Octel - Dail by Name - Need Help 1

[ggranieri]

Hello,

In our Octel system, when a caller selects the option to Dial by Name they would get prompted to enter letters until the system finds a match. Unfortunately, in our company, they need to enter many letters because we have several similar names.

For example if the caller was looking for Jim Smith they would need to enter at least 7 letters because we have a John Smith, Jane Smith, Judy Smith, Jan Smith...etc.

If there are four or less matches the Octel will play a list of names - extensions. If over 4, the Octel will prompt for more letters.

Does anyone know a way to set-up the Octel so that after the user enters three letters they will hear a list of "potential" matches....regardless of how long the list is.

Thanks for your help !

 

[jon24422531]

If this is a Serenade then no, (and I think the same is true of Aria). There are various options on how the 'Dial by Name' works within the system parameters etc:

141 Can use 0 as wildcard
142 Minimum letters required

Depending on how your company uses VoiceMail, it may not be necessary for all users to be accessible from the Name Directory. For example; you may have several Jones's but only one is relevant to external callers using the Directory feature. So for those who are not relevant you could either delete their name, or rename them to something like 'ZZZJONES JANE' so that they are effectively unavailable to the directory.

Jonathan Schofield

http://www.jonschofield.com

 

[kxboy]

I agree with Jonathan S. Not much you can do. If it is an Aria system you have no system options for dial by name. And it works exactly the way you have described.
You can try removing some of the names, for example if you have a Jon Smith, that works in an area that does not get calls, you can put a "1" in front of his name to remove him from the Smith list.

 

[ggranieri]

Thanks for the replies !

Yes this is an Aria system and unfortunately I can not limit the number of users - they all need to be listed on the Dial by Name directory - we have almost 1000 users.

The major objection is the number of letters that must be entered. Many members of upper management have long names so the possibility of spelling errors is high.

I would welcome any suggestions on a way to make the dial by name feature more caller frendily.

Thanks

 

[orypecos]

Could just for the 'Smiths' put the first name first and have that in the announcement to the affect 'put the last name using the letters on your telephone, except for people named 'smith', and it that case put the persons first name.'
This is of course dependant on the integration not requiring the last name being first.

 

[KenMeans]

This may or may not work but the reason they set it up for last name first is because there is more of a difference in last names verses first but you could do a test and set up some mailboxes with first ,last name and see if it matches faster. But if you have 8 people with the first name of Jane then you may run into the same problem however they may only have to dial 5 digits as the last name may start with a different letter.

But other than that i can't think of anything off hand

Ken Means

http://www.tel-is.com

 

[joeOctel]

Another possibility would be to use an OctelDesigner application for the Dial by Name instead of the built in Dial by Name feature. This could move the functionality to a Visual Basic application that would allow more flexibility on how the name matches occurred as well as giving you more flexibility if callers spell the name wrong. Of course this possibility comes with addtional expenses involve with the cost to support the OctelDesigner solution, but if you need it to work a different way then this is an alternate approach.

 

[KenMeans]

JoeOctel is right and Mutare could write one to do this with out any problem we have worked with them before and they are good

http://www.mutare.com

but you would first need an OAS server for the Octel

Ken Means

http://www.tel-is.com

 

[ggranieri]

I'm not familiar with either the OctelDesigner or an OAS.

Can anyone give the "bumper sticker" explanation of their function and a ballpark cost estimate.

While Dial by Name is an important function - I don't know how much funding I can secure for the project.

Thanks again.

 

[joeOctel]

OAS software is the software for the gateway between an Octel 250 message server and client network applications. The software is installed on a customer-supplied Windows 2000 server. Communications between an OctelAccess Server and the Octel message server use the TCP/IP protocol. OctelDesigner is a Visual Basic application written to run on the Octel Access server to control the Octel 250 message server.

The requirements are a Windows 2000 server for the OAS software, a LAN card in the Octel 250 so it can communicate with the OAS server, and the OctelDesigner application. Also the Octel 250 should be at release A.3.11. You would also need OctelDesigner licenses for the application.

You could probably get a Window 2000 server for under $2000.00. The OctelDesigner licenses would be around $4000.00 for 4. You may already have a LAN card in the Octel 250 if it is a newer system. The actual OctelDesigner application (Visual Basic application) is hard to price without knowing the specifics of how it will work but it could be from $3000.00 to $10,000.00.

This is an expensive alternative but if you were to do this then you would also possibly be able to implement Visual Messenger as well if you have client access licenses in the Octel 250 so that might be another selling point. This could also be a stepping point for other Octel Designer applications that Ken Means mentions on the Mutare web site.

 

[jon24422531]

joeOctel, good stuff, well put. Could I add that the same will apply to Octel Serenade 200/300's with probably similar prices etc.

Jonathan Schofield

http://www.jonschofield.com

 

[joeOctel]

Yes, this should apply to the Octel Serenade 200/300 as well. The cost may go up for the OctelDesigner licenses if there is a need for more than the basic 4 licenses. The number of OctelDesigner licenses is based on the number of concurrent callers that may use the OctelDesigner application at any one time. The cost of the OctelDesigner application itself also depends on the complexity of the application. The cost of the Windows 2000 server will also fluctuate based on the "horsepower" of the server.