Voice Call Addon for Ozeki NG SMS Gateway

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2 Table of Contents Voice Call Addon for Ozeki NG SMS Gateway Introduction 3 How to send SMS and Voice Messages 4 Step 1 Enable Voice Call support in Ozeki NG SMS Gateway 4 Step 2 Connect your system to the telephone network 4 Step 3 Configure the voice call feature of Ozeki NG SMS Gateway 6 Step 4 Test the connection 8 Taking advantages of the system 10 Conclusion 11 2

3 Voice Call Addon for Ozeki NG SMS Gateway for SMS,MMS and Voice calls Ozeki NG is known to be a very reliable software when it comes to SMS/MMS messaging. It can handle large load of traffic and it operates seamlessly in the background 24/7. It also integrates very well with the corporate infrastructure as it can send SMS messages directly from a database through various communication channels. With the release of Ozeki NG v3.16, companies will have a new ability to dial telephone numbers automatically and to play in voice messages after the call has been picked up. During the calls the system can play in previously recorded audio or it can read out text using the built in text to speech engine. With the new voice call feature of Ozeki NG you can send information to your customers, employees or suppliers automatically and you can get their attention more efficiently than by sending a text message. To jump to some early conclusions about the new voice call feature of Ozeki NG SMS Gateway, we can state that it is a great addition to mobile messaging. Adding voice messaging capability to mobile messaging systems is a benefit for all. Now the users can select the best suited message type for the given situation. A decision can be made to send out an SMS text message to a mobile phone, to send out a multimedia MMS message containing pictures and various attachments, or to automatically dial the telephone number and to play in a voice message. The voice message can be a previously recorded audio file or text read out using the built in text to speech converter. Text messages (SMS and MMS) In todays mobile messaging systems SMS text messages are often used in a two way scenario. An IT system can send out SMS messages to mobile phones to notify people about certain events, and people can send reply SMS messages back to confirm they have received the message. The message exchange can also be initiated by the mobile user, who sends in an SMS message and receives a response from the system. Ozeki NG SMS Gateway makes this two way communication possible. Voice calls Automated voice calls are appropriate when the mobile user needs to be contacted urgently, or it is important to have an immediate reply or information about whether he got the message or not. The voice call feature of Ozeki NG SMS Gateway can be accessed the same way as the SMS feature. A telephone number and the message text (or a file name to a previously recorded audio file) should be provided. After receiving the request Ozeki NG will dial the telephone number and when the call is picked up by the remote end it will read in the text using the built in text to speech engine (or it will play the previously recorded audio file). 3

4 During the call the remote party can optionally press a DTMF key on the telephone to confirm the call. In all cases a report is returned to the application containing information about whether the call was successfully completed, what percentage of the audio was played, and which DTMF key did the remote party press. This way confirmed notifications and customers surveys can be executed with great efficiency. How to send SMS and Voice messages After you have setup your system, you are ready to send messages. You can specify whether you want to send SMS or Voice by specifying the message type parameter of the message. For SMS messages SMS:TEXT, for Voice calls AUDIO:WAV and AUDIO:TEXT are the message types you can use. The following web pages give an insight on how to send SMS and Voice messages: See Quick Start Guide for more information: Learn how to send voice messages: Step 1: Enable voice call support in Ozeki NG SMS Gateway If you are evaluating Ozeki NG SMS Gateway you can test voice call support immediately, because this features is enabled in the trial version by default. When you purchase a license, you should purchase a standard Ozeki NG SMS Gateway license: owpn=242 plus you should purchase the Voice Call Addon for Ozeki NG SMS Gateway: you purchase the Voice Call Addon, you will receive a new license code that unlocks the voice features.) To make voice calls, you need to connect your Ozeki NG SMS Gateway system to the telephone network. This can be done in three ways: Step 2: Connect your system to the telephone network Option #1: You can use a VoIP telephone adapter. A VoIP telephone adapter is a hardware device that can be connected to your ethernet LAN or to your computer. It makes it possible for Ozeki NG SMS Gateway running on your computer to dial telephone calls. There are VoIP telephone adapters for GSM lines, for standard analog telephone lines and for ISDN lines. (If you don't have a VoIP telephone adapter, you can order one directly from us). When you put this hardware on your Ethernet LAN, it will receive an IP address. You need to configure this IP address in Ozeki NG SMS Gateway to be able to make voice telephone calls through the device. 4

5 Figure 1/a. - Connect to the telephone network using a VoIP telephone adapter Option #2: You can use a SIP Account provided by Internet based VoIP telephone provider. VoIP telephone service providers offer a telephone service over the Internet. They can forward calls to traditional telephone networks and to Internet users signed up to their network. There are many VoIP telephone service providers out there. When you sign up for their service, you will receive a SIP account (an IP address, a username and a password, plus some other details). To make voice calls from Ozeki NG SMS Gateway, you need to configure the SIP account details in the administration screen. Figure 1/b. - Connect to the telephone network using a VoIP service provider Option #3: You can use your existing office PBX if it is a VoIP system. If your office has an IP telephone system, you can connect Ozeki NG SMS Gateway to it through the office LAN. Ozeki NG can log in with a SIP account to the PBX and it can make telephone calls just like any other office desktop phone would. This is a good choice if you have already invested in IP telephony, because in this case you don't need to have a dedicated telephone line for outbound voice telephone calls made from Ozeki NG SMS Gateway. 5

