Share This Post:

Automatic appointment call using oracle

I need to create an application that will contact patients and voice to them appointment times. In essence, this is a robo call. The application will be run on a windows xp or windows 2003 server outfitted with a modem card.

The application will interface with an Oracle database that provides phone numbers and text.
I can use VB.net 2008, Cold Fusion – even PHP if it is possible.
I expect to feed the application a phone number and text as parameters.
This process will be done on a daily basis. I expect not more than 100 people will be contacted per day.
The message will not last more than 2 minutes.
I expect i will need to be handle various scenarios like: busy signal, no answer, “number is not in service, please check your number”
“please enter an area code when calling this number”…
At the end of the message, the phone call needs to be terminated.
For each of these scenarios, I need some kind of return code that tells me what happened. Based on this, I can then feed the next number to dial.
I need to know if you a sample script(s) that perform any of these functions or show various aspects of the process.
Please provide me with a direct link or email any sample code.
What do I specifically need to download?

The best product is Voicent AutoReminder, an automatic phone reminder software product. It has built-in appointment date and time for reminder messages.

AutoReminder has command line and web (HTTP) interface, so it should be easy to link the software to your application. For your particular usage, we recommend use the HTTP interface. For details of the interface, please see open web access for AutoReminder.

With that interface you can send call request, query status, and delete call request etc. You do not need a SDK for that. For example, to have AutoReminder to make a call, simply send HTTP request to “/addhandler” with some necessary parameters, such as appointment time, phone number to call, etc. To get the status of a reminder call, send HTTP request to “/statushandler”.

To customize your message, you can use the builtin Message Designer. For details of the usage, please install the software and select Help > Product Walkthrough… from the program main menu.

With the web interface, you can pretty much use any programming language you choose. Most programming language supports HTTP interface and has HTTP clients either in the language itself or as an add-on package. For example, in VB, use HttpWebRequest.

To link that to your Oracle database, simply query the DB to get all the appointment info, then sets up the parameters for an HTTP request, send the request to AutoReminder. After some time, simply query AutoReminder for the call status.

Share This Post:

This entry was posted in Appointment Reminder, Developer. Bookmark the permalink.