Purpose

Use the collect digits command so that the caller can enter up to 16 digits from a touch-tone or an internal rotary phone. Use the command also so that the vector can retrieve Caller Information Forwarding (CINFO) digits from the network.

Syntax and valid entries

Requirements

The Avaya Call Center Deluxe package or Avaya Call Center Elite package must be installed. The command is also available with the Automated Attendant Right To Use (RTU).

You must use a minimum of one TN744 Call Classifier circuit pack or TN2182 Tone Clock circuit pack to collect digits from a caller. You must use these packs unless you use the command to collect digits returned by a Voice Response Unit (VRU) or the digits sent by the network.

Use the Vectoring (CINFO) feature to collect Caller-Entered Digits (CED) or Customer Database Provided Digits (CDPD) from the ISDN or AT&T network Intelligent Call Processing (ICP) service or equivalent.

Operation

The collect digits command has two modes of operation:

• Collecting digits

• Collecting CINFO digits

Collecting digits

You can use the collect digits command so that a caller can enter digits from a touchtone or an internal rotary phone. You can also use an announcement to prompt the caller to enter the digits. If the caller enters incorrect data, you can administer an announcement to prompt the caller to enter an asterisk (*). When the caller enters an asterisk, the system deletes the digits collected for the current collect digits command and restarts the digit collection.

Specify the maximum number of digits that the system can accept from a caller. If the caller enters fewer digits than the administered limit, use an announcement command to prompt the caller to enter a pound (#) sign as an end-of-dialing indicator. If the caller fails to enter the pound (#) sign, an interdigit time out occurs. The time out ends the collect digits command and the digits collected before the time out are available for subsequent vector processing. If all the digits strings for all the variations of a specific collect digits command are ended with the pound (#) sign, the system counts the pound (#) sign as a digit. Therefore, the number of digits collected must include any # to be collected. Otherwise, the terminating # is kept as a dial-ahead digit and is processed by a subsequent collect digits command.

Processing of the command requires that a Touch-Tone Receiver (TTR) be connected. If the call originates from an internal rotary phone, no TTR is required. TTRs accept the touchtone digits that the caller enters. The system automatically connects the TTRs.

The connection of the announcement prompt is skipped and digit collection begins when one of the following conditions is true:

• Dial-ahead digits exist.

• No announcement is administered for the collect digits step.

• Announcement administered for the collect digits step does not exist.

Otherwise, an attempt is made to connect to the administered announcement. If the announcement to be connected is busy and if the queue for the announcement is full, or if no queue is available, the calling party continues to hear the current feedback. The system waits 5 seconds and tries to reconnect the call to the announcement. This process continues until the call is successfully queued or connected to the announcement, or until the calling party disconnects from the call. If the queue for the announcement is not full, the call is queued for the announcement.

If the announcement to be connected is available, either initially or after queuing, or after a system retry, any previous feedback is disconnected and the calling party is connected to the announcement.

While the announcement is playing, or while the call is being queued for an announcement, the caller can enter digits at any time. This causes the announcement to be disconnected or removed from the queue and the digit collection phase to begin. If the caller does not enter any digits during the announcement, digit collection begins when the announcement completes.

The interdigit timer starts with digit collection unless the TTR is already in the timing mode, that is, the dial-ahead capability is active and the TTR is not disconnected.

Digits are collected as dialed digits for the current collect digits command or as dial-ahead digits dialed because of a previous collect digits command for the next collect digits command. Digit collection continues for the current command until one of the following conditions exists:

• Maximum specified digits are collected.

• Pound (#) sign is collected.

• Inter-digit timer expires.

The interdigit timer is used for the digit entry time out and is set to 10 seconds by default. However, the timer can be set to a value between 2 to 10 seconds using the Prompting Timeout field on the Feature-Related System Parameters screen.

