Today we acquired “load balancing” capability for our several GroupCaller servers. In very simple terms, this means that one computer can control the call volume through all the other computers. We host the calling database and most of the software on one PC, and it monitors call activity and open ports on all the others. When it detects an idle port, it grabs a new number from the database and shoots it over to the open port on the idle computer, where a call is then made and the message is delivered. We also discovered that our call capacity is far more than we considered possible even just one week ago. If we have the server configured properly with the right hardware, a single inexpensive server can make 500 to 1,000 calls simultaneously. This means we aren’t too far away from having the capacity of making millions of calls each day.
Naturally, we’ve planned from the beginning to do this type of message delivery volume, but it’s still very exciting to us to see it within our grasp! It looks like our national voice broadcast campaign may just be the catalyst we’ve sought for a long time now, that will catapult us forward and help us gain this massive calling facility. Even with all these big numbers I’m talking about, we’re not going to attempt such massive volume just yet. Don’t forget, lost of calls means lots of cost. Even with a VoIP service that only charges us $0.008 per minute in 6-second increments ($0.0008 per increment) the cost really ads up when we’re making tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of calls each day. So, the point here is that we have to scale up the call volume no faster than we have competent and dedicated Associates capable of following up on the call respondents and closing sales. This is a great position to be in!
Another very significant event happened today: I signed the contract with the VoIP provider. We’re now officially “IN”. It wasn’t easy to find this provider and get an account that charges such a small amount, but now we’ve got it. We’ll make good use of it starting this week! I still don’t know when we’ll be able to make our first calls from the upgraded system, but I suspect it will be either the end of this week or sometime next week. It’s not too far away. I know many of you are anxious to start calling on the leads we generate, so all I can do is ask for your patience. Jeff and I are burning the candle at both ends these days, early mornings and late, late nights, trying to get everything in position so that when we start making 10,000 to 20,000 calls each day, we’ll be able to handle the responses efficiently. Shouldn’t be long now . . .
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