We recently purchased the Enterprise edition of BroadCastbyPhone along with a modem. We are using this software in conjunction with our Business Continuity (Disaster) Planning. We setup the program and acquired a license on one or our desktops and will be locating that desktop in the vault area of the State Capitol Building. In testing our Business Continuity Plan, the question was raised about what would we do if there was a disaster making the Capitol Building have no power and inaccessible. In this case, we would not be able to use the BroadCastbyPhone software. We have an alternate offsite location where we plan to keep a laptop setup and ready to go with software we use in-house. What we would like to do is setup this laptop so it can be used as an alternate incase the one in the Capitol Building is not available. Is there anyway we can do this with the license we have?

Also, I was wondering if the BroadCastbyPhone can be activated by dialing in?

For the laptop, you will need to get another license. Enterprise edition allows you to access the server from remote client. In your case, you will need to have another server setup on the laptop.

Yes, you can activate the BroadcastByPhone program by dialing in. However, you need to create an inbound application using Voicent IVR Studio. In the inbound application, you can check for password, for example, then launch BroadcastByPhone program. The good news is that Voicent IVR Studio Tutorial, Chapter 4has a sample just for that purpose.

I had a question regarding the IVR program. We want to be able to prompt whoever receives the message to type in their last 4 of their social security number before listening to this message. How is this possible? Do we import a report with the person’s name, account, and last 4 Social Security number into the Broadcast program?

Yes, it is possible and should not be that hard to setup.

First, create a call list or import a call list to the BroadcastByPhone autodialer program. The call list should contain the person’s name, account number, last 4 digits of social security number, and any other column you wish. Since IVR Studio and Broadcast By Phone autodialer programs are fuly integrated, all these columns are accessible from IVR Studio.

The multiple language sample is similar to what you want to do. The only difference is that instead of asking the person called to press 1 or 2 to select the language, your application prompts him for entering his last 4 digits of social security number. Once the 4 digits SSN number is received, compare it with the value in the spreadsheet. If it matches, continue with the message, otherwise re-prompt him again. If he failed 3 times, for example, exits the call.

To design this IVR application, create a Digits element to collect the 4 digits SSN number. In the current release 6.3.3, the digits element expects a series of digits ended by a # key. Starting from next release, which should be available in a month or so, the digits elements can collect a fixed length digits without the pound sign.

Create a child element, such as a prompt element, to play your message. In the transition definition for the child element, select “if the condition is met” choice, then define the condition, which compares the last input value (__VG__LAST_RESULT) to the column value for SSN number. This element basically tell the system that if the SSN number matches, play the message.

Create another child element of the Digits element to handle wrong SSN number. This element should be a Goto element, with the target to be the Digits element. It tells the system to go back to the Digits element to prompt the persom called to enter his SSN number again. If you want to set a limit to how many times he can try, create a variable to save the number of times he tried. For details, please see the IVR Studio “password protected info” sample.