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CT Center Dialer Interface Reference Manual

Campaign Building Logic

Build the List:

The first step in campaign building is to build a system list (also known as a GET-LIST) of debtor account numbers to include in the campaign. This list is built somewhat differently, depending upon which build strategy was used in the campaign definition. In any event, the list will have the same name as the campaign name. For that reason, it is important to never use the same name for both a campaign and for a user-selected list.

In each of the build strategies below which use Recall statements, prior to the execution of the Recall statements, they are evaluated looking for the literal “@NWD”. If that literal is found, the Next Work Date (from the CODES file, the ACSDATE item, attribute 1) is substituted for it.

Single Recall Statement:

This is the simplest build strategy. The Recall statement specified in the campaign definition is executed and the resulting list is saved.

Stacked Recall Statement:

The first Recall statement specified in the campaign definition is executed with the resulting list being buffered in memory. Then, the second Recall statement is executed but only against those item-ids in the first list. The resulting list from the second Recall statement is saved.

Select From Multiple Desk Ticklers:

Since Cubs uses a different CF file for each desk’s tickler, it is necessary to use a work file to build a single list. There are multiple steps involved in making this happen, as follows:

- The work file (IAT-WORK-BUILD) is initialized by clearing the file. For this reason, the campaign build program will not allow more than one user to concurrently be building campaigns.

- The program loops on each desk specified in the campaign definition. For each desk, this is what happens:

o A Recall statement is built like this: SELECT CFxxx yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy where xxx is the desk number and the y’s are the “Last part of the Recall statement” as entered in the campaign definition.

o That Recall statement is executed resulting in an internal list.

o Each Dnum in the internal list is written to the work file.

- The work file is selected and the resulting list is saved.

Combine WIPs from Multiple Desks:

Since this method merges debtor account numbers from multiple CF-WIP file items, it is necessary to use a work file to build a single list. There are multiple steps involved in making this happen, as follows:

- The work file (IAT-WORK-BUILD) is initialized by clearing the file. For this reason, the campaign build program will not allow more than one user to concurrently be building campaigns.

- The program loops on each desk specified in the campaign definition. For each desk, this is what happens:

o The regular WIP for that desk is read into memory. Each account is written to the work file with the item-id 999999*9999999, where the first set of 9’s is a sequence number and the second set of 9’s is the Dnum. The sequence number will later allow the first items on each WIP to merge to come first in the resulting list.

o The timed WIP accounts are read into memory and each one is written to the work file using the minimum sequence number of 100000, so that they will sort first.

- The work file is sort/selected and the resulting list is saved.

Use Campaign Generated by CUBS:

Campaigns generated from the Cubs dialer interface software are written to the DIALER-DOWNLOAD file. Each campaign consists of multiple items in that file. This build strategy reads each of the items for the named campaign, extracts the debtor account numbers from that item, and writes each Dnum to the work file (IAT-WORK-BUILD). Finally, the work file is selected and the resulting list is saved.

Like the other build strategies which use the work file (IAT-WORK-BUILD), that file is cleared at initialization time. For this reason, the campaign build program will not allow more than one user to concurrently be building campaigns.

Gather Data for Each Account:

Once the list of accounts to be considered for the dialer campaign has been compiled, each account on the list is considered individually. Some of these accounts may be excluded. For those accounts not immediately excluded, the program will gather data from the account specified in the list, but also (if packeted) data will be gathered from the other members of its packet. All phone numbers are scrubbed to assure that only valid phone numbers are sent to the dialer.

Exclusions:

In the lower part of the Processing Parameters definition screen, there are 3 types of exclusions which are set up by the dialer administrator. They are for specific status codes (D23), desks (D10), and client codes (D1). It the account being evaluated matches positively for any of the specified values, that account is excluded from the campaign.

In the upper part of the Processing Parameters definition screen, there is an optional field for a “Do Not Call” FISCAL attribute number. If an attribute number has been set up and there is any value in that attribute other than “N”, the account is excluded from the campaign.

Also in the upper part of the Processing Parameters definition screen, there is a choice to be made about whether or not to exclude accounts with future next work dates. If that parameter has been set to “Y” and if the account being considered has a future next work date, it is excluded from the campaign.

