Automated calls to alert support staff

We are trying to find a simple method of turning a system error email into a phone call into one or more emails to alert support staff. Emails don’t get seen in the middle of the night. Text messages just beep once. But a phone call rings and rings. Can this product be scripted? Can we integrate it with Linux-based systems? We are not looking for some kind of robo-dialer… just a simple means of having our systems call when there is a serious error condition

Yes, Voicent products have extensive interface API such that they can be scripted easily. Though the software must run on a Windows system, but you can easily use the API (web HTTP based) from your linux computer to control the automated calls, such as trigger a phone call and query the call status.

There are a few options for your application:

Email to Phone

There is an open source project called email to phone which can trigger an automated phone call by an email. You can download that project and change the program to suite your need.

Trigger a phone call directly

If you have control of the system that sends the email alert, you can change that system to send an automated phone call instead. This way you do not have to worry about the delay of your email servers and possible email system goes down. You could also manage these phone calls better, such as checking the call status or give more information about the system error. If your call message is simple, you can use the Voicent Gateway Simple Call Interface. For example, if you choose to use Perl, you can trigger a call using the following:

call_text("650-1234567", "Wake up, System Down", 1)

If you have an escalation process, you can also consider using Voicent BroadcastByPhone autodialer. The software has a command line interface and a call-till-confirm feature, which calls everyone on the call list until someone enters a code to confirm. For details, please check the program help file for the command line options.

Further Possibilities

Since Voicent Gateway is a development and deployment platform for interactive phone applications, you can do more than just triggering a simple automated phone call. For example, you can use the phone to interact with your system. Voicent IVR Studio has built-in support for database, email servers, and website integration.