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The Active Call Center COM object for outbound dialing processes calls in sequence, one at a time. Therefore, when using the COM object for outbound dialing multiple call requests placed on different lines in rapid succession will result in only one call at a time - the calls will be queued for processing.
Certain situations will require the ability to place multiple outbound calls across multiple lines simultaneously. This requirement can be met by one of the following techniques:
Using the ACCMultiOutbound Application
Active Call Center Professional users should strongly consider using the Power Dialer COM object instead of the ACCMultiOutbound application.
The ACCMultiOutbound application can only be called by using a command line syntax similar to the one shown below:
"C:\Program Files\Active Call Center\ACCMultiOutbound.exe" "C:\Program Files\Active Call Center\MyCallTree.acc" "C:\My Documents\Phone List.txt" -1 -d
The name of the executable file is followed by the name of the Call Tree in quotation marks. The second parameter is the name of a text file that contains a list of phone numbers to dial, one phone number per line. The next parameter indicates the line number to use for outbound dialing: in this case "-1" indicates line 1, "-2" would indicate line 2, etc. "-d" at the end of the command indicates that the software should perform outbound dialing. Windows Notepad can be used to create a text file of numbers to use with this feature.
To dial out on multiple lines simultaneously, simply call the ACCMultiOutbound component with a different phone list and line number.
Once the calls are complete, the ACCMultiOutbound application deletes the phone number list file. Therefore, an application that uses the ACCMultiOutbound application can check to see if a certain batch of calls is done by checking if the phone number list file for that batch still exists.
Implementing Multiple Line Dialing in a Visual Basic Application
Using standard versions of Active Call Center, Visual Basic programmers can use the steps below as an outline for preparing their own outbound dialing applications. This technique will allow for outbound dialing on two, three, and possibly as many as four lines. However, resource and memory usage will be inefficient and system load will be high. To add scalable, efficient multi-line dialing capabilities to a Visual Basic Application, we advise using the Active Call Center Power Dialer COM object.
Step 1. Have the application build a list of numbers to dial.
Step 2. Cycle through the list and sort the list into groups. For example, one group might be all those calls that should be processed with Call Tree X and the second group all those calls that should be processed with Call Tree Y. Alternatively, the calls could be grouped to load balance across multiple lines.
Step 3. Save the grouped phone number lists to text files, make copies of the files if they will be needed later.
Step 4. Use the Visual Basic Shell function to launch several ACCMultiOutbound applications with the appropriate parameters (one application per line).
Step 5. Check the existence of the phone number list files in your Visual Basic program using the Dir function. When a list has been deleted, you'll know the ACCMultiOutbound component has finished that list.
Step 6. Analyze the output, and repeat with Step 4 as needed.