VOIP predictive dialer

I have download Voicent software and installed Agent dialer. By reading the setup guide, it seems you recommend VOIP service for predictive dialing. Could you please elaborate more on why that is the case?

OK. The discussion below gets somewhat technical.

First, we definitely not recommend using modem/analog phone line for predictive dialing. The modem cannot actually transfer a call in predictive dialing mode. Since the modem must dial another phone number to transfer, and the time it takes to connect the transferred number is really long. During that time, the callee is likely to hangup. So in order for a modem line to work, you must pickup the phone, hangup the phone, press a button to notify the pragram, etc, the operation is awkward.

You will not have the above mentioned problem if you are use VOIP, such as Skype or SIP. The main problem with Skype is with audio:

1. For some machines, the detection of human voice may take 5 to 10 seconds when skype is used. This is because Skype instance not always transfer the audio stream to Voicent program in a timely manner. Since Voicent has no control over when this audio is being transferred, some calls will result in long delay of calls being connected. You can normally tell when this happens. After the phone dials a number, you hear someone say “hello” from the computer speaker. This means Skype has not transferred the audio to Voicent program. Without the audio, Voicent program cannot tell whethr someone answers the phone or not.

With SIP, since the phone call is made from Voicent gateway, the audio stream is immediately available to the Voicent program. This results in fast detection and call transfer.

2. You may hear a lot of static when Skype is used. Skype limits the transferring of the call audio stream to a TCP port. This forces Voicent program to use TCP as the mthod to transfer audio to a remote agent. Technically, TCP is not a good transport for real time audio. With SIP, we use UDP for the call audio. UDP is a much efficient transport method than TCP, thus the audio quality will be normally better for remote agent when SIP is used. This is especially true when the agent is working from a remote site.

In summary, it is strongly recommend to use SIP for predictive dialing.