Outbound Calls

All versions of Active Call Center include outbound dialing components. The standard dialing components are perfect for deploying single-line outbound dialing solutions. For two to three line dialing solutions, the ACCMultiOutbound object can be used. For robust, multi-line, scalable dialing applications, the Power Dialer for Active Call Center Professional can be used.

Active Call Center includes facilities for performing outbound calls. Using the outbound dialing features, Active Call Center can be configured to:

• Dial lists of numbers with a specific Call Tree.
• Initiate outbound dialing from an inbound call.
• Initiate outbound dialing from an external application, like a spreadsheet, database, internet, or MS-DOS application.
• Initiate outbound dialing at specific times.

Learning Objectives

After completing this chapter, you should:

• Know how to make outbound calls to lists of numbers from Active Call Center.
• Know that outbound calls can be made using the outbound dialing COM object.
• Know that outbound calls can be made using command line parameters.
• Know how to schedule outbound dialing tasks.
• Understand some of the issues involved in creating outbound Call Trees, particularly the difficulties in distinguishing between people and answering machines.
• Know how to analyze Call History data in the context of your hardware and software configuration to determine completion status of calls.
• Know how the Power Dialer is used for a variety of multi-line dialing applications with Active Call Center Professional.