Outbound call Scenario/Campaign

[ra_jeshkalra_2]

Hi,

This is a scenario of emergency, where when once the IVR application is initiated, it makes outbound calls to numbers which are fetched from an xml file or database.

Each call on conencting announces a message to called party and then disconnects.

The customer requirement is 1000 outbound calls in 20 minutes.The solution suggested is IPCCX 5.0 with IPIVR license.

From the CRS scripting(IPIVR) , is this achievable?

Can CRS code/scripting, initiate paralled outbound calls?

IF not, what is the actual solution to this scenario?

Thanks

[mikram]

Hi

Please look at SRND for IPCCX 5.0, it will give you an idea about capacity planning. You do need Premium license for Outbound option.

Which version of CUCM you have in place?

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/voice_ip_comm/cust_contact/contact_center/ipcc_enterprise/srnd/5x_6x/cce6srnd.html

Cheers

Muhammad

[ra_jeshkalra_2]

Hi Mohammad,

We will me using CCM 6.0.But The link you gave me is IPCC enterprise.

Can we make fast/parallel calls from IPCCX(express 5.0)?

[Edward Umansky]

You can try and make this happen with UCCX. There is no built-in mechanism for automatically launching scripts, you would have to develop a custom application that launches UCCX scripts using HTTP triggers in order to place outbound calls. You can write this to launch multiple calls in parallel, limited basically by how many IVR ports configured and CUCM capacity. I would say no more than 10 calls placed per second.

However note that UCCX is not really a Dialer product, though it can recreate some of the functionality. There are things you will not be able to do with UCCX, for example, you cannot do automatic answering machine/fax/modem detection. If your call is answered by an answering machine, there is no way to detect that or to wait for the beep before playing your message. If you need a more robust and full featured dialer you should look at using UCC Enterprise with Outbound Option. As a lower cost option, you can also go with System UCC, which is basically a streamlined version of UCC Enterprise with lower agent capacity.

[ra_jeshkalra_2]

Hi,

1.How to use create/HTTP trigger.How to write this custom application?what resources/skill sets are required to do this?

2.How to launch multiple calls?which CRS scripting function to use?

3.Once each call connects we want to disconnect it after playing a IVR message with say 30 secs.How can I track the duration of the call.which function to use?

Basically we have to achieve 1000 calls in 20 minutes.

The solution of IPCCX(express)5.0 with CUCM 6.0 has been sold.So can 1000 calls in 20 minutes be achieved.

How many E1's will be required for this outbound capaign.

Please help ..

[ra_jeshkalra_2]

Hi Umansky,

Can you please elaborate in steps:

1)I want to initiate the CRS script with an HTTP request , instead of a normal telephone call to the IVR.

2)The triggered application should in turn place multiple outgoing calls which it picks from and xml file and database(parallel calls).

What will be the steps involved to achieve 1) and 2) above.

Thanks

[geoff]

You are actually building a Dialer. This can be done but it's a lot of work. We built one in Java, running as a service, reading information from a database and using the HTTP mechanism of IP IVR to place a call. The trigger places one call, but the trigger is called many times in each pass through the database. The trigger part is documented - but building the scheduler that calls this is non-trivial.

Regards,

Geoff

[ra_jeshkalra_2]

Hi Geoff,

Can you please elaborate "the HTTP mechanism of IP IVR to place a call using Trigger".

What is the function used for this, please also refer me to the documentation.

"The trigger places one call", are you referrening calling the script using HTTP subsystem/trigger insead of a normal phone call to trigger script like a inbound call centre customer call and then the called script makes one call using place call step?

Thanks

[chrismanuh]

the HTTP trigger is a normal URL that you can make an HTTP GET request to an IVR application as if it was triggered by a telephone call. as suggested above, you'll first create your IVR script that uses a "Place Call" step to make the outbound call and deliver the message to your calling parties.

Next, you'll create an IVR application for this script and create a Cisco HTTP trigger for it. the administration page will ask you for the url. eg. /dialer. in this case the full URL to trigger your application is going to be http://:8080/dialer.

