Need Add-On For Sending/Receiving Calls or Texts

[Neil]

I'm needing a way to make a phone call (with either a pre-recorded message
or a voice simulated message) through Access. Anyone know of any add-ons
that are available? This will be used if there is an emergency in the middle
of the night. The client wants to be able to call people from a list to make
them aware of the emergency situation.

Also, on a separate note, the database needs to be able to receive a message
back from the person. (It will call one person, and, if they don't respond,
it will then call the next person in the list. But only one person is
needed, so it will stop calling when someone replies.) The message back
could either be a text message, or perhaps press 1 or something if they
answer the phone.

Anyway, that's what I'm needing - some way to automatically call people, and
a way for them to indicate (by phone or text message) that they got the
message.

Thanks for any ideas!

 

[Access Developer]

There was (likely still is) an article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base on
initiating telephone calls (but I don't believe it involved recorded
messagesa or voice simulation). It's possible you could put together the
call technique and software for voice simulation or recorded message to do
what you need; I'd guess that, even easier, would be to find some add-on
hardware and control it from Access.

 

[Neil]

Hi, Larry. Do you mean through a dial-up modem? Yeah, that would be an idea
(assuming they could run a phone line to the computer). Was hoping there was
something that perhaps could do it through the Internet, or perhaps some
kind of add-in that could automate Skype or something similar.

Thanks.

 

[Access Developer]

Actually, I was just remembering that there were devices that both "did the
speaking" and "made the calls", back in the days when minicomputers still
ranged free in the forest primeval of computing -- and figured that there
were/are such devices for today's computers, as well.

I suspect you are correct, that there is software to automate calling via
VOIP and to generate the voice, but I'm not familiar with it -- if it has a
COM interface, it might even be usable from Access.

Larry

 

[Neil]

Actually, I was just remembering that there were devices that both "did
the speaking" and "made the calls", back in the days when minicomputers
still ranged free in the forest primeval of computing -- and figured that
there were/are such devices for today's computers, as well.

I suspect you are correct, that there is software to automate calling via
VOIP and to generate the voice, but I'm not familiar with it -- if it has
a COM interface, it might even be usable from Access.

Larry

Think I may have found something, Larry. This looks like it definitely has
potential. http://www.nch.com.au/ivm/outbound.html

 

[Patrick Finucane]

I'm needing a way to make a phone call (with either a pre-recorded message
or a voice simulated message) through Access. Anyone know of any add-ons
that are available? This will be used if there is an emergency in the middle
of the night. The client wants to be able to call people from a list to make
them aware of the emergency situation.

Also, on a separate note, the database needs to be able to receive a message
back from the person. (It will call one person, and, if they don't respond,
it will then call the next person in the list. But only one person is
needed, so it will stop calling when someone replies.) The message back
could either be a text message, or perhaps press 1 or something if they
answer the phone.

Anyway, that's what I'm needing - some way to automatically call people, and
a way for them to indicate (by phone or text message) that they got the
message.

Thanks for any ideas!

There's this KB article on dialing phone numbers. http://support.microsoft..com/kb/148857.
It's for Access 95/97. It says it might not work for later versions
as they may need to use TAPI. Anyway, see if this dials a modem
otherwise look at TAPI. Since it just dials the number, playing a
message may be another hurdle to overcome. I'd also consider googling
TAPI.

You might want to look at http://www.tucows.com. Maybe there's a
shareware version where you can pass a string from your Access app to
a dialing folder and another app does the dialing a sending out the
message.

Another alternative is to google "how to robocall in Access" and see
if any of those solutions fit your bill. BTW, I saw alternatives,
nothing for Access.

I think you might need a Digiboard to accept input from a phone
("Press 1 for English, Marque Dos por Espanol). Maybe not. With
Access 2007+ there is an email data collection, maybe texting can use
that option.

 

[Albert D. Kallal]

"Neil" wrote in message

Think I may have found something, Larry. This looks like it definitely has
potential. http://www.nch.com.au/ivm/outbound.html

Another really good bet?

Check out Skype:

You can call landline phones, send text (sms) and even automate voice mail.

And it is a com object - it thus should be useable from Access.

And being VOIP then it means your computer or laptop or whatever only needs
internet connection and not a phone plug.

So the setup will allow you to call land lines. You likely have to purchase
Skype out credits, but they are very low cost. And you can set the caller ID
to whatever phone you want to show when you do call land lines.

http://developer.skype.com/accessories/skype4com

 

[Neil]

"Neil" wrote in message

Think I may have found something, Larry. This looks like it definitely has
potential. http://www.nch.com.au/ivm/outbound.html

Another really good bet?

Check out Skype:

You can call landline phones, send text (sms) and even automate voice mail.

And it is a com object - it thus should be useable from Access.

And being VOIP then it means your computer or laptop or whatever only needs
internet connection and not a phone plug.

So the setup will allow you to call land lines. You likely have to purchase
Skype out credits, but they are very low cost. And you can set the caller ID
to whatever phone you want to show when you do call land lines.

http://developer.skype.com/accessories/skype4com

================================================================

Thanks, Albert! The original requirement was to be able to call a person;
get feedback as to whether they can handle the situation (press 1 or press
2); and then call the next person if they can't. So Skype, I think, wouldn't
have been able to handle that (or maybe it would have; not sure).

However, since then, the client has told me that they're considering using
the city's 911 services to call the people. In that case, the program would
only need to call the 911 services number with a message as to what the
problem is. So, do you know if Skype can be programmed to play a
pre-recorded message or (better) use a voice synthesizer?

Thanks!

Neil

 

[Neil]

Think I may have found something, Larry. This looks like it definitely has
potential. http://www.nch.com.au/ivm/outbound.html

A follow-up to anyone reading this, regarding that above IVM link. That web
site had absolutely no contact info for support or questions. All they had
was a support forum. So I registered at the support forum to get
information. However, I then got a message that the admin likes to approve
new people before giving them access to the site. That was several days ago.
Never got anything back. So I'm crossing this product off my list. Support
would obviously be problematic.

 

[Neil]

Thanks!

I'm needing a way to make a phone call (with either a pre-recorded message
or a voice simulated message) through Access. Anyone know of any add-ons
that are available? This will be used if there is an emergency in the
middle
of the night. The client wants to be able to call people from a list to
make
them aware of the emergency situation.

Also, on a separate note, the database needs to be able to receive a
message
back from the person. (It will call one person, and, if they don't
respond,
it will then call the next person in the list. But only one person is
needed, so it will stop calling when someone replies.) The message back
could either be a text message, or perhaps press 1 or something if they
answer the phone.

Anyway, that's what I'm needing - some way to automatically call people,
and
a way for them to indicate (by phone or text message) that they got the
message.

Thanks for any ideas!

There's this KB article on dialing phone numbers.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/148857.
It's for Access 95/97. It says it might not work for later versions
as they may need to use TAPI. Anyway, see if this dials a modem
otherwise look at TAPI. Since it just dials the number, playing a
message may be another hurdle to overcome. I'd also consider googling
TAPI.

You might want to look at http://www.tucows.com. Maybe there's a
shareware version where you can pass a string from your Access app to
a dialing folder and another app does the dialing a sending out the
message.

Another alternative is to google "how to robocall in Access" and see
if any of those solutions fit your bill. BTW, I saw alternatives,
nothing for Access.

I think you might need a Digiboard to accept input from a phone
("Press 1 for English, Marque Dos por Espanol). Maybe not. With
Access 2007+ there is an email data collection, maybe texting can use
that option.