Planning for fax applications on Blueworx Voice Response

Inbound routing

The question of inbound routing is probably one of the most difficult issues associated with fax processing by computer. For shared fax machines, the standard approach is to print all received faxes and then to route them manually.

The possibilities for doing this when the fax machine is replaced by a computer and fax system are:

• Use direct inward dialing (DID) to give each user a different fax number. All the numbers are routed into one or more inbound lines, the actual number dialed being communicated to the fax machine when the call is answered.
• Use DTMF-tone routing. Between the time when the call is answered and the Start button is pressed on the remote fax machine, the caller will enter a sequence of DTMF keys which may be the local telephone number or extension of the desired recipient of the fax.

Which inbound routing method you use depends upon how your fax application has been designed. However, Blueworx Voice Response can be used as a front-end to route inbound fax calls by any method— the call being transferred to a fax line. It is even possible to offer very sophisticated routing capabilities using Blueworx Voice Response voice recognition to select a recipient for an inbound fax. However, this requires support for the one-call fax mode described below.

One-call and two-call fax modes

Fax integrated with a voice application can operate in one of two modes: one-call and two-call.

One-call fax is a mode of operation where the initial telephony operation (the caller interacting with a voice application) and the actual fax data transfer occur in the same telephone call. In this mode of operation, the caller pays for both parts of the call.

Two-call fax is a mode of operation in which the initial telephony and fax transfer parts of the call occur in two separate telephone calls: the caller hangs up after the initial telephony interaction and the fax data is transferred in a second call initiated by the called party.