I had promised before that I would write about DTMF and pulse dialing in future. Finally I have decided to write about them!

This article may be ignored by IVR professionals as they must be quite bored with these two terminologies! But many users who have to listen to announcements like “If you are in pulse mode, then please come to Tone mode by pressing # ( Hash), thank you”, for them it might be useful!

Many telephone Instruments/Telephone Handsets has a button on either bottom-side of it or side of it which says P And T on either side. It means Pulse or Tone. Depending on the position of that button, your telephone instrument will generate either pulses or DTMF tones on pressing a key on the keypad.

DTMF stands for Dual Tone Multiple Frequency.  It esentially used to depict the 4X4 Matrix keypad used for Telephone Keypad. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,*,0,#,A,B,C,D. Many telephone instruments don’t have A B C D keys! DTMF constitutes two frequencies which are combined together for denoting a DTMF digit.

Here is the table :

This tables shows that:

When you press Key 1, it generates two frequencies, 1209Hz and 697Hz.  Now, lets unsrstand the telephone operation

It has two state or situation

Connecting state : Here you lift the phone, hear the dial tone, and press the number you want to dial. And wait for either ring back tone or some busy tone! This state can be called connecting state. In this state, when you press the keys, these keys ( the two frequencies ) are transmitted to the exchange. Exchnage in turns try to connect to the number you have dialed.

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Connected State : In this state, call is connected and you are talking to your friends ( girfriends), relatives, business contacts or IVRS! Now if you press a key, it will still produce the same two frequencies and it will be heard by you as well as the person at other end which can be IVRS too! That is how DTMF is used for selectiing various options in IVRS! The tone duration has minimum period to detect and I think its 40ms ON and 80ms OFF. it means it has to generate the tones for minimum period of 40ms for the other end to detect and minimum 80ms of gap for the next DTMF tone!

TIP : If you a smart person, you can use the above information this way!

Suppose you have a landline phone in your house. And your father has put a lock on the keypads so that you can not make any outgoing calls! But you can still make outgoing calls! All you have to do is, using your mobile phone, press the keys of the number you want to call, and then record those tones! ( How do you do it, I wont tell!) Just record those tones, lift the handset, play the recorded tones in front of the mouthpiece of handset and wow, you made a call to that number! I hope I wont be sued for this piece of information!

If the Telephone handset is in Pulse Mode, then when you press a key, it will connect / disconnect corresponding to the number of the key! Suppose, you press a 1, it will disconnect once and then connect again! You can think this as ON HOOK and OFF HOOK! This cycle is for certain duration and the duration is standardized. Its called Break and Connect too.

In connected state too, you can press keys in pulse dialing! It will produce some sound which corresponds to some frequency only! And if IVR can detect that frequency, IVR can detect pulse dialing too in connection state and IVR will stop asking you to come to Tone mode! But most IVR Systems dont support this!

Last information : Mobile Phones dont have Pulse dialing option.

]]> http://www.ivrsworld.com/abc-of-ivrs/dtmf-and-pulse-dialing/feed/ 6 http://www.ivrsworld.com/abc-of-ivrs/steps-for-deploying-ivrs/ http://www.ivrsworld.com/abc-of-ivrs/steps-for-deploying-ivrs/#comments Thu, 19 Feb 2009 13:52:50 +0000 Uttam Pegu http://www.ivrsworld.com/?p=125

I keep getting requirement from many customers to deploy IVR in 2 days time after they have bought the CTI card.

Is it possible to deploy IVR in 2 days ? According to me, Impossible unless you have the following assets in place:

1. Voice Artist both male and female and for at least three language if the IVR is to be deployed in India. ( In India, normally IVR has to be in three languages, 1. English 2. Hindi and 3. Any one of the 17 Languages called MIL ( Modern Indian Language)

2. A Studio with sound recordists available 24 hours.

3. Script Writer.

4. Call Flow designer.

5. Coder who uses either C++ or Any third Party development tools.

For deploying IVR, one should not keep only 2 days! That is the bottom line. IVR may be really a complicated system which may require proper planning. There are then unknown problems like integration of switch! I have a experience with IRIS IVDX switch. We had to literally strugle to implement Call Transfer using a D300 card with ISDN PRI-E .