6 Figure 1/c. - Connect to the telephone network through your office PBX Step 3: Configure the Voice call feature of Ozeki NG SMS Gateway Once you have decided which option to use to connect to the telephone network you are ready to configure Ozeki NG SMS Gateway to make voice calls. The Ozeki NG Voice call features is based on the SIP Voice over IP protocol (VOIP). To be able to make voice calls, you need to login as admin and install a "VoIP Autodialer" service provider connection on the graphical user interface of the software. This service provider connection can be installed just like any other service provider connection. To install the connection, click the 'Install' link next to VoIP Autodialer section in the list (Figure 2). Figure 2 Install VoIP Autodialer connection When you have installed the connection, a configuration form will show up on the interface. Here you can configure your connection settings. If you are using an VoIP telephone adapter, you need to add it's IP address and port number. If you are using a SIP account provided by your Internet Voip service provider or you office IP PBX administrator, you need to add your User ID, Display name, Domain Server, Register name and password (Figure 3). A SIP account enables you to connect Ozeki NG SMS Gateway to the IP telephone service. 6

7 Figure 3 Connection settings By clicking on Advanced' tab you can set the Local IP Address and SIP port (Figure 4). If you are unsure, you can safely use the deafult options. By clicking on 'OK' you can save your settings. Figure 4 - Advanced settings Step 4: Test the connection Record an audio message In order to send a voice message, you need to create a.wav file, which will contain your audio 7

8 message. Open 'Sound recorder' (Figure 5) from the All programs/accessories/entertainment section of the Windows start menu. (Please note that you can record your audio message with any sound recording program, not just Sound Recorder, and you can also use any edited sound.) Figure 5 - Sound recorder After you recorded your message, save it by clicking on 'File' menu's 'Save as' menu item in the Sound recorder (Figure 6). Choose where you would like to save your voice message on your computer. We recommend you to use PCM, 8 Khz, 8 bit, mono format when you save the wav file. Figure 6 - Saving recorded voice message Send the previously recorded audio message To send the recorded wav file, you need to create a new message in Ozeki NG SMS Gateway. You can do this by clicking on the 'Compose' icon in the toolbar. In the message composer form please select the AUDIO:WAV message type, then add the phone numbers you wish to call, and enter the file name (Figure 7). Please note, that when you specify a phone number, you need to use the same telephone phone number format you would use when you would dial the recipient from the standard handset. For most voice telephone networks the '+' sign prefix is invalid. 8

9 Try to send a text to speech message Figure 7 - Composing an AUDIO:WAV message You can test the text to speech converter, you need to use the AUDIO:TEXT message format. To send an AUDIO:TEXT message, simply type your message in the 'Message text' section (Figure 8). Your message will be read to the recipient by the built in Text-to-speech converter. Figure 8 - Creating an AUDIO:TEXT message By clicking on 'OK' you can send your message. In the main window, you will see 'Message accepted for delivery' (Figure 9). 9

10 Figure 9 - Message accepted for delivery Taking advantages of the system Once an SMS/Voice gateway system has been installed and connected to the telephone network, SMS and voice call services can be launched and applications can be built. The common goal for these services and applications is to pass outgoing messages to Ozeki NG SMS Gateway and to be able to receives messages from it. To achieve this goal Ozeki NG SMS Gateway provides many interfaces. Common interfaces are: Database: HTTP: SMPP: Text file: Commandline: All of these interfaces can be used for passing both SMS messages and Voice calls to Ozeki NG SMS Gateway. The role of Ozeki NG SMS Gateway in this environment is to forward messages between your application and the telephone network. It is a gateway, that simplifies communication. To launch a service or to build an application the first thing to do is to determine which interface is the most appropriate. The most popular interface among businesses is the Database interface. For example if your company uses an SQL database server (MS SQL, Oracle, Mysql, etc) for storing information, you will probably find it easy to send SMS messages or to initiate voice calls by simply inserting a new record into the database. Ozeki NG SMS Gateway can be configured to pickup outgoing SMS text messages and Voice messages from database tables. Incoming messages can be also inserted into database tables. Conclusion If you would like to improve your business processes with automated mobile messaging, both SMS messages and Voice calls can be used. In either case you can reach the people you want to get in touch with in more efficiently way then through traditional communication channels, such as e- mail, human initiated calls. Ozeki NG SMS Gateway equipped with the Voice call addon gives you the ability to exploit the mobile messaging technology. once you have configure a voice telephone network connection, you can send audio messages with Ozeki NG - SMS Gateway in a very simple way. The Ozeki software 10

11 will dial the telephone numbers one by one and will play in the audio once the call is picked up. This is a very convenient way to make automated telephone calls. It's worth to give a try and evaluate a license, by downloading the free trial version from the following URL: 11