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Many outbound dialing applications will require some verification that a call has completed.
There are two approaches to analyzing call completion status.
The easiest way to know if a call has been completed is to have the Call Ending VBScript Macro include some code that writes back results of the call. This the technique we implemented in our Simple Dialer add-on application.
The techniques discussed with regards to analyzing the Call History will require use of information discussed in Extracting Data from the Call History.
The exact means of identifying calls that did not complete successfully varies depending on the answer detection used. The discussion below is categorized by whether and how answer detection is implemented:
Hardware Based Answer Detection
When the telephony hardware controls answer detection, it usually manifests the control by generating a "Connected" event only when the call has been answered. Active Call Center initiates Call Tree processing after receiving the Connected event from the hardware. Calls that result in no answer or busy signals are never released to Active Call Center for processing. As a result, calls with no answer or busy signals will not result in execution of the hangup script. Since Active Call Center only creates Call History records for calls it is actually allowed to process, determining calls that have not been completed requires comparing numbers dialed as shown by the Call History with numbers that should have been dialed. This is implemented by examining the outbound numbers stored in an Outbound_Call field in the Call History.
Software Based Answer Detection
Software based answer detection should be used only with telephony hardware that automatically delivers every call to Active Call Center in a "Connected" state. As a result, the Call History will show every outbound call and every call will have execution of a Call Ending VBScript Macro.
Calls that are not identified as being answered (usually the result of no answer or busy signals) are stored in the Call History with the words "No Answer Detected" saved as the value for the Answer_Phone Node. If you are using the Call Ending VBScript Macro to check completion status, the Answer_Phone Node Variable will have the value "No Answer Detected" during execution of this macro and conditional processing can be implemented appropriately.
Answer Detection Disabled
When answer detection is disabled, all calls are delivered to Active Call Center in the "Connected" state. The only way to identify calls that did not complete is either to examine the Call History for calls that show no signs of feedback or to have conditional processing in the Call Ending VBScript Macro for such calls. Under this scenario, it is impossible to distinguish between answering machines, busy signals, and no answers.
Telephony Cards and Outbound Dialing
Brooktrout and Dialogic cards provide answer, ring, and busy detection during outbound dialing. Since the call progress detection is done in the hardware, Active Call Center will only be allowed to handle a call once it has been answered (the board doesn't pass along busy signals and no answers).
If the call is never answered, the Brooktrout board will not pass the call to Active Call Center and as a result, Active Call Center will not have any record of the call in the Call History and the Call Ending VBScript Macro will not execute. The user must review the Call History carefully in conjunction with the call list to check which calls actually were completed, and if necessary, reschedule the ones that were not completed.