Time Zone Management

The Input Parameters provide Softdial Campaign Manager™ with the information it needs to be able to work out when each contact is allowed to be contacted. This information is used during the pre-processing stage of the campaign. At least one of the below Input Parameters is required for pre-processing, but it is best to specify as many of them as possible:

Number of digits in area code

Set the number of digits specifying the area code from the telephone number data stored in the Database Input Telephone Number column. If you do not wish to allow pre-processing to be based at least in part on the area code of a number, or if you do not know the correct number, then leave this value as 0, and the area code will be ignored.

Zip/Postal code column

Set the column in which zip/ postal code data is stored for each contact. Leave blank if this data does not exist in your contact database.

State code column

Set the column in which the state or country code data is stored for each contact. Leave blank if this data does not exist in your contact database.

Alternative Legislatures File

From V10.5.321 - this field may be used to specify a legislatures file to be used for the campaign where the standard legislatures file is not suitable. For example, when running a collections campaign (in the USA) the normal calling time restrictions do not apply. Alternative calling times can be specified by campaign by adding a custom legislatures file to the Softdial/CM/<tenant> folder and entering the file name in this field.

The pre-processing stage of a campaign can only calculate time zone bounds if the necessary time zone cross-reference (State Codes and Legislatures files) files are available on the Softdial Campaign Manager™ server.

If none of the input parameters are specified, then the campaign may still be run in Time Zone Management mode. For the campaign to run correctly, the Output Parameters described below still need to be set, and furthermore, the data in these columns must be complete, via a previous pre-process operation.

Output parameters specify the columns within the contact database in which upper and lower call time bounds are written during the pre-process stage. The resulting data is then used during the running of a campaign, to limit the calls being made to the contacts who are allowed to receive them.

Any data already in the Output Parameters columns will not be recalculated during the pre-process phase. This feature allows new contact data to be appended to an existing contact database, with only the pre-processing of the new data to do before a campaign begins.

However, the user may wish the pre-processing phase to calculate time bounds for all contacts. For this, a Purge button has been included, to clear all the data of the Output Parameter columns, e.g for updating timezone columns for daylight savings time.

The Purge button deletes all the data in the two columns specified in the Output Parameters. If the parameters have been incorrectly configured, the user runs the risk of deleting campaign data when the Purge operation is executed.

When the user presses Purge, a confirmation dialogue appears.

Only press Yes if the user is absolutely sure that the data is to be deleted.

The Purge button is disabled unless enough information has been provided in the Input Parameters section to be able to pre-process new data in the Lower/ Upper Bound Columns.

Fig. 2 - Time Zone Management - Windows Client

The configuration options for the Windows client are the same as those for the Web client, described above.