Chapter 3

Calling Lists (20071010)

Chapter Goal
The goal of this chapter is to gain a familiarity and understanding of the calling list.
Also, introduce the calling list life cycle and relate it to the Campaign Life Cycle.

Chapter Learning Objectives

After completing this section you will be able to:
• Define terminology such as calling list, raw file, host and record
• Verify whether a new download was received and processed
• Run a manual download
• he general concepts of a download and list processing steps

Introduction
You should have some familiarity with the Campaign Life Cycle from the Avaya
University Overview course for APC. Chapter 2 in the Avaya PDS User’s Guide
Volume 1 also discusses the Campaign Life Cycle briefly and is a good reference
point.
As System Operators use their system, some are aware of these steps, others are not.
As a PDS Support engineer, you will often be working on cases with System
Operators where they need clarification of terms or settings that they come across in
planning and implementing their jobs, running reports, and many other steps in each
phase. It is good to refer the System Operator to the user’s guide for reference.
In the following chapters, you will gain experience with the GUI applications. This way
you will be familiar with how the System Operator is expected to use the system.
Each step of the Campaign Life Cycle will be experienced in the course.

• The campaign life cycle relates to the chapters in this course as follows –
• The Preparation steps will be discussed in this chapter.
• The Planning and Implementation steps will be discussed in chapters 4-6.
• The Operation steps will be discussed in chapter 7.
• The Evaluation steps will be discussed in chapter 8.
• The Sustaining steps will be discussed in chapter 9-10.

Chapter 5 of the Avaya PDS User’s Guide Volume 1 gives a brief overview of the calling
list and should be reviewed now.

1
 Course Title

1) The (outbound) Calling List.

How does the PDS know which numbers to dial?
Whether the system is being used for telemarketing, collections, or any other use, a list
must be available of phone numbers associated with names and account numbers.
The PDS will contain a Calling List file containing a number of these “accounts” or
“records”.
The Calling List is a modified version of the records of the business which owns the
PDS. It is a file which is stored on the PDS itself, and is converted from a file typically
sent to the PDS.

• Records
The calling list is made up of the “records” or “accounts.” Each record is one complete
set of information for someone who the business wishes to contact.
The most common example would be that a person, John Doe, has a credit card from
XYZCompany. If John Doe is late with a payment, that business would send the dialer
a record containing various information about him, phone numbers, account numbers,
overdue amounts, etc. The System Operator would then use the PDS to select to call
that record and try to track down John Doe to pay the bill.
The Calling list is made up of however many Records are needed by the business.
Sometimes it is only accounts which are overdue, sometimes it is every account that
the business handles.
The same person could also have two accounts on the calling list. For instance, John
Doe has two credit cards from XYZCompany. There could be two records on the
calling list for John Doe, one for each credit card, since the business will look at those
as two different accounts, and thus have two entries for John Doe in their database.

• Fields
Each record contains a defined number of fields. The field would be one piece of
information about that account, such as John Doe’s first name or street address.
Many are fields from the Business’s database, typically with specific Called Party
information (account numbers, names, phone numbers, etc).
The records contain whatever information the business and/or System Operator has
determined is necessary for them to sort their records into “buckets”. For instance,
they may want to call people who are over 90 days overdue on payments in one group
and people who are over due by 30 days in another. So, they would have a field
which notes the due date of the payment which was missed and the PDS allows them
to sort records into these buckets based on date ranges.

2
 Course Title

• Formatting
The Avaya PDS does a few things when working with records and fields. The system
formats the records to make them easier to read and display. The PDS adds
additional fields that allow it to process the customer records and track calling results.
These will be discussed later in the chapter.

• Number of lists
Some PDS’ have a single list, most have 2 or more lists. The lists can range from only
a few records to thousands, and even up to 2 million, though we suggest having only
as many records as would likely be called in the time between downloads (i.e. if a
system gets a new list each day, then the list should not have a significant number of
records beyond the amount that would be called in a single day).

When a system is in a multi-dialer (or Pod) configuration, any list on any dialer can be
used for dialing on any other system.
When the PDS is used in an Overflow/Intelligent Call Blend environment, the PDS will
also contain an inbound list. This list is similar in nature, but holds information from
any call that is received by the dialer (as each inbound call is received and answered
by an agent, a new record is created). Inbound lists will be discussed later.

3
 Course Title

2) Calling list life cycle

The list has a life cycle, similar to the Campaign Life Cycle (and many parts map back
and forth). Below is representative of the Calling List Life Cycle in a simple form.

