Auto-Dialer Addon
Description
Auto-Dialer addon lets you call an array of numbers automatically. When call is answered, receiver hears the audio message or he is in standby mode, it depends on what is set in Auto Dialer actions (PLAY / IVR / WAIT).
This functionality can be used in telemarketing.
Usage
When Auto-Dialer (AD) is installed, every user can use it.
From User
The user can find the AD menu under PERSONAL MENU -> Various -> Auto Dialer.
The main window shows the user's campaigns:
The user can Activate or Stop the Campaign by clicking the 
or 
button near the Campaign's status.
A Campaign can only be Activated if it has free (not-called) numbers AND some Actions.
So please, before activating a Campaign, import some Numbers and create Actions.
NOTE: Auto Dialer starts in 5 minutes, so when you are starting this add-on, you need to wait 5 minutes before it starts.
Campaigns
Auto-Dialer can be found under PERSONAL MENU -> Various -> Auto Dialer.
Add new campaign allows you to add a new campaign:
The important fields here are:
- Start/Stop Times – when calls will be made.
- Max Retries – how many times to retry an unsuccessful call.
- Retry Time – how many seconds the system should wait to retry the call.
- Wait Time – how long to wait till the call is answered. This field by default is 10 and cannot be made less. This is done in order to
prevent annoying multiple calls from Auto Dialer to the end user if for example "Wait Time" is configured as 5 seconds.
- Device – each Campaign should be assigned to a Device in order for MOR to bill the call.
- CallerID - what CallerID to put on calls.
Numbers
Click on 
in the Numbers column to check numbers which will be dialed on campaign:
The user can import phone numbers from a TXT file. Numbers should be in correct dialing format and not duplicated.
Example of numbers file:
442012345678 442087654321 442054987123
In a new Campaign there are no numbers, so click on 
Import numbers from file and select the file to upload:
After uploading the file, you will see status of imported numbers:
You can delete all numbers by clicking 
Delete all numbers. Also you can export details by clicking 
Export IVR/poll results to CSV
If a number is Completed, it is possible to reactivate it (tell the system to call it again) by clicking the 
icon near the number.
Actions
Click 
in the Actions column to access the Campaign's actions:
In this window, the user programs the Actions for the Campaign:
Types of Actions:
- WAIT – how many seconds to wait.
- PLAY – play a file.
- IVR - send call to IVR. It can be used to connect to a real person and give the callee a greater choice. For example, it is possible to play an advertisement and tell the user to press '1' to talk with a real person about this advertisement or similar.
- NOTE: This action is only available for admin and Reseller PRO, but not for users (they can't have their own IVRs).
Redial all failed Calls
You can redial all failed calls:
From Admin
When Auto-Dialer (AD) is installed, Admin can find it under the ADDONS –> Auto Dialer menu. Here he can get a view of all users' campaigns:
The important information for each Campaign is:
- Status – is the Campaign Active or Stopped?
- Run time – tells when calls will be made.
All other fields are self-explanatory.
It is possible for admin to see the Actions for users' Campaigns. Just click on the Actions button. However he cannot make any changes to the user's campaign.
Workflow
Each 5 minutes, "cron job" is activated to check whether any campaigns are activated.
If there are some active campaigns, the script creates call files for the future.
It puts calls in Time Period in equal time periods, to balance the workload for Asterisk.
For example, if you have 10 calls to make, the script will execute them in 6s intervals to start all calls in 1 min time.
Variables in /var/lib/asterisk/agi-bin/mor.conf:
calls_one_time - how many calls to distribute per one minute. (PLEASE NOTE, this value is not for simultaneous calls! It has a very different meaning, which is explained below).
cron_interval - the interval of time (in minutes) in which we should 'put' calls. Do not set value higher than "4" as it would cause overlapping of Autodialer sessions.
Example #1:
calls_one_time = 10. cron_interval = 1.
That means that in 1 minute the script will put 10 calls. So each call will be executed at a 6s interval:
1st call: 0s 2nd call: 6s 3rd call: 12s .... 9th call: 54s 10th call: 60s
Example #2:
calls_one_time = 5. cron_interval = 2.
That means that in 1 minute the script will put 5 calls and it will do so for 2 minutes. So each call will be executed at a 12s interval:
1st call: 0s 2nd call: 12s 3rd call: 24s 4rd call: 36s 5th call: 48s 6th call: 60s 7th call: 72s 8th call: 84s 9th call: 96s 10th call: 108s
Limitations
Currently MOR does not support such functionality as to issue the Auto Dialer campaign only in that Asterisk
server to which the device belongs (if you have multiple Asterisk servers). Now MOR just issues the campaign on both servers, if you want it to
run only on one server you need to just disable the cron job on one of the servers. Cron can be found in
/etc/cron.d/mor_ad
Logs
Autodialer log can be found here:
/var/log/mor/mor_ad_cron.log
Problems
- MOR Server Speedup (to get more calls by AD)
- I have a problem with Auto Dialer
