from ECS.
• Since computers and preferences vary, you may be using 5 1/4" disks or 3 1/2" disks, and either one might fit in your A or B drive. So, figure out which drive is which, and put the disk in the one that it fits.
• Open a new Question Header for the message you want to import from disk by dragging and dropping the Header icon on the prompt that you want to be its parent.
• Open the new Question Header by double clicking on its name in the tree, and enable it.
• The "Import/Export Questions" section is in the lower right corner of the Question Header box. Select "Drive A" or "Drive B," whichever one your disk is in, by pressing the button.
• Press the "Import" button. A message box will appear like the one shown:
Figure 171--The Import message box
• If your disk is in the drive, click "OK." The light on your disk drive will come on for a moment, and the program has copied your message to the Question Header. The program retrieves the message, fills in all the control boxes with the new information and re-creates all the Questions. If you decide not to go ahead with the Import, click "Cancel" and you will return to the Question Header box.
This section discusses the procedures necessary to create a new variant of the Outbound Telenotification program. This allows you to have another copy of the program on hand, so you could have two (or more) completely different Outbound Telenotification programs.
This new variant does not have a system tree already set up; it’s up to you to create the tree either from scratch, or by pasting objects or sections in from the core program’s tree. All of the normal rules apply to this variant, but the system tree can be different.
This section also discusses the reasoning behind creating and configuring another Outbound Telenotification variant.
Why Make Other Variations?
Creating a variant of the Outbound Telenotification program is quite useful in many aspects. One important reason to make a variation has to do with the installation process. Any time that you install a ECS program, the ECS Setup program can install a message directly into your Outbound Telenotification application. But if you make any changes to the ID numbers of the system tree, the Setup program will not be able to install the message. If you leave the original program intact, and create a variation with the ID numbers that you want to use, then you can install the programs and their messages without difficulty to your original tree, then copy them to your variant and modify them there.
Another reason for creating a variant of Outbound Telenotification may be to run the other variant on another phone line. You might want to do this if you want to complete a greater number of calls in less time than it would take to make all the calls using one phone line. You can have more than one line making calls to your Number Lists, but if you want to run different messages on each line, then you need to use a variant tree for each line.
Where to Find More Information
If you decide that you want to create and configure another variant of the Outbound Telenotification program, refer to the User’s Guide to Business Manager. The Outbound Telenotification manual contains a section entitled "Creating Variants of the ECS Phone Applications," which details the procedures for creating other variants of the core programs using the Business Manager program. Also take a look at the sample trees in your Outbound Telenotification Sales and Marketing manual to see how variants can look.
The procedures for copying tree objects or sections between application variants is quite similar to the same functions within the application. The big difference is that you want to keep the cut or copied item in the Paste Buffer so you can paste it into the other application variant.
The procedure is quite simple. Simply cut or copy the desired section from the application currently in the System Editor. The cut or copied item (or items) goes to the Paste Buffer. You exit the System Editor, making sure to leave the items in the Paste Buffer. You then enter the application variant in which you want to paste the object(s), and use the standard "Paste" method to paste the object(s) into the tree.
Earlier in this chapter, we talked about the paste buffer serving as a temporary storage area for cut or copied tree objects and sections. By ‘temporary’ we mean that the buffer doesn’t permanently save the object or objects. It only holds the object(s) during the current editing session (unless told otherwise). With this in mind, let’s look at the ways that the objects leave the buffer:
Exiting the system editor--This is perhaps the most obvious way to clear the paste buffer. If you exit the program while a tree object or section is in the paste buffer (i.e., You cut or copied an object or section in this session), The following warning message displays:
Figure 172--Paste Buffer advisory message
Clicking the "No" button clears the paste buffer of the last object(s) stored there during the editing session. This means that the program has, for all practical purposes, deleted anything in the paste buffer.
Clicking the "Yes" button tells the Paste Buffer "Hang on to that, you’re going to need it." If you have another variant of Outbound Telenotification and you wanted to paste some objects from the root program’s tree into the other program, you would leave the ‘data’ (tree object or section) in the paste buffer.
Copying or cutting other objects to the buffer--This procedure doesn’t clear the buffer, it merely removes any information in the buffer so that a newly cut or copied tree object or section can move into the buffer. This means that the buffer is only capable of storing the object or section that you most recently put there. This means that if you cut or copy an object and cut or copy again before pasting the previous object, the first object is lost, deleted and replaced by the second cut or copied object.
If you decide to do a lot of system tree rearranging, you soon find that cutting and pasting sections can get a bit tedious. For this reason, the System Editor allows you to ‘move’ sections or objects in the tree by dragging and dropping them. You can use a similar method to copy the object or section that you are dragging and dropping.
There is one thing to remember when moving a tree object or section: Drag the object or section to the object in the tree that will be its new parent. This means you would drag the tree object (its children will follow if there are any) to any Prompt in the tree, including the Initial Prompt, then drop it. You then assign the object a new Touch Tone Number, and it appears in that location in the system tree.
