SpitFire Help Desk

The SpitFire Predictive and SpitFire X Autodialer software have 2 schedules that determine when the Campaigns can dial,
the FailSafe Schedule and the Time Zones settings. These are accessed via the Campaign software by clicking on Options-->Preferences.

Note: SpitFire X Access does not include the Time Zone Settings feature. That is only available in the Pro (MySQL) version of SpitFire X.

FailSafe Schedule

The FailSafe schedule is a set of times that determines the absolute earliest or latest times that the SpitFire software can dial.
This is regardless of whether you are starting and stopping your Campaign manually or, in the case of SpitFire X, with JobMaker.
The FailSafe Schedule overrides everything.

Here is an image of the FailSafe Schedule in the SpitFire Predictive Campaign window:




Here is the same FailSafe Schedule tab in the SpitFire X Autodialer Campaign:



In these examples, the FailSafe will not allow any dialing before 9 AM (according to the computer's clock) and stop any dialing occurring after 9 PM. So if this was a Predictive that had telemarketers talking to customers after 9 PM, those calls would be the last call before the FailSafe would kick in and automatically stop the Campaign.


Here is a screen-shot of the FailSafe Error Message:



Once this error message comes up, you will have to click OK to exit it and then start the Campaign back up again.

Note: The SpitFire X Autodialer software can have the FailSafe Schedule turned off completely by unchecking the Voice Calls Checked box. The SpitFire Predictive FailSafe cannot be turned off.


Time Zone Settings

The Time Zone settings are a way of controlling what times certain area codes within a list are dialed. This is useful when dialing a list that has mixture phone numbers that are in different Time Zones, all over the country.
The way it works is by comparing what you have programmed into the Time Zone Settings tab against an internal database of area codes that are listed under specific Time Zones.
Here is a screen shot of the Time Zones settings tab for the SpitFire Predictive:



Again, this is access by clicking on Options-->Preferences in the SpitFire Campaign windows.
Note: In order for these settings to work at all, the Use Time Zone check-box must be checked.

Here are the same settings in the SpitFire X software:




The schedule works by programming in the local times that the Dialer should be allowed to call phone numbers in the various Time Zones. So for example, if the Dialer was located in California and we wanted to prevent it from calling numbers in Texas after 9 PM, we would set the Central Stop time to 6 PM.
This is because 6 PM Pacific Time (where the Dialer is) = 9 PM Central time (Texas time).

Here is a screen shot of the example mentioned:




A common issue with Time Zone Settings is after loading a list and starting a Campaign, the Dialer shows Filling Buffer for several seconds and then comes to a stop. This is because it could not find any available records in the list that were within the available Time Zones. If this issue occurs, you can turn off the Time Zones completely to see if the Campaign is then able to dial. If so, then there is a Time Zone setting that is not correct or the list does not have enough available records to dial within the Times available.

Time Zones Manager and View Area Codes

There are a couple of Time Zone Management tools in ListMaker that allow you to add new area codes to the Time Zone database that is on the Dialer and also to look at the distribution of records, per Area Code/Time Zone.

The Time Zone Manager can be used to see what area codes are in what Time Zone and it also allows you to add new area codes to the Time Zone database.

1. To start, open ListMaker Pro and then click on Tools-->Time Zone Manager.




2. In the Time Zone Manager window, you can select a Time Zone and see what area codes are in that Time Zone.






3. To add a new area code to a Time Zone, type the area code into the box above the Add button and then click Add.
Make sure you have selected the correct Time Zone first!




4. After clicking Add, you will see that new area code listed.



Area codes cannot be deleted from this window. However, they can be deleted (and added) from the AreaCodes.txt file that is in C:\SPD\ folder (C:\SPX\ for SpitFire X).
Here is the file after it has been opened in Notepad.



There are 4 fields for each entry. City,Area Code,State,Field Position in Time Zone settings.
The only fields that require data are the area code and the Field Position in Time Zone settings fields. The latter is referring to the place on the Time Zone settings tab of the Campaign software. A number 1 is Pacific, number 2 is Mountain, etc. See the Time Zone Settings tab screen shots above for the complete list.
 

View Area Codes

This is another option in ListMaker Pro that can be used to see what area codes are in a particular list.
It will list the area codes and the number of records that are in that area code, for that list.

To use this tool, first open a list in ListMaker Pro and then click Tools-->View area codes.




The display will show the area codes that are in that list and a number of records per area code.
Clicking on the grey box, to the left of an area code (circled in red below) will select which time zone that area code is in.