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Here are few checklist one must complete before they proceed to deploy a IVR system

1. Complete or at least 90% Call Flow in proper Flow Chart.

2. Complete script as per the flow chart.

3. Successful database integration if any.

4. Successful Integration with Switch and CTI Hardware. Or at least keep support from Switch End ready.

5. Make test calls available. Many a times I have found sites where you can not make call to the IVR number or no extension or phone number to make an Outgoign call. Also, when you are implementing features like, play IVR options when all agents extesnions are busy, play “All our customer care exceutves are busy, please wait or press 1 to lodge your complaint”, then you need at least 3 extensions.

6. Normally Switch has many features! If those features are propelry exploited, IVR can be really intelligent. For example, Automatic Change Number announcement.

1. Caller Dials a number say 2345. 2345 was changed to say, 3345.Now SWITCH will capture the DNI 2345, and transfer the the call to IVR number, say, 1200, sending 2345 as CLI.
2. IVR will receive the call, announce that the number 2345 ( captured by IVR as CLI), is changed to 3345, press 1 if you want to listen to the changed number again,  if you want us to transfer the your call to new number 3345, press 2 or disconenct.
3. IVR will transfer the call to 3345.

To achieve the above, SWITCH  has to capture the DNI of the caller and convert it to its CLI, before call is sent IVR. IVRS, being Analog, it can detect only CLI.

It might be little technical, but your SWITCH support will understand them!

7. Recording of all scripts as well as in all languages.

8. Availability of Sound Editing Software as well as Sound Editor.

I hope, I have argued successfully that deployment of IVRS is not a 2day job!

So you have made call to some one and you get to hear some other voice (pleasant, sweet and female! Or a stony, emotionless, monologue by your ‘someone’, “I am not here, please leave your message after the beep. Thank you. BEEP”) asking you to leave a message! Surprised to hear such a pleasant voice? (Are you stumped and look for piece of paper and a pen and then go crazy how the hell you are going to leave your message after the BEEP?) What were you expecting your lovers trademark Hello? Well that was a kind of IVRS – Interactive Voice Response System.

The example above is commonly known as Answering Machine, Auto Answering Machine, Voice Mail, Voice Mail Box, Telephone Voice Recorder, Auto Attendant and many more names. I will keep adding them, is not that why this IVR BLOG is for?
Now, if you ever made to calls to all those toll free numbers that starts with 1800(India) or 800 (for USA) and all?(Well I will definitely add these prefix for toll free numbers for other countries too and by now you know why ). What you hear ? A very pleasant voice, “Welcome to …” Well, if you were calling in fit of rage that your X stuff broke down for no reason and you want it rectified ASAP, the pleasant voice pacifies you! At least it does to me always. (If it does to you too, share me by leaving a comment). Then you are prompted to press some key on the phone, or you are asked to say your reason of the call. It also gives a list of options and how to choose the options. Or you might get to hear a background music while the “Lady” at the other end is talking! Hell, do you realize you are not talking to a lady, but to a machine ? Never thought like that ? Well indeed you talk to a Machine, and you are actually interacting with a very, intelligent machine with a very pleasant voice, who never gets angry, upset, only feel sorry when she does not understand you ( your voice or your key, happens often though) and she says that she could not understand and let you try again and again. Wish you had such a woman as your girl friend or wife?

Now you have realized that intelligent lady is called IVRS – Interactive Voice Response System! How crude! Such a lovely machine and such a technical sounding name!

Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system is widely used now a days. Call centers, Medial trials, complaint management and booking, travel industries. all use interactive voice response system. It automates many business processes and provides useful information over telephone.