The final possible reason for exclusion would be invoked if, after evaluating all of the phone numbers for the account and its fellow packet members, there were not any valid phone numbers available for dialing.

Data from Primary Account:

Here are the standard data fields which are included in the campaign data sent to the dialer:

IAT Database Name	Source of Data
ACCT_ID	Debtor account number
LAST_NAME	DEBTOR file, attribute 2.1 (before the comma)
FIRST_NAME	DEBTOR file, attribute 2.1 (after the comma)
CLI_ID	DEBTOR file, attribute 1
CLI_NAME	CLIENT file, attribute 1.1
LOGON	Cubs logon account
DESK	DEBTOR file, attribute 10
CAMPAIGN	Campaign name
BALANCE	DEBTOR file, TOTAL-BAL calculation plus current interest due
CALLBK_PHN	Defined in Process Parameters screen
HOME_PHN	DEBTOR file, attribute 8
EMP1_PHN	FISCAL file, attribute 36
EMP2_PHN	FISCAL file, attribute 40
ALTPYR_PHN	FISCAL file, attribute 45

Adding new data fields can be done by configuration without any need for programming changes. However, the addition of new data fields needs to be closely coordinated with IAT. Therefore, this function can only be done by Cubs Consulting, Inc. personnel, in concert with IAT personnel.

Packet Data:

If the account from the list is a member of a packet, the other members of the packet affect the data in the following ways:

- The BALANCE field is the aggregate amount owing across the entire packet.

- If possible, any missing or invalid phone numbers from the first account are filled in with values from the packet members, but only if those packet members are not closed.

Phone Number Scrubbing:

The following are the rules for qualifying a phone number as valid. If any of the rules are broken for a given phone number, it is rejected:

- The phone number may not contain an exclamation mark (!). The exclamation mark is the convention used to disable a phone number. If a disabled phone number is found anywhere within the packet, ALL other occurrences of that same phone number are rejected from inclusion in the campaign.

- After stripping the non-digit characters (i.e. -, (, and ) ) and a leading 1, the phone number must be either 7 or 10 digits in length.

- All of the digits may not be the same. For example ‘2222222222’ is not a valid phone number.

- The area code may not be ‘999’.

Write Out the Campaign:

All campaigns, both interactive and batch, have a control record written to the IAT-CAMPAIGN file. This record contains enough data to populate the Campaign Query screens for each campaign. Detail campaign records are handled differently, depending upon whether the campaign has been defined as interactive or batch. For the purposes of this discussion, “batch” campaigns are both those defined as “batch” and those defined as “CTImpact” in the Campaign Definition screens.

Interactive:

Each record for an interactive campaign is pre-formatted for transmission to CTCenter and written as an individual item in the IAT-CAMPAIGN file. This allows the IO Interface program to optimize turn-around time by simply reading the next record and submitting it without taking the time to format it.

If the account is scheduled for a timed call for that day or a previous day up to 3 days ago, it gets special handling so that it will get called at the appropriate time. The appropriate time to call an account is massaged depending upon how many days old the timed call request is. If it is for today, the account is sent to CTCenter 15 minutes before the stated time. If it was for yesterday, our first try is 60 minutes early. Two days ago, 90 minutes early. Three days ago, 120 minutes early.

Batch:

Batch campaigns are written out as tab-delimited ASCII files with each account to be dialed listed as a separate detail record. The first record of each file contains the column headings.

When the CTCenter interface is originally configured, there are some folders which are set up on your Cubs host computer. One is CTD (Cubs-To-Dialer) where regular batch files are written. The other is CTImpact where files are written to be transferred to IAT’s hosted CTImpact system.

Debtor Updates:

WIP:

For batch or CTImpact campaigns, in order to keep accounts from being dialed more than once in a day, if the account being added to the campaign is on today’s WIP, it is marked as having been worked.

Updating the WIP is not done for accounts on interactive campaigns because prior to sending interactive campaign records to CTCenter for dialing, the Cubs interface checks and excludes the account if it finds any current activity.

IAT-DEBTOR File:

For all accounts added to a campaign, the IAT-DEBTOR file is updated with the date and the campaign name. If the account is excluded from the campaign for any reason, the IAT-DEBTOR file is updated with the date and the reason for the exclusion.

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