Rob's Response Point

My situation

2009-05-08T23:04:00Z

Microsoft announced a round of layoffs on Tuesday, and I was included. With the economy the way it is, it's understandable that cut-backs need to be made. I'm no longer working on Response Point. For now, I'm focusing on figuring out what I'm going to do next, and won't spend much time on this blog. So, if you find yourself clicking through to this blog, and you have a question you want to ask: There is still a team working on Response Point. For ongoing help with Response Point, please refer to...(read more)

A tip for using Response Point with Exchange 2007

2009-04-22T01:03:00Z

I posted on using Exchange with Response Point a few months ago: http://blogs.msdn.com/robertbrown/archive/2009/01/14/using-rp-with-exchange-2007.aspx Michael Forester just sent me this helpful note: > Good article but lacks details on how to perfom some of the tasks > which someone new to SBS 2008 and Exchange 2007 would require. I > found an easier and more flexible solution which allowed Response > Point and an HP MFP Scanner to relay mail to SBS 2008 with one > configuration change....(read more)

Sending calls to the auto attendant when the receptionist is on the phone

2009-04-16T19:45:00Z

Cut/paste from http://telephonation.com/forum?func=view&catid=57&id=1630 Q: (From Bill) We just installed our first response point system and I have a quick question on getting a basic setup configured. The company has a receptionist group setup but if they're on the phone they want the call to be redirected to the autoattendant. I cannot figure out how to do this. Can anyone tell me how to redirect an incoming call to the auto attendant if the receptionists are on the phone A: (From Phil)...(read more)

Oh yeah, Twitter

2009-04-14T03:37:00Z

I *finally* got onto twitter. Yes, I'll be upgrading from my abacus and slide rule tomorrow. I shall now beg for friends: please add @akarob. (The hardest thing about having such a common name is getting a decent account name whenever i sign up to a new service...)...(read more)

Response Point technical webinar

2009-04-14T03:30:00Z

I'll be doing a technical webinar for Microsoft partners this Friday morning. The RP blog already mentioned it , but figured I'd mention it here in case you missed it. Apparently you should click here to register ......(read more)

Response Point in Comics?

2009-04-07T03:56:53Z

I was fiddling around with clip-art in Power Point a little while back, and put together some comic strips to illustrate some ideas. I figured the same technique could be used to demonstrate some Response Point concepts. Here are some first attempts. They could definitely use proper pictures of RP phones, etc, and lots of polish. But aside from that, what do you think? Is this useful? (Off topic, but speaking of comics, I just finished reading Bone . Yeah, I’m...(read more)

Quick tip - forwarding voicemail to multiple email addresses

2009-03-13T20:00:00Z

Need your Response Point voicemail to go to more than one email address? Just enter multiple addresses, separated by semi-colon. For example: Don't recognise this screen? It's part of the Response Point Assistant. Take a look at this video about using Assistant . The video's about 7 minutes long, and the voicemail to email bit is around 4:30. 'nuff said....(read more)

SP2 has been updated to support speech barge-in

2009-02-21T04:50:00Z

You wanted barge-in back. We heard you. It's back. Response Point SP2 now supports speech barge-in as a checkbox in the Configure Automated Receptionist dialog box: To install it.... Rather than supply a separate patch that would need to be applied every time you installed SP2, we've slip-streamed the fix directly into SP2. Download the current SP2 and unzip it. (If you've downloaded sp2 prior to today, just download it again to pick up the optional barge-in functionality) Install the Administrator...(read more)

Making 911 calls over VPN

2009-02-16T23:23:00Z

We've had a few questions about this, so I want to clarify. When a 911 call is placed from a remote phone over a VPN using Response Point , the following sequence occurs: 1. A recorded message is played: “Unable to determine your current address. Please provide your address to the emergency services operator. Alternatively, hang up and use a land line or mobile phone to make this call to emergency services.” The reason for the warning is that the caller’s location may not be the same as the location...(read more)

Streamlining your Automated Receptionist Greeting

2009-02-14T02:32:00Z

(Don't ping me on barge-in right now - or at least, if you do, I don't have any more info yet. Hopefully soon. UPDATE 3/14/09: barge-in is supported in SP2 ) In the meantime, here's a nice technique for streamlining your Automated Receptionist greeting. (UPDATE 3/14/09: This is a good technique in any case, whether or not you're using barge-in). By default, the first thing a caller hears is "Thank you for calling. Please say the name of the person or group you would like to talk to". This is actually...(read more)

Typo in custom URL whitepaper

2009-02-11T21:20:09Z

There was a typo in the “ Configuring Customizable URLs in Incoming Call Notifications ” whitepaper. It incorrectly said the registry key is: “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Response Point” The correct key is: “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ Response Point Assistant ” The whitepaper was corrected and republished last night....(read more)

Lots of New RP Technical Content

2009-02-07T03:31:00Z

Lots of new and useful stuff. On the Response Point web site , click on " Technical & Resources ”: Then “ Learning Resources ” and/or “ Quick Guides ”: The learning resources contain: Whitepapers . Many of these are existing papers that we’ve touched up for SP2, and are worth reviewing. There’s also a new one about how to customize the toast pop-up in Assistant to fire up a web page parameterized with caller ID, etc . (e.g. to look up a caller ID, you could make it fire: “http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=[callerID]”)...(read more)

Troubleshooting guide for SP2

2009-02-05T03:57:00Z

Our Response Point SP2 trouble-shooting guide's been updated: http://download.microsoft.com/download/0/7/F/07FBEA5A-FEB7-4B27-92B0-8DD4CC3F3C53/RPTroubleshootingGuide.pdf Among a variety of updated topics, it also has the official word on Exchange 2007 integration, which I also posted on a few weeks back Here's a cut/paste of the table of contents: 7 Questions to Ask Before Troubleshooting the System Issue 1: Undetected Devices Issue 2: Unrecognized IP Addresses Issue 3: Faulty Connection to Phone...(read more)

It’s Here – Response Point SP2

2009-02-03T00:47:00Z

http://www.microsoft.com/responsepoint/SP2/default.aspx What’s new? The most visible new capabilities are: Intercom Remote phones can connect over a VPN The auto attendant can switch on/off automatically, according to a schedule. There’s also a more detailed list . I’ll do some more detailed posts sometime soon. Hey, BTW, if you’re not aware of it, there’s also an official Response Point team blog . News there today includes the announcement of new service providers ....(read more)

Trouble-Shooting Speech Recognition

2009-01-15T06:22:00Z

(UPDATE 3/14/09: take a look at the 10 ways to optimize speech recognition quick guide.) There have been lots of posts all over the web about how cool Response Point ’s speech recognition is. But every now and then somebody tells us it’s not working out so well for them. If you know somebody who’s in this situation, here are some tips to try: Make sure the name entered in the system is something that people actually say. There are a few variants of this: If your name is entered as “Robert”, but nobody...(read more)