Once your application is triggered by making HTTP GET request to this application, you don't need to keep the HTTP contact alive, so you can just send it a nice OK message and disconnect the HTTP contact (this is so you can continue to trigger more instances of your IVR application while the outbound calling is taking place). after terminating the HTTP contact, you can continue within your script to the "Place Call" and continue with the rest of the functionality.

Note that the original HTTP contact is no longer active so don't try to communicate with it after disconnecting.

hope this helps

[ra_jeshkalra_2]

Hi chrismanuh,

1.I have created the script caller dialer.aef to place call.any idea which function I use in this to announce message to

called party once the call is connected?

2.Then I created the application "dialer" , which is associated with the script dialer.aef

3.Created HTTP trigger for the application in step 2.By using sunsystem->HTTP->Add HTTP trigger and giving URL as: /dialer

>>In fact now in my IE if I give the http://:8080/dialer I can see a dialout and call connects!! But after that I see an Error:500 on the web page. Location : /dialer

4.I am not able to figure out the HTTP GET part , I believe is the function "Get HTTP Contact info".What will be

the parameters for this function.

Will this function be written as a new IVR script which will in turn call the application "dialer" ??

Do I need to have another application for this?

5.Also can you please elaborate:-

"Once your application is triggered by making HTTP GET request to this application, you don't need to keep the HTTP contact

alive, so you can just send it a nice OK message and disconnect the HTTP contact (this is so you can continue to trigger

more instances of your IVR application while the outbound calling is taking place). after terminating the HTTP contact, you

can continue within your script to the "Place Call" and continue with the rest of the functionality. "

The idea is to place multiple IVR callouts parallely to a list of numbers.

Thanks

[chrismanuh]

1. Use the 'Place Call' step to place a call to a given number. After the 'Place Call' step, you'll have a Contact variable as a return value.

Use the 'Play Prompt' step to play a wav file containing the announcment to the Contact variable from the 'Place Call' step.

3. The browser is probably timing out. if you're writing C#/PHP,etc code, examine the error code to see what the underlying message is.

4. You performed an HTTP GET request when you pointed your browser to dialer application at: http://:8080/dialer. If you're writing code (java/c#/php,etc) you can make similar HTTP GET request. so HTTP GET just means make a call to http://:8080/dialer either with a browser or with some custom code that you write.

5. It's possible your dialer application is taking too long to complete so the browser times out, which might explain the error you're getting. if that's the case, you'll need to respond to the original HTTP request so it doesn't wait until it timeouts. and that's what point #5 is about.

[ra_jeshkalra_2]

1.I am using contact variable now, instead of the default triggering contact, but getting error.(See screenshot).

I also attached if you can have a look.

2.I am triggering the script using the HTTP trigger just from the IE, using

http://:8080/dialer.

I never wrote any code writing code (java/c#/php,etc)--In fact I am not a developer.

It seems to me I have in the CRS script, I have to say nice OK as you mentioned in your previous reply:-

"Once your application is triggered by making HTTP GET request to this application, you don't need to keep the HTTP contact

alive, so you can just send it a nice OK message and disconnect the HTTP contact (this is so you can continue to trigger more

instances of your IVR application while the outbound calling is taking place). after terminating the HTTP contact, you can

continue within your script to the "Place Call" and continue with the rest of the functionality.

Note that the original HTTP contact is no longer active so don't try to communicate with it after disconnecting. "

So how to say that nice o.k.

Pls help,, may be can modify the script and post!!

Thanks in advance.

[chrismanuh]

Will revise it and send you an update soon.

[chrismanuh]

here's the updated script. it's not tested though so try it out and see if it does what you intended.

[ra_jeshkalra_2]

Hi,

Thanks for the script.

Just tested, but it gives some errors:

1)response variable is not declared, is it simply of type "Document" with value DOC[]? or any other value?

2)Do I need to do any change in

SET=TEXT["Success"]

Thanks