Layman Terms

There was a problem which bugged since yesterday. In fact, this was also a problem which bugged us since December last year. But it was not until the customer 'realised' the problem. And the problem?

Very simple. The Voicemail that we intend to sell to them, has a something which their Boss does not like. We have told them long ago, that this is a hardware not software so, there is a limit to how much customisation that can be done. In fact, this took us more than months because they kept flipping from hardware to software and back again. I was not interested in demo-ing it to them as this is already the second month or so that they have not committed. Anyway, the flow is that the Boss wants the system to tell the caller that they can press a button for more options and another button to leave a message rather than the other way round. So, the only solution, according to the vendor, is to record a so-called personal greeting to override the default announcement.

And therein lies the problem because this would mean either we do the recording for them (which the customer expects us to, since its a demo) or they do it themselves (which is highly unlikely due to consistency problem). I told my Boss that unlike the software solution, there is no way to upload the customised announcement to the system but we have to do it manually for each of the 63 mailboxes. Yea, this would take 2 days to complete. And so, my Boss freaked out.

And so, I modified the 5800's earphone output to
connect to my Digital Keyphone's Mic wiring. All done.

Me: Boss! Boss! I found the solution!
Boss: What is it?
Me: I know how to 'upload' the same voice for all mailboxes!
Boss: You mean the system can do that?
Me: No, we do the recording ourselves.
Boss: I know that but we can't go to every phone....
Me: No. No. Trust me. This works. I just use TTS and output to MP3 on my 5800 and play it back through the phono jack connected to the RJ9 which I then initiate the process view DTMF
Boss: . . . . .

At this point, if you do not understand what I was saying, neither did my Boss. What I meant to say was:

I have written a text script which I then use a Text-To-Speech software to produce the recording and then save it as a MP3 file. I can then upload it to my Nokia 5800 and play it back via the headphone jack which is modified to connect to the Keyphone's RJ9 Handset connection. In other words, the output of the Nokia 5800 is fed into the Keyphone's Microphone. Then, I just call into the Voicemail system and use the Keyphone's keypad to control and record the MP3.

And I have to do this to all 60-odd mailboxes but this would cut down the time from 2 days to a few hours. And best of all, I do not have to go to every phone. I have done this before but in the wrong way, which is to record the person's voice on the 5800 and then upload it to my Notebook and convert it to a .Wav format. And the sound that came out was awful even though it was perfect when heard though the headphones. But because this time, the customised recording cannot be uploaded, I have to use this method.