As you prepare for the Holidays, make sure that your clients announcements are ready!
Prism Announcement Recording
As of the March 2005 release of Prism, custom announcements can be recorded through the
telephone network.
Activating Announcement Recording:
In the Prism ‘Edit Account’ screen, set the
‘User Record Tone’ field to a valid touch tone (0 – 9, # or *). Do
not use the same touch tone programmed into ‘Transfer Tone’ or callers will not be able to abort the announcement.
In
Microscan or SDM, program the account to
play an announcement.
Place
a call to the account.
While
the announcement is playing, enter the
touch tone programmed to activate recording.
You will hear the voice prompt, “To
record a greeting, please enter your security
code”.
Using
the touch tone keypad, enter the security
code programmed into the ‘Primary
Dial String’ field for the account.
If this number is not entered correctly,
you will hear a voice message directing
you to the supervisor, and you must call
back.
If
the security code is validated, you will
hear: “Please enter the appropriate
greeting number”. Values from 1 – 5
correspond to greetings A – E, and
9 is used to record the custom emergency
greeting for the account. Incorrect values
will select the A or default greeting.
Note: For backward compatibility, the voice
file name for the ‘A’ announcement
does not have the letter A appended to
the account number.
You
will hear the prompt “Begin recording
at the tone, when finished press any key”.
After
the recording is finished, it will be played
back, a farewell message is played, and
Prism will clear the call.
During Record:
If
there are problems any time during this process,
any previously recorded announcement will
be retained and the call will be cleared.
If
the announcement you wish to record is playing
on another call, it cannot be replaced. You
will receive an error prompt and will need
to try the recording at another time.
Voice
File Maintenance
No
additional facilities are built into the Prism
program, all other prompt file maintenance
is done using Windows file functions. Prompt
files are all stored in the folder: C:\Prism\Prompts
Prompt files are all
named with the account number: xxxx.vce (e.g. 1234.vce). Alternate schedule
announcements are named with a one character suffix to the account number
(e.g. 1234E.vce, 1234B.vce).
Copy
the prompt files to another folder or to
removable medium for backup purposes. To
remove a prompt, simply delete the prompt
file.
It
is possible to use this utility to record
new ‘system’ prompts. Record
the new system prompt into an unused account,
and replace the original system prompt by
copying or moving the newly recorded file.
The
System Prompts; all in C:\Prism\Prompts
sorry.vce - ‘I
am sorry, but your call cannot be completed’.
This is the ‘invalid’ announcement.
It will be played to the caller if the
account is invalid in either Prism’s
database or for TAS accounts if it is invalid
in the Microscan / SDM database.
hangup.vce
- ‘Your call cannot
be completed, please hang up and try
again’. This message is played
if there are no available outdial channels,
and the outdial group is programmed
to ‘play message’.
connect.vce
- ‘Your call is being
connected’. If there is no conferencing
on your system, this is played to the
caller just before the final patch
connection between the inbound and
outbound calls.
transfer.vce
- ‘Your call is being
transferred’. Played to the caller
when a call is transferred from an
external outbound connection to the
TAS operators.
allbusy2.vce
-‘All our operators
are busy, please hold for an available
operator’ (this is the generic
announcement).
pmptwarn.vce
-‘That prompt is in
use…'
Spectrum
Prism provides an extremely flexible system
for automated announcements. There are a
number of controls which interact to determine
if and what announcement will be played for
an individual account.
Microscan
/ SDM Settings
With
the exception of “Emergency” announcements,
whether or not announcement is desired is
always controlled by the Microscan or Spectrum
Data Manager. There are four fields in the
Account Master Record (AMR) accessed through
System Manager or SDM (Account Setup: Voice
Mail tab) that are used by the system. The AA field has two components, an announcement
type and a ring count.
Announcement
type
'A' = always,
the call will go to the announcement immediately.
'O' = overflow,
the call will go to the announcement
if not answered within 'ring count' rings.
'S'
= standalone, the call will
not be presented to operators (this
is often used with external voice mail)
'G'
=generic,
the generic system announcement
will be played if the call is not
answered within 'ring count' rings.
Any
other character disables announcement.
Ring
count
This
field defines the number of ring cycles (6
seconds per cycle) to wait before the call
is sent to the announcement. The call is
available to be answered by an operator during
this time.
