in the agent dialer, in the spreadsheet, how can you place a 0 before the number? A regular French phone is composed like this : 01 77 88 99 All French numbers begin by 0.

You do not have to do that in the spreadsheet for every number.

Open Voicent Gateway, select Setup > Options > Outbound tab. Set “dial 0 for outside number”. Basically, you pretend you are using a PBX system that needs to dial 0 for outside line. In effect, the 0 is automatically added to every phone number in the spreadsheet.

When I try to request a license in Agent Dialer I get the error: “This operation can only be performed on a machine that runs Voicent Gateway” What do I need to do?

Getting this error in the Agent Dialer indicates that you do not have the “Dialing Hosts” set to “localhost”. You likely have it set to the IP address of the system you have installed the Predictive Dialer on. To resolve this issue go to “Predictive” and select “Dialer Hosts”. In the Voicent Gateway Servers window click the host you have entered to select it and press the “Disconnect” button. Once you have done this, click the host again to highlight it and press the “Edit” button. On the next screen where it says “Host Name or IP” remove the IP address and replace it with “localhost” (without the quotes) and press the “Add” button. Back on the first screen select the host again and press the “Connect” button. Now go to “Help” and “Request product license…”. Problem resolved.

I am looking for something very close to your agent dialer. I have some questions. I have read through the FAQ section, but it appears to be a little old. For example the voice modem recomended is no longer available. Here are my questions:

1) I have a latitude (DEll) D630 that is 2 years old. DO you have a recomendation for a modem?

You probably read some information that is for older releases. Actually, modem is no longer recommended for Agent Dialer. Especially for predictive dialing, using a modem will be cumbersome. It will be so much easier to use VOIP (either SIP based or Skype) for Agent Dialer. When VOIP is used, you do not need physical phone line or a voice modem, and you should be able to use a computer headset for the phone conversation.

But if you have to use modem, such as in the situation that you have no internet connection, you must get a USB voice modem. You should still be able to find Zoom 2985 USB modem online. Also, make sure your computer uses Windows XP.

2) We have another telesales person that has the same setup. Would we purchase two single copies or one?

Either way. But two single copies of Professional edition probably is easier to setup.

If you want one copy, you need to set it up on a server computer. You need to get Enterprise Edition for 2 remote clients. Both of your laptop computers must be connected to the network of the server computer.

I am looking at IP PBX’s. The two that are front runners are Digium Switchvox and Avaya IP 500. Can you confirm that your systems will work with these PBX’s. We will be running a system with 2 T1’s for outbound dialing?

Voicent software supports VOIP directly through SIP. Since SIP is a standard, any PBX system that supports VOIP/SIP extensions should work. To Setup Voicent software to use a PBX system, all you need to do is configure each Voicent line as an extension to your PBX system. Each Voicent line will then act as a softphone on that extension.

Most IP PBXs should support SIP softphone. You can verify that through a simple softphone (like the free x-lite softphone). You could also download Voicent software to test it.

Hi I have Skype and use a D-Link USB VoIP adapter for a phone. I was wondering if there was a way to use the Dialer and the VoIP adapter to the phone WITHOUT having to use skype.

Voicent software can be used with most VOIP services without an adapter. If you use a SIP based VOIP service, you do not need Skype either.

Voicent software can also use Skype directly without the adapter.

An analog adapter is used to connect a regular telephone to Skype or VOIP service. Since Voicent software is capable of using VOIP directly, there is no need for an adapter.

I have broadband…isn’t that the same…I read your stuff about voip but have no clue how to access sip…

No, broadband internet and VOIP are related but not the same. A broadband internet allows you to access the internet, send email etc. But it won’t allow you to make a call to your cell phone. That requires a VOIP service. Please note that some internet service providers offer bundled internet and VOIP services.

In order for Voicent software to make phone calls, it must have a VOIP service. There are many VOIP service providers, and most of them use the SIP standard.

And I use the sip service with the softphone app? And so, how do I actually acquire the sip service?

Voicent software acts as a bunch of softphones. Each softphone acts as a line in the traditional sense. When you have a VOIP service, the Voicent software will link to the service, and the service will connect Voicent softphone to the actual landline or cell phone.

