Hi everyone,

I have used a hard dialler in predictive and preview modes in the past and have a some understanding of them.

My question is - what is a soft dialler and what is it best used for? Also, what is 'progressive mode' and what is it used for?

Many thanks for reading.

Dave, the definition of a soft dialler, in contrast to a hard dialler, is becoming increasingly blurred.

It used to be simple; a hard dialler was a self contained dialling system connected to its own telephone lines and, often, its own phones or headsets. In contrast a soft dialler would be connected to an existing telephone system (ACD or PBX) and, using Computer Telephone Integration (CTI), a soft dialler drives the PBX or ACD to deliver the same functions as a hard dialler.

As a generalisation a soft dialler would be a lower cost option as it 'shares' pre-existing call centre technology. For example the incoming lines and call centre seats that are used to meet a morning peak call demand are used in the afternoon/evening to make outbound calls.

Bu today the lines have blurred - traditional suppliers of hard diallers now offer soft diallers and traditional soft dialler suppliers can connect the software server to a Voice over IP (VoIP)data network to deliver a 'standalone' predictive, progressive and preview dialler.


What is a soft dialler best used for? - any outbound application. Because they are fundamentally built as software applications, soft diallers tend to have been built with open data interfaces making it easier to link dialling activity to your business process - for example linking consumer web activity to the dialler, dynamically building dailling lists directly from your IT database.....


What is progressive mode? - yet another blurry definition across the industry. In our (Rostrvm Solutions) case it means that the dialler is managing the campaign using all of the management tools available to a predictive dialler (MIS, data filters, list flow, scripting...) but in progressive mode the dialler does not initiate a call for the agent until an agent is guaranteed to be available ... ensuring that is there is no risk of creating a silent call.

Another way of looking at progressive mode is that it is similar to preview mode but with a zero preview time and (usually) not giving the agent the opportunity to skip or cancel the call or extend the preview time.

Dave,

Ken is right, the definitions are getting extremely blurred. Usually the key difference was that the hard dialler had a dedicated call progress detection card that detected busy tones, number unobtainable, answer machines, etc. However, these days the software based (or soft) diallers use sophisticated algorithms which, with the processing power available on modern servers, can do virtually the same job. Hard diallers tend to be slightly more accurate on things like answer machine detection which can be vital in high volume outbound arenas, but the soft diallers tend to be cheaper.

Hope this helps.
Dave