23. World Class Routing – part 4 – ARS Digit Conversion

Well, first I have to apologize for not writing for so long. We've been blessed with a kid on Dec 27th so there was not a lot of time to write. However, things settled down a bit now so we can carry on with the training and all.

In the previous posts we spoke about ARS and what is. A small part of ARS that has to be touched and that is used heavily in North America is ARS Digit Conversion. It is used for converting digits that the user dials.  You might question why something like this is needed and in what situations? Well, put it this way: What is a user wants to dial 911 but because he or she is scared dials 911 rather than 9911? Remember from the ARS discussion we have a “magic” digit that usually is a 9 in North America. So if a user dials 911 from his phone, well… first 9 is the feature access code while the 11 is the actual dialed number. A correct number would be 9911 so then the first 9 would give the user outside tone while 911 would be the number. However, in a panic situation the user could dial 911 rather than 9911. This is where ARS digit conversion comes into play and you can “fool” the system by telling him: if the user dials 11 then add a 9 and make that a 911.

So how can you achieve the following scenario? Well the ARS digit conversion table can be brought up by typing the command change ars digit- conversion 1 for example.

Here are the fields that need to be completed to achieve the scenario above:

Matching pattern: The number that you wish to change will have the same digits always and the length of the number will always be between a min and a max. Fill out this field with the pattern that you are listening for replacing
Min: Minimum length of the pattern
Max: Maximum length of the pattern (when to execute the digit-conversion)
Del: When the pattern is found and max is achieved how many digits do you want to replace?
Replacement string: Type here the number that you want to insert or remove.

So for our case the scenario issue the command change ars digit-conversion 1

Matching number: 11 (remember the user wants to dial 911 but only 11 gets to the system)
Min: 2
Max: 2
Del: 2 (we will delete the whole number and replace it with 911)
Replacement string : 911 (no need for another 9 here, we already have a ARS tone at the digit-conversion faze)
Net : ARS.