During digit collection, if the system encounters an asterisk (*), all digits collected for the current collect digits step are discarded. If additional dial-ahead digits occur after the asterisk (*), the digits continue to be processed. If no such digits exist and if no TTR is connected, vectoring continues at the next vector step. If a TTR is connected, the caller can start entering digits again. In such a case, the announcement is not replayed and the interdigit timer is restarted.

When digit collection is completed and if a TTR is connected for a touchtone phone, the interdigit timer is restarted to detect a time out for releasing the TTR. Vector processing then continues at the next vector step. However, Communication Manager continues to collect any subsequent dialed digits, including the pound (#) sign and asterisk (*) digits, to allow the dial-ahead capability. The additional dial-ahead digits are saved for subsequent collect digits commands providing the caller with a means to bypass subsequent unwanted announcement prompts. A single pound (#) sign can be collected and tested by subsequent route-to...if digits or goto...if digits commands. Alternately, any collected digits from callers or CINFO can be passed to a host with an ASAI or forwarded to another site with the Information Forwarding feature enabled. Collection of dial-ahead digits continues until one of the following occurs:

• Vector processing stops or is ended.

• The sum of the digits collected for the current collect digits command and the dial-ahead digits exceeds the Communication Manager storage limit of 24. Any additional dialed digits are discarded until storage is freed up by a subsequent collect digits command.

  Note:

  Any asterisk (*) or pound (#) sign count towards the 24-digit limit, as do any dial-ahead digits entered after the asterisk or pound sign digit.

• The TTR required by the touchtone phone user to collect digits is disconnected. This process occurs under the following conditions:

  • Successful or unsuccessful route-to number step is encountered during vector processing except where the number routed to is a VDN extension.

  • Successful or unsuccessful route-to digits step is encountered during vector processing except where the number routed to is a VDN extension.

  • Successful or unsuccessful adjunct routing link step is encountered during vector processing.

  • Successful or unsuccessful converse-on step is encountered during vector processing.

  • 10 second time out occurs, during which time the caller does not dial any digits, asterisks (*) or pound signs (#)

  • A collect ced/cdpd digits step is processed.

When the TTR is disconnected due to a route-to number, route-to digits, converse-on, or an adjunct routing link step, all dial-ahead digits are discarded, that is, following a failed route-to, converse-on or adjunct routing link step, a subsequent collect digits step always requires the caller to enter digits.

Dial-ahead digits are available for use only by subsequent collect digits commands. The digits are not used by other vector commands that operate on digits, for example, route-to digits, or goto...if digits. In addition, the digits are not displayed as part of the callr-info button operation until the digits are collected with a collect digits command.

Collecting CINFO digits:

With collect digits step, you can collect the CINFO digits from the network. When a collect ced or cdpd digits step is processed, the system retrieves the first 16 ced or cdpd digits from the ISDN User Entered CODE (UEC) Information Element (IE) that is associated with the call. The command puts the digits in the collected digits buffer. All existing digits in the collected digits buffer are erased. If a TTR is connected to the call from a previous collect digits step, the TTR is disconnected.

If the ced or cdpd digits contain invalid digits, that is not 0-9, *, or #, the digits are not put in the collected digits buffer. However, the collected digits buffer is still cleared and if a TTR is attached, the TTR is disconnected.

If no ced or cdpd digits are received from the network when the collect ced digits or collect cdpd digits step is reached, the step is skipped. However, the collected digits buffer is still cleared and if a TTR is attached, the TTR is disconnected.

An asterisk (*) in the collected digits is treated as a delete character. Only the digits to the right of the * are collected. A # is treated as a terminating character. Only the # and the digits to the left of the # are collected. A single # is put in the collected digits buffer.

The number of ced or cdpd digits to collect cannot be specified in the collect digits step. If less than digits are present, all digits are collected. If more than 16 digits are present, the first 16 digits are collected and a vector event is generated. The CINFO ced and cdpd digits can be used with any vector step that uses the digits in the collected digits buffer. When ced or cdpd digits are collected, the digits can be viewed either on a two-line display or by using callr-info.