The
AD field has a dual function. A value of
1 to 7 will be used to 'time' a connection
to an external voice mail announcement. A
zero is used to indicate that this call should
remain connected to the announcement until
either a touch tone is heard, or the inbound
call clears. This interacts with 'Revert
tone only' described later.
Normally,
the announcement or mailbox is the same as
the account number. Calls can be associated
with another announcement or mailbox with
the MBX field in the AMR.
The
AMB or Alternate MailBox field can route
the call to another announcement or mailbox
during 'off hours' with optional revert on
touch tone.
Prism
Settings
Once
it has been decided that the current call
should be routed to an announcement, additional
controls are used to determine the call's
activity. In the Prism Account Record there
are six controls related to announcements.
Transfer
Tone
-This field defines the touch
tone that will be used to stop the
announcement and present the call to
the operators.
Values 1 – 9, * and # are allowed
in this field. The letter 'X' is used
to disable revert on tone. (The letter
'C' can be used if you want the call
to be cleared after the announcement.
These calls will never be presented
to an operator.)
User
Record Tone - This
field defines the touch tone that
will be used to stop the announcement
and
activate announcement recording.
Values 1 – 9, * and # are allowed
in this field. The letter 'X' is
used
to disable announcement recording
from the telephone network. Do not
use the
same touch tone as programmed as
Transfer Tone or callers will not
be able to
exit the announcement.
Ext
Announce
- This field controls whether
the call should be connected to an
external voice mail system for the
announcement. 'Y' enables this function,
any other letter selects the internal
announcement system.
Ring
after annc - after the
announcement completes, calls will
be presented to the operators on
the ring list rather than the hold
list if this box is checked.
If you are not using
the expanded announcement schedules, the following
fields may be active (see screen on page 7).
Annc
Sched - if the value in
this field is not zero, one of up
to five announcements will be played
for this account based on the schedule
selected by this field.
Annc
Sched 2 - if the value in this field
is not zero, one of up to five announcements will
be played for this account based on the schedule
selected by this field.
Days
Sched 2 Active - the announcement schedule
defined in the Annc Sched 2 field will be active
only on the days checked in this panel, on all
other days the schedule in Annc Sched is active.
If you are using the expanded announcement schedules,
you will be able to select a different schedule
for each day of the week.
There are several controls on the System Settings
screen that are related to the announcement system.
External Announce -
This checkbox enables the use of an external voice
mail system for announcements. If not checked,
the Ext Announce field in the AMR is ignored.
Announce Schedule -
This must be checked to enable announcement schedules.
Revert tone only -
If this is not checked, the system will present
calls to the operators after the announcement is
finished regardless of the value in the
AD field.
If checked, and the AD field is 0, a call will
be presented to the operators only if the proper
touch tone is detected.
Emergency
Announcement - To turn on emergency announcements,
check this box. If this box is not checked no emergency
announcements will be played. This setting is not
saved.
Emergency Annc All – This check box enables emergency
announcements for all accounts, whether or not they have been programmed
for announcements in Microscan/SDM. This setting is not saved.
Emergency Annc Acct – Each account can have a custom
emergency announcement. If none has been recorded for a particular account,
Prism will look for an announcement recorded for the account programmed
in this field.
Understanding How Emergency Announcements Work
The Emergency Announcement checkbox is the ‘Master Switch’ for
this feature. Check this box to activate emergency announcements for
the current day. The feature will remain active until this box is unchecked.
There is also a checkbox that is part of the account setup in Prism
which must also be checked for an account to get emergency announcements.
The processing sequence for an individual call
is this:
If the system Emergency Announcement checkbox is not checked, use standard announcement logic.
If the Emergency Announce checkbox for this account is not checked, use standard announcement logic.
If the system Emergency Annc All is checked, play either the custom or the generic emergency announcement for this call.
Otherwise, play an emergency announcement only if Microscan / SDM have indicated this call is enabled for announcement.
The system will always try to play an announcement
to the caller if directed to do so. If no path
to the external voice mail is available, the
system will attempt to play a custom internal
announcement. If no custom announcement can be
found, the generic will be played.
For more information,
contact Telescan at 800-770-7662 or visit www.telescan.net.
