Services

A service is a voice telephony application running on the system and used by the virtual assistant. The system comes with a built-in suite of services such as Virtual Receptionist, Virtual Assistant, Smart Number and Voice Alerts.

As the System Administrator, you can develop and deploy custom interactive voice recognition (IVR) applications written in the VoiceXML scripting language and use them together with the built-in voice services. Make sure that custom services are well tested before activating them. Services with errors may negatively affect the stability of your system.

From the Services page you can:

  1. Add a service.
  2. Delete services.
  3. Modify the settings of existing services.
  4. Make services available to all customers by default or not.
  5. Export the details of one or several services in CSV or PDF format.
  6. Sort and search services.

Interface Overview

The Services page displays the list of services on the system with the following information:

COLUMN HEADING

DESCRIPTION

Checkbox

 Check the box next to one or several services to apply certain actions (ex: export list).

Service Name English

Service Name French

 Name of the service in English and French. This is the name that users can see at various locations in the Web portal. Clicking this link opens the Service Settings.

Service URL

 The service URL indicates the IP address where the voice application is located. Clicking this link opens the Service Settings.

Type

 Displays the type of service which can be one of the system built-in services or a custom service added by you.

Default

 Flag indicating if the service is available by default to all new companies () or not.

Delete Icon

 Click the icon to delete a service. See Delete a Service for details.

Built-in Services

The system comes with the following list of built-in services:

  • Virtual Assistant: This is the speech-enabled personal assistant service available to all users. It understands speech and touchtone commands and performs a variety of communications and messaging functions such as reading and sending voice messages and emails, checking calendar and scheduling appointments, calling contacts and dialing phone numbers, forwarding calls, etc. The service uses speech technology combined with modern IP telephony and messaging to provide safe mobility and enhanced productivity on the road.
  • Virtual Receptionist: This is a speech-enabled auto-attendant service that answers company calls, asks callers for the name of the person or service they want to reach, and transfers them to the appropriate person.
  • Smart Forwarding: With this service, users can decide how the virtual assistant should route their incoming calls based on their status, who is calling, and the date and time of the call.
  • Duty Agent: This service answers and forwards general inquiry calls of company to designated employees based on a call distribution schedule. The service is configured to automatically generate a schedule in blocks of time (shifts) and assign one of the designated employees to be on duty for each block. This Duty Agent service is particularly useful in a commission-based sales environments where callers who do not already have a representative are automatically directed to the agent on duty.
  • Smart Fax: This service receives and stores faxes for a specific phone number and user. After receiving a fax, the Smart Fax service converts the fax to a PDF document, stores it in the user's mailbox and then emails it as an attachment to the user. This enables users to access and manage faxes in their Inbox, on their Web portal, on their mobile app and by phone using their virtual assistant.
  • Voice Alerts: This service makes scheduled calls to users for different purposes such as reminders to do certain tasks, end a meeting, wake-up calls, call backs to save on long distance charges, etc. Users can schedule single or recurring reminders. Each reminder defines the voice or text message to be played by the virtual assistant to the user after answering the call and the option to ask for user commands or not.
  • Voice Mail Center: This service records and manages voice messages for users. Voice messages are saved as .WAV audio files in the user's mailbox on the system and then emailed as attachments to the user. This enables users to access and manage voice messages in their Inbox, on their Web portal and by phone using their virtual assistant.
  • Voice Recorder: This service enables users to record audio messages by phone. The Voice Recorder can be used to record company greeting messages, user names, voice mail greetings, menu prompts for the virtual receptionist service, etc, 

Add Services

Use the open VoiceXML to develop custom interactive voice response (IVR) applications then deploy them with the built-in system services to make them available to your customers. Make sure that your custom applications are well tested before activating them. Services with errors can negatively affect the stability of your system. 

To add a new service:

  • From the main menu, click Services.
  • Click the New button.
  • Fill in the fields as required. See Service Settings for details.
  • Click Save to create the new service entry.

Delete Services

Warning: Deleting a service will affect ALL users using this service.

Only custom services can be deleted. Although built-in applications cannot be deleted, you can choose to make them unavailable. See Default Services for details.

To delete a custom service:

  • From the main menu, click Services.
  • Click the icon in the row of the service you want to delete.
  • A confirmation window opens.
  • Click OK to confirm the deletion.

Modify Services

To modify the settings of a service:

  • From the main menu, click Services.
  • Click any information in the service row to open the service properties page.
  • Change the fields as required. See Service Settings for details.
  • Click Save to update the service properties.

Default Services

You can make a service available to all new companies by default or reserve it for specific accounts using the default option checkbox in the service settings. Built-in services such as Virtual Receptionist, Virtual Assistant, Smart Number and Voice Alerts are available to all new companies by default, but custom IVR applications are usually reserved for specific customers.

To make a service available to all new companies by default:

  • From the main menu, click Services.
  • Click any information in the service row to open the Service properties page.
  • Check the Default box.
  • Click Save to update the service properties.

Service Settings

Service URL

Enter the service URL indicating the IP address where the VoiceXML start page of the voice application is located. Example: http://localhost/services/mynewservice.aspx.

Service Type

This field is the type of service which can be one of the system built-in services or a custom service added by you.

When creating a new service, the only option available is Custom.

The service type of built-in applications cannot be modified.

Service Name

Enter the service name in English and in French. This is the name that users see at various locations in the Web portal.

Accept Call Transfers

Check the Accept Call Transfers box to indicate that the service handle calls from another voice application session. Uncheck this box if the service can only handle calls it answered itself.

This option is directly tied with the way the voice application has been developed and tested. 

Default

Check this box to make the service available to all new companies by default. Uncheck this box to reserve the service for specific customers. 

Export Services

You can export the list of services (full or partial) to a CSV or PDF file.

Export Services to a CSV File

To export the list of services to a CSV file:

  • From the main menu, click Services.
  • Select the services to export:
    • One or several services: Check the box next to the names of services to export.
    • All services: Check the box at the top of the list next to the Service Name header. All boxes will automatically be checked.
  • Click the  CSV button to open the export window.
  • By default the file is named Services.csv and ready to be saved to a directory on your computer.
    • Change the file name if needed but keep the CSV extension. Example: rename Services.csv to MyServices.csv.
    • Make sure that you are saving the file to the desired directory.
  • Click Save.

Export Services to a PDF Document

To export details of services to a PDF file:

  • From the main menu, click Services.
  • Select the services to export:
    • One or several services: Check the box next to the names of services to export.
    • All services: Check the box at the top of the list next to the Service Name header. All boxes will automatically be checked.
  • Click the  PDF button to open the export window.
  • The PDF document will automatically open in a new window ready to be saved to the default directory on your computer.

Search Services

You can use keywords to quickly search and find services.

The first row of the list contains blank fields where you can type a keyword to search for a specific service. For example, type "Alerts" in the Service Name column to view all services containing the word "Alert".

To remove the search filter, delete the keywords typed in the first row and press enter.

Sort Services

You can sort the list of services alphabetically or numerically (based on the type of data in the columns) by clicking on the column heading in the table.