Snom IVR trees, 4S Frequently Asked Questions Manual

F REQUENTLY
A SKED
Q UESTION

IVR trees on the snom 4S

Media Server

Date: Feb-11-2004
Author: Christian Stredicke
Document: faq-04-02-11-cs

2 snom technology AG

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IVR Trees 3

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In many situations, persons who call
businesses have standard requests like talking
to accounting department, price quotes, etc.
Modern telephone system offer interactive
voice prompts to reduce the number of calls
hitting an attendant.

One way to do this is to use an auto
attendant. This method is especially helpful
when the caller already knows the extension
number. The caller just enters the extension
number and gets connected. A prompt may
give additional help to nd the right extension
("For talking to our accounting department
press 12, for talking to our reservation
department press 13"). However, this kind of
IVR offers only one level of interaction.

In order to build up more complex IVR
trees, the snom 4S media server contains an
additional account type, the "Dispatcher". This
FAQ explains how to use the dispatcher.

1. Dene your IVR tree

As a rst step, you should make a plan
on how the IVR tree should look like. One
good way it to use a spreadsheet tool to list
the necessary accounts, the links to other

accounts and the prompts. Figure 1 shows an
example of such a sheet.

For every submenu, you need to set up
another dispatcher account. Jumping between
the different menus works just like transferring
the calls. The logic of the media server makes
sure that the caller is not involved in the
necessary transfers.

2. Set up the Accounts

The second step is to set up the accounts
on the media server. You set the dispatcher
accounts up like you set all other accounts up
(see the media server manual on how to do
this). You should register the top-level account
which is being called (in the example in gure
1, 800). Usually it is not necessary to register
accounts that serve as submenus as the
media server switches between the accounts
internally without consulting the proxy.
However, to simply the setup procedure, you
should also register the submenu accounts
(you will then be able to call them easily).

Each account has a list of redirect targets
for the keys 0..9, # and * (# is represented
by redirect_target_p and * is represented by
redirect_target_s). If in the submenu that the

Figure 1: Typical spreadsheet for planning the IVR tree

IVR Trees 3

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account is representing a key should have a
function, you need to ll in the destination for
this key.

If you want to refer to another account
(submenu), just ll in the account number
(for example, 801 and 821). The references
accounts don’t necessarily have to be a
dispatcher account type, they can be any
account type (e.g. auto attendant, mailbox,
conference server etc.).

If the account does not exist on the
media server, the IVR will initiate a transfer to
the provided target. That means, you can ll
in any SIP URI as destination number. This is
a simple way to exit the IVR and "jump" to an
external destination (for this, the caller must
support a transfer).

You may also dene which source may
change the recording. The eld "identity"
is used for this purpose. If you have all the
phones in the same domain and use the
default domain name of the media server
(menu Base Settings/General/Default SIP
Domain), you just have to use the extension
number (for example, 401). Otherwise, you
need to use the complete user name (like
[e-mail]).

3. Record the announcements

There are many ways to get voice for
your IVR. Several professional studios may
provide you with excellent recordings at a
good price. See step 6 to put the les into the
right place.

Usually you want to use a voice inside your
organization to record the announcements.
For this, the media server provides a simple
way to set up the recordings.

The rst time you call a newly created
dispatcher account, it will prompt you for a
recording. Just dial the extension number (for
this you should have registered the account)
and listen to the announcement. Press 1 to start
the recording and read your announcement
after the beep. To stop recording, press the #
key. To check your recording, you can press 2
in the menu. To save the recording, press the
# key.

You need to repeat this step for all
accounts.

4. Checking your results

You should check if the setup is all right.
Call the central number and test all paths of
your IVR tree. Maybe you want to change
some of your recordings or the tree setup.

5. Making a new recording

Sometimes you want to change a
recording (maybe you have a new product or
maybe you just don’t like the recording any
more). In order to bring the account back into
the recording state, you need to dene the
identity eld for the account (see step 2).

6. Copying the les manually

If you are recording a lot of les, you may
also manually copy the les into the media
server directory. For this, you need to go to the
installation directory of the media server and
locate the account directories (in Linux, this
is typically ../mediaserver/accounts relative
to your installation directory; in Windows its
typically C:\Programs\snom\mediaserver\
accounts).

You need to save the recordings as WAV
les at 8 kHz mono 16 bit and name them
"annoucement.wav" (please note there is
a typo in the name!). You should nd a le
already in the account directory. To make
the account believe that the recording has
already been set up, you need to make a
short "dummy" recording rst and then place
the recording le into the directory. For very
large installations, contact our support for a
workaround to avoid these steps.

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