Setting Up Outbound Telephony for Phone Notification

If you have Polaris outbound telephony software and equipment, you can deliver overdue, request, canceled request, and serials claim notices by phone. (Bills, fine notices, and serials routing notices cannot be delivered by telephone.) You can specify which notices should be delivered by phone at the system, library, or branch level.

Polaris telephony software identifies notices due to be delivered by telephone in the notification queue, retrieves the appropriate patron telephone number, and dials the number. The system recognizes error tones, a live answer, and an answering machine. If the answer is live, the software plays the message and menu options. If an answering machine responds, the software does not play the menu options but leaves a message.

You set up general characteristics of phone notification at the telephony server level. Among other characteristics, you can specify dialing hours that are convenient for patrons, and set dates when patrons should not be called at all. Your system may use one telephony server or multiple servers (typical of a large consortium). If you use multiple telephony servers, the settings can be different for each server.

Note:
Polaris works in a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) environment when you use a compatible POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service, that is, standard voice-grade telephone service) analog adapter. The analog adaptor is connected to to the VoIP system (typically via TCP/IP) and provides standard POTS lines for the Polaris telephony server as required. You will typically need an analog adapter for each phone extension that the telephony server uses.