Campaign Scheduler
From V10 - The Schedule tab/ page (Fig. 1) allows a schedule to be set for the starting and stopping of a campaign.
Fig. 1 - Campaign Schedule - Web client
All times in the schedule are in local time zone of the Windows Server machine where Softdial Campaign Manager™ server is installed.
If you are using Softdial Contact Center™ version prior to V10.6.600, see the advice on starting multiple campaigns at the same time, at Starting and Resuming a Campaign.
Using Scheduler
Enabling/ disabling a schedule
Prior to V10.6.890
To enable/ disable scheduling for the current campaign, check/ uncheck the Schedule running of this campaign checkbox.
Scheduling is disabled by default (i.e. the checkbox is unchecked) when creating a new campaign.
From V10.6.890
The single checkbox in previous versions has been replaced with 2 checkboxes (Fig. 1):
- Schedule start campaign at start of day
- Schedule stop campaign at end of day
This offers greater flexibility in the automation of start/ stop events, and interacts with the times in Schedule settings (see
If Schedule start... is
- checked, the times set in the Start time column are acted upon. If the campaign is already running, the scheduled Start will be ignored
- unchecked, the times set in the Start time column are ignored
If Schedule stop... is
- checked, the times set in the End time column are acted upon. If the campaign is not running, the scheduled End will be ignored.
- unchecked, the times set in the End time column are ignored.
Setting start/ stop times
The Softdial Campaign Manager™ scheduler has 2 events:
- start - will start the campaign if it is stopped
- stop - will stop the campaign if it is started
To set start/ stop times:
- click on a cell
- pick the desired time from the dropdown (15 minute resolution)
See also Setting allowed calling times below.
To disable a single event, set the time to 00:00:00
Setting allowed calling times
From V10.6.890 - the checkbox Allow 24-hour operation (Fig. 1) gives two options regarding allowed calling times:
1) Checked - no further restriction
This allows calls to be initiated whenever a campaign is running and there are agents logged in.
In the example in Fig. 1, the campaign is started at 09:00 on Monday (set in Schedule settings). Calls will be initiated whenever agents are available until the campaign stops at 21:00 on Friday.
2) Unchecked - further restriction
Extra options are revealed (Fig. 2) to further restrict allowed calling times to within the specified start/ end times (the 'calling day').
Fig. 2 - Setting the Calling Day
Start
In the example in Fig. 2, the campaign will be started at 08:00 (set in Schedule settings). Agents can be logged in and working in other areas, but no calls will be initiated until 09:00 (set as Start of calling day).
Stop
The campaign will stop at the earliest time set in either Schedule settings - End Time or End of Calling Day.
In the example in Fig. 2, the earliest setting is End of Calling Day at 19:30, so the campaign will stop then.
Implications for Retry Options settings
From V10.6.890 - the settings in Retry Options for Don't reschedule before/ after have been removed and are governed by the settings here.
If any time boundaries set in Retry Options fall
- outside the 'calling day' set here, they will be further restricted to the 'calling day'
- inside the 'calling day', they will be respected
Rules for scheduling
- A scheduled event may not be processed until up to 50 seconds after the specified time. This means that events for a single campaign spaced less than 50 seconds apart may not be processed.
- The scheduler requires a minimum of 2 events to operate. If it has 1 or 0 events, the scheduler will operate as though the scheduling is turned off for that campaign.
- After changing a campaign schedule, scheduler does not immediately act upon the schedule, i.e. the current state of the campaign remains unchanged. The scheduler will process the next pending event at the due time.
- After start of the Softdial Campaign Manager™ service, Scheduler processes the last event according to the current time. i.e. if the last event is a start event, the campaign will start running.
Scheduling and linked campaigns
The schedule applies to each individual campaign, i.e. a scheduled event will be processed for the individual campaign only. This allows you to schedule the use of separate number lists as you wish.
If you want to keep the same schedule for both link master and links, you should either
- enter the same schedules for each campaign, or
- make use of the template facility to duplicate the schedules.
Scheduled events performed on link and link master campaigns differ as follows:
| Campaign type | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Link master | Link | ||
| Scheduled event |
Start | will start the link master only | will start the link. If the link master is not already started, the link master will start, too |
| Stop | will stop the link master only. Links will remain running |
will stop the link only. The link master will remain running |
|