We will start the discussion of this cycle on the left side with “Rawfile (Host creates
contact list)”. Two definitions are needed first
• The “Rawfile” is a simple text file which is used by the PDS to convert into
records.
• The “host” describes the source of this list of contacts. Usually this is exported
from the business’ database. Sometimes this list can come from a 3rd party as
well.

4
 Course Title

A) Rawfile (Host creates contact list)

• Rawfile Record
Typically, each record in this file will be a single line, with a carriage return (CR) and line
feed (LF) at the end to signify the next record will begin. An example of what this data
may look like is below.
107292004014302209780005280JOHN_DOEJOHN_DOE200000000002034264267FD00000000000
00000000000000055891113000000006482860107292004014302209860005663JOHN
DOEJOHN_DOE261728494462035370107CX0000000000000000000000000042891

• Record contents
Each record may contain as little information as only phone numbers, an account
number, and names of customers, or can contain a huge amount of data about each
person the business wishes to contact (the “Called Party”). The amount of data
depends on the needs of the business, how they use the PDS to sort their records into
“buckets”, and often how the agents interface with the main database.

B) Rawfile is put on dialer

• Raw file transfer

Typically, the host sends the raw file to the PDS CPU by way of anonymous ftp.
On some systems, the PDS uses ftp to connect to the host and pull the file down prior to
attempting to process the file.
Other connection methods are also available, though less common.
The raw file is usually available early in the morning; 3-5am is a typical time for the raw
file to be received. Then list can be processed.

C) Avaya PDS processes rawfile into callable list

• Processing
The PDS will automatically process the download file at a specified time. Should the
raw file not be available, there is configuration to wait x number of minutes before
retrying.

• Converting the raw record

The PDS takes this “raw” data and converts it, adding additional fields that will track
data like call attempts, call results, how many days the record has been on the
system, and what time zones the phone numbers reside in. With the additional fields,
the list is presented in a way that allows the System Operators to report on what is in
each field, sort the records into buckets to be called by only a particular campaign, etc.
This calling list can be used by the PDS it resides on, or any PDS in the same Pod.
Some PDS’s download the list every day, some only on weekdays, some only once a
week, and some even less often. Some PDS’s do not automatically download the
calling list: the System Operator runs the download manually when the host has a new
list available. Again, there is huge variation in this, and will depend on the needs of
the business.

5
 Course Title

There is an end time configured for each automated download. Should the raw file not
be available when this time is reached, the PDS will stop trying to process the calling
list.

• List Processing details

When the raw file is available and the configuration is set, the calling list is processed.
There are a number of steps involved in list processing. Each step is configured
individually for each calling list and each system.
Taking the raw data and converting it to a useable format is the first thing that is done.

• Raw File to Calling List format

Here is a very simple example to illustrate the conversion of a raw file into a record.
Here is a raw file with two records. The file has two lines, one for each record with a
carriage return/line feed after. If you view the file, it appears as below.
00012345JOHN DOE 42555880080000000000WA160017893410312006
54321000JANE DOE 00000000004255588000WA150000052109202006

This “raw” data is converted into a calling list format. This involves separating blocks of
characters from each record into fields.

ACCTNUM 00012345
NAME JOHN DOE^^^^^^^^^^
PHONE1 4255588008
PHONE2 0000000000
STATE WA
CALLINGCODE 16
AMNTDUE 1789.34^^
DUEDATE 2006/31/10

ACCTNUM 54321000
NAME JANE DOE^^^^^^^^^^
PHONE1 0000000000
PHONE2 4255588000
STATE WA
CALLINGCODE 15
AMNTDUE 5.21^^^^^
DUEDATE 2006/20/09

When that raw data is processed into a basic calling list format and viewed from the
PDS, conversions such as leading zeros from the amount due were removed and the
due date was converted from a MMDDCCYY to a CCYY/MM/DD format. The ^
characters are null values, and are there as placeholders. This conversion will be
discussed further into the course in greater detail.
What is above is a little different in format than what is viewable by PDS Support and
System Operators. It is shown simplified as a brief introduction and example. You will
get to see the fields from the System Operators perspective in the next chapter.

6
 Course Title

In the conversion process from raw file to calling list, many additional fields are added to
each record. These fields will be populated with data that is reserved for the PDS
dialing application (such as a field that tracks which phone numbers are valid and
callable and which are not, and other fields that track when the record is called and
what the calling result was). Some of these added fields are populated in the list
processing steps, some only when calls are made.

• List processing features

Here we will briefly introduce the main features of the download process. They will be
discussed in detail further in the course when appropriate.