To find a VOIP service that is SIP based, simply google the term “sip service”, or “sip trunk”, and you should be able to find plenty of them. Find the one that offers the best plan for you, sign up with them, and you should be able to use Voicent software with them. The only thing you need to make sure is that the VOIP service supports “sip based softphone”. If you need to talk to their sales people, simply tell them you want a VOIP service that supports SIP softphone, like X-Lite. There is no need to mention Voicent, that might confuse them.

We have been bombarded over the last couple of days with a prerecorded message about purchasing your product. We are a call center and these repeated calls are hampering our business and we are losing money.I need to know how I can get this to stop. Please contact me

First of all, Voicent is a software product vendor, we do not make phone calls ourself. Second, Voicent is also not a hosted company, so our customers are not calling through Voicent.

Our trial verison or shareware version of our product is downloadable from the internet. Most of our customers will download the software before purchasing, and they usually will call themselves for testing. In the shareware edition, there is an embedded message saying: “thank you for testing Voicent product, … to purchase this product, please visit www.voicent.com”. This is probably the message you hear. If you need to verify what we said here, download the software and make a few calls to test.

Since anyone can download the software, and the shareware edition is used to call you, we won’t know who that person is. He is unlikely our customer either, since the ad message still appears. This is similar to the situation that you ask Microsoft trying to figure out who sends you an unwanted email when the email is sent from Microsoft Outlook.

To find out who is calling you, talk to your local policy station. Once you know who is calling you, take appropriate actions.

I’m trying to use the DiamondCard service as a SIP provider. I have an account with them and their soft phone works correctly on the same machine where I have installed the Voicent gateway.

I asked them for some advice, they suggested to remove the stun server parameter. It didn’t solved the problem.

Can you give me more advice on this configuration ?

You must use a STUN server if the gateway computer and the service is separated by a router. In most cases, you need to specify the STUN server. Some service providers, like diamondCard, do not have their own STUN server, you must use a public one like stunserver.org.

For the rest of the account setup, please see the following figure. Here we assume you have 456789 as your SIP account.

What are the exceptions to the FTC’s new telemarketing rule

Starting from Sept 1, 2009, the Federal Trade Commission is banning these “robocalls” to consumers, unless the telemarketer has written permission from a customer that he or she wants to receive these calls. Violaters will face penalties of up to $16,000 per call. The ban is part of the amendments to the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule unveiled a year ago.

Calls that are not trying to sell goods and services to consumers will be exempt, such as those that provide information like flight cancellations and delivery notices, and those from debt collectors.

Other calls not covered by the Telemarketing Sales Rule include those from politicians, charities that contact consumers directly, banks, insurers, phone companies, survey calls and certain health care messages such as prescription notifications. These don’t fall under the jurisdiction of the FTC.

Before the ban, consumers had to specifically join a do-not-call list to avoid prerecorded telemarketing calls. But after Sept. 1, consumers shouldn’t get most of these calls anymore. Consumers already on the National Do Not Call Registry should not be getting live and prerecorded telemarketing calls. But now, all consumers are protected from getting most robocalls. That leaves telemarketers with the limited option of making a live call to someone not on the registry.

I am a telemarketing sales rep, which Voicent product should I use now?

If you are excempt from the above rule, you can use either BroadcastByPhone autodialer or AgentDialer. If you try to sell products and services to consumers, then you should not use Voicent BroadcastByPhone autodialer. That product is mainly used for making prerecorded audio calls.

You should still be able to use AgentDialer to call comsumers who are not on the Do Not Call list. With Agentdialer, you can use either predictive dialing or semi-automatic dialing. The difference of AgentDialer and an autodialer is that you have to sit in front of a computer when the calls are made.

Do you offer a power dialer based on VOIP? and how does it work?

Yes, Voicent Agent Dialer is the product.

Power dialing, also referred as force dialing, is basically semi-automatic dialing. The operation is simple, you load a call list, you press a key to have the system to call the next number on the phone list. The system dials, and connects the, you then talk using a computer headset.

Voicent Agent dialer offers more than the above basic power dialing feature. You can press a key to play a pre-recorded audio message during the call, such as when you need to speak to an answering machine. You can transfer the call to another phone number, and record the conversation.

A VOIP power dialing is simply a power dialing that uses a VOIP service for the phone call. We recommed you download the software and give it a try. It is very easy to use.