The ‘Drag and Drop’ Move
Moving tree objects around in the system tree is useful when you want to rearrange your tree on any level. You could rearrange Questions in the same message, or you could move whole sections around and redesign your tree. This feature works similarly to the ‘cut and paste’ feature, but you can only move the objects within the current variant of the Outbound Telenotification system tree.
When you move objects around the tree, the same rules apply as with cutting and pasting: you can only paste a section or object into the tree so that it branches from the Initial Prompt, any other Prompt, or a Question Header (Questions only). You can not paste a section or object to a Control Point, Question, or the System Greeting.
Also keep in mind that the ‘move’ feature does not store any objects in the Paste Buffer. Moving does, however, require fewer steps and less button clicking, as it is a basic drag-and-drop procedure.
Use the following procedure to move objects or sections around the system tree:
• Select the object you want to move by clicking it. A blue highlight bar appears around the object.
• Drag the object (in the case of a Question Header or Prompt, the children move also) to the desired location. If the location you chose is invalid (Question, Control Point, System Greeting), then the picture you’re dragging appears with an "X" on it. If the location is valid, the letter pertaining to the moved object appears on the picture you’re dragging.
• Drop the object in the desired location, and the Paste Item(s) box appears as shown:
Figure 173--The Paste Item(s) box
• Enter the desired touch tone number into the "Touch Tone Number" field. When you finish, click the "OK" button. The object(s) appear in the area you placed them.
The ‘Drag and Drop’ Copy Move
This is a useful feature when you want to quickly copy a tree object or section instead of just moving it, and place the copy elsewhere in the system tree. This feature works similarly to the ‘copy and paste’ feature, but you can only copy the objects within the current variant of the Outbound Telenotification system tree.
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Similar to the "Copy" function, the Drag and Drop Copy Move stores the copied object or section in the Paste Buffer. |
When you quick copy objects around the tree, the same rules apply as with copying and pasting: You can only paste a section or object into the tree so that it branches from the Initial Prompt, from any other Prompt, or from a Question Header. You can not paste a section or object to a Control Point, Question, or the System Greeting. |
Use the following procedure to copy objects or sections in the system tree and place the copy elsewhere:
• Select the object you want to copy by clicking it. A blue bar appears around the object.
• Press and hold down the j key on your keyboard, while dragging the object to the desired location. If the location you chose is invalid (Question, Control Point, System Greeting), then the picture you’re dragging appears with an "X" on it. If the location is valid, the letter pertaining to the moved object appears on the picture you’re dragging.
• Drop the object in the desired location and release the j key, and the Paste Item(s) box appears as shown:
Figure 174--The Paste Item(s) box
• Enter the desired touch tone number into the "Touch Tone Number" field. When you finish, click the "OK" button. The object(s) appear in the area you placed them as an exact copy to the originals. Even the speeches on the objects are the same.
Using multiple phone lines will allow you to make more calls in less time. If you are using your Outbound Telenotification system to notify people about changes in scheduled events or about emergencies, then having more than one line would be a real asset.
You can figure out how many lines you would need by taking the number of people you need to reach, and the amount of time you want to take to reach them, and then figuring out how long it will take to call all of them, using an average of 45 to 50 calls in an hour. For instance, let’s say you have to notify 200 teachers that school is canceled, and you want to do it in under an hour. Let’s also say that you are running a nice short message, so you average 50 calls per hour. Using one phone line, it would take you four hours to call all the teachers, so you would need four lines to get it all done in one hour.
If you are sending everyone that you are calling the same message, all you need to do is make sure that you have configured all the lines properly and then schedule them to run. To learn more about configuring phone lines, see Chapter 4: Configuring Phone Lines in your User’s Guide to Using Business Manager. Chapter 6: Scheduling Applications of the User’s Guide will provide you all the information you need to set up your calling schedule.
When you have multiple lines calling one phone list, the lines essentially leap-frog down the list, each one picking up the next number that the program has not yet dialed, or not yet reached. You can even schedule the lines to start calling at different times--the new line will simply start at the first Not Dialed number, then go on down the list, picking up all the Not Dialeds, and leap-frogging the other lines when it catches up to them.
If you want to use multiple lines to call with different messages, you will have to set up a variant tree for each different message you want to run. You can set the program up in any combination, with several lines calling one number list with one message, and one line calling another number list with another message, or each line calling a different number list with a different message--your imagination is the limit. You will set the lines up using the Application Scheduler. Just schedule each variation to run on the line or lines that you want to use and get it going.
Congratulations. You’ve just completed the advanced features and functions chapter--the final chapter of this manual. Now with a little practice, you should be an expert at creating and editing system trees and phone lists in no time. Combine this knowledge with what you learn in your Sales and Marketing manual and you’ll be well on your way to using Outbound Telenotification.