There are steps involved in converting the raw file into the calling list. First the fields are
extracted from the raw data as seen above and PDS added fields are created for each
record. This sets the list up as a bare calling list, but it is not yet ready to have calls
placed on the records. The PDS system has a few standard processes that run to
convert this bare list into callable form.

Setzones Each phone number on the calling list will be checked for accuracy
and marked with which time zone the phone number resides in (for
legal calling times to be adhered to). Any bad numbers are marked
as such, and if no good phone number is available for a particular
record, that record will be rejected and marked so it cannot be
called. This is the only required feature of the list processing.
Remove Dupes Each record can be checked against all the others on the calling list
to mark any duplicate accounts as un-callable. *
Days on PDS Each record can be checked for the length of time it has been on
the PDS system (and marked to not be called if over X number of
days). *
Latelist/Latemark Each record can be checked against the prior calling list (list.old)
and any important information can be copied to the new list (such
as previous call attempt(s) results, times and dates, any notes
agents may have added to the account, etc). *
Indexlist The list is indexed for a quick search option. *
Calling list Reports can be run (examples: which accounts were rejected due
reports to no good phone numbers and how many days on the system
each record has been there).

* each of these features require all records to contain a unique field, typically an
Account Number, that differentiates that record from all others. Expect to see this
referred to as “uniqueid” in this course.

• This completes the download and processing of the outbound calling list.

7
 Course Title

D) Calling and updating (Blue and Orange arrows on life cycle drawing)

• Calling
The next steps in the calling list life cycle involve actually placing calls on the list and
any PDS features that update the list (in blue in the chart above). These will be
discussed later in the course.

• Upload
The last steps in the calling list life cycle involve getting the information back to the host
and any reporting (orange steps above). After the calling list is used for outbound
calling and has updates from the results of those calls, an upload can be sent to the
host. A very similar process is run on the calling list in the opposite direction, which
create an upload raw file to send to the host to update their database with calling
results. Some business’ do not do have the PDS generate upload files, as their agent
application allow real time updates to their host database.

Quiz # 3_1
1) Match the following terms with their descriptions. Some terms may match more
than one description

__ Host a) text file created by the PDS system to send to the host
__ Raw file b) final processed list of records available for calling by the pds
__ Calling list c) a single entry in a calling list record, such as PHONE1
__ Download d) text file created from the business’ database
__ Upload e) database external to the PDS which holds account information
__ Field f) sending information from the PDS to an external host
g) sending information from an external host to the PDS system

2) T / F A Calling list MUST be checked for duplicate records.

3) When a record is found to contain no valid phone numbers,

a) the record is removed from the list.
b) the record is marked as not available for calling
c) Nothing happens, the record stays on the raw list
d) The host is notified via anonymous FTP that the record is not valid.

4) T / F An inbound calling list contains records for all inbound calls received by
the PDS system that are passed to agents

8
 Course Title

3) Campaign Life Cycle - Preparation

According to the PDS User’s Guide, the first step of the Campaign Life Cycle is Verify
the Download, Set Users Accounts, and any System Configuration and Set-up. Here
we will discuss verifying the download. The other two steps will be discussed in
chapter 9 (they are not done every day, usually only when setting up a system for the
first time and occasionally thereafter).

• Verify the Download

The first thing that a System Operators should do in the Campaign Life Cycle in the
preparation stage is to verify that they have a download. They should do this each
morning before doing any other tasks with the PDS system.

• Calling List File

Once processed, the calling list is just a Unix file with special formatting (defined in a file
dictionary) that the PDS application reads into memory. As calling is occurring on the
list, updates are made to this file.
The PDS automatically backs up each days calling list at 2am the next morning
(baseline configuration). The backup is a simple copy of the list file to an .old
extension. So, list1 is copied to list1.old. The next morning, the new list1 is
downloaded and processed, which copies over the list1 file. Effectively, list1.old
contains the prior day’s list (this is where the list processing features determine how
many days a record has been on a list and copies any field contents from the previous
day’s list).

So, how does the System Operator know that the list is ready in the morning?

Exercise # 3_1
Open up Campaign Editor, when asked for a login, use “system” as the login and
password (without the quotes). This is the standard System Operator user login.
Note that some PDS’s may not have this user, as the System Operators can create
new users with the same level of access and remove this baseline user account.
Once Campaign Editor is open, you will see the following window

9
 Course Title

Under the tools menu, there is an option for System Telnet.

Choose this and it opens a System Telnet window to the PDS ip address.

• From the File menu, choose Connect (or click the blue button that looks like a
system cabinet on the top left). This opens a “Connect to PDS” box (if you had
multiple systems configured, the drop down would allow you to choose which
system. We don’t have that configured, so there will just be one available). Click
Ok, then use “system” again as the user and password.
It will ask to enter key code (for supervisors connecting to a real system, this would be a
telephone number that the system can call them on so that they can monitor agent
headset calls), use tab to select cancel and hit enter.

10
 Course Title

• You will be brought to the Supervisor Main Menu.

This is a direct interface with the HP Unix CPU, and is commonly known as the
Character User Interface, or CUI menus. These will be discussed in much greater
detail in Chapters 8 and 9, but here we will use them to look at the calling lists.
• Select the option for “Control - Calling lists and users”.
• This brings you to a submenu, select “Count - Count calling list records”. What
you will see here is a simple count of how many records are on each calling list
and the associated list .old.

11
 Course Title

• Verify the Download has arrived

Since most systems get a new raw file/list each day, the best way for a System
Operator to tell that the new list has been processed is that the number of records on
the list will be different than the associated list.old.

Should the System Operator find that the list and the list.old are the same number of
records (as it shows in the screen shot above), they should not start their jobs (unless
they do not get a new list each day).

• What if they did not get a new download?

The system will continue to try to download and process the list at set intervals until a
configured end time for checking for the raw file has been reached. This is very
important to keep in mind!
**COMMON PROBLEM**
If the System Operator starts a job prior to the list being download and then a new list is
downloaded (overwriting the list file), the job will continue running, but will be calling
the wrong accounts.
The PDS and job will not detect that the list has changed and will continue calling
records based on the index it has, and this will cause the system to call the wrong
records for that particular job.
When a job is calling, it is using an index which contains only record numbers that it is
set to call, not uniqueids, names, or phone numbers. For instance, the job is set to
call record numbers 45, 46, 48, 54, 55, effectively the 45th, 46th, etc records on the
calling list. When a new list is downloaded, the 45th and 46th records are likely not the
same accounts. In this example, the job was set to call account balances that are late
on a payment by greater than 50 days. When the job calls record 46, instead of being
an account that is overdue, it may be an account of someone who is not late with a

12
 Course Title

payment at all. This called party would consider the call a nuisance, as their account
is paid in full.

If the System Operator knows that the end time of the download processing has been
reached and they still do not have a new list, they can try a manual download (if they
have the System Administrator login). If the host was just late in sending the raw file,
it may be available at this point and the System Operator can download it manually.

• Manual Download
In the telnet window you have open, use ctrl-x to back all the way out of the menus so
that your connection is closed and your system telnet window is blank.
Use the connect button again in your system telnet window. This time, log in as
“sysadm” for the login and password (again, without the quotes).
This user is a baseline user which has higher privileges than “system” (it is the System
Administrator login, more on this will be discussed in chapter 9). Just like “system,”
this username may or may not be available on a live system.
The menu that you will see is the Administrator main menu.

• Choose “Transfer - Transfer and process records.”

The System Administrator has the ability from here to “Download host records to PDS”
which will check if the raw file is available and processes the list the same way as the
automatic download.
Go ahead and try to process the list, choose “Download host records to PDS”. It will
ask if you are sure, then display which lists are configured and available to download.
Choose list20. You should get a message:

13
 Course Title

FILE TRANSFER FROM HOST TO PDS

ERROR -- No Download Received

This is the message the System Administrator will receive if there is no raw file
available.
• Try it again, this time select to download list1.
Watch the messages for the download processing. Each message indicates part of the
download process discussed above.

• Do we start a job anyway?

If a System Operator does not have a new download, they will have to make a decision
based on business needs whether to start their jobs and call accounts from the same
list that was used the prior day or not. If they need the new accounts, they must
contact their “host” to have them make the file available for the PDS.

In your system telnet window, use ctrl-x to back out of the menus and logout, then close
the telnet window.

Quiz # 3_2
1) What is the first thing the System Operator should do prior to starting their job(s)

a) Set the user account to “system”

b) Manually process the calling list
c) Check whether the list and the list.old have the same record count
d) Use anonymous ftp to download the raw file to the PDS

2) If an automated download is set to run at 5am and the raw file is not available at
that time -
a) the PDS can be set to retry in intervals of X number of minutes until a set
time is reached.
b) the PDS will automatically monitor for the presence of the raw file and
process it when it is available.
c) The host is contacted via an upload that the raw file was not available and
must be sent.
d) there is no choice but to manually process the download at a later time.

3) T / F If a list is downloaded while a job is running on that calling list, the index
file will automatically update to match the uniqueids of each record it was set to call.

14