Daily Cup of Tech

I am in the process right now of setting up volunteer technical support for my daughter’s school and our church.  One of the issues that we are having is that we need a number of people to provide technical support since they are all volunteers and can’t be on call full time.  This poses a real problem since the person who is experiencing technical problems is already frustrated.  They don’t want to be wasting their time trying to track down the person who is supposed to be on call! Also, for the volunteers who are not on call, they don’t want to be bothered by phone calls at work or when they are spending some precious time with their family. 

So, to relieve the situation, I came up with a way for the person requiring tech support to make one phone call, leave a voice message, and the voice message is then e-mailed to all the technical volunteers so that the person who is on call can respond to the problem.

And, the best part of it all?  I did it for free!  Here’s how you can do it as well.

Step 1 - Sign Up for iCall

The first part involves you getting an account with iCall.  I’m sure that there are other services out there like iCall that will give you free voicemail sent to your e-mail (feel free to leave a list in the comments).  I just used iCall.

In order to set up an account, you first need to download their software.  During the installation process, you will be given the opportunity to create a user account.  Once you create the account, log into the phone and get your extension number.  This will be near the top of the screen and will typically be a seven digit number.  You can also get your extension number by going to their website and logging in with the information that you provided.  Make sure that you write this number down because you will be needing it later.

Next, go to the iCall local access number page and find a number that is toll free for you.  While they do not have all of North America covered, they do cover 199 area codes which does serve a large part of the population.  Write this number down as well.

Step 2 - Create a Distribution E-Mail

Now that voicemail is set up, time to configure a distribution e-mail.  This is simply an e-mail address that will be redistributed to more than one person.  There are several different wsys to do this, depending on the type of mail system that you are using.  Since I am using GMail with Google Apps Standard, I will walk you through the process.

1. Log into your Google Apps account and click on Manage this domain at the top of the page.
2. Next, click on Users and groups on the top menu on the page.
3. Under the Users and groups page, click on the Groups submenu
4. Click on Create a new group
5. Fill out the Create a new group form with the appropriate information.  For example:
   Group name: School Tech Support
   Group email address: schooltechsupport@dailycupoftech.com
   Group description: Tech support address for my daughter’s school
   Permission presets: Public
6. Click on Create new group
7. You can now add members to the distribution group.  Simply type in the e-mail addresses of all the tech volunteers that you would like to receive the e-mail messages in the Add new members field and click on the Add button.

You’re done step 2.  Now, whenever someone sends an e-mail to the group e-mail address that you created, then all of the members of the group will receive a copy.

Step 3 - Configure iCall to Forward Voicemail to the Group E-Mail

The next step is to set up iCall to forward any voicemail to the distribution group.  This is as simple as logging into your iCall account under My profile and changing the e-mail address from the e-mail address that you originally set to the distribution group e-mail address.

Step 4 - Give Out Your Support Number

Now that you have everything set up, all you need to do is give out the support number and extension that you recorded in step 1 and everyone in the distribution list will get a copy of the tech support voicemail as a WAV file.  Now, only the person who is on call has to respond to the e-mail and everyone else can just ignore it.

Step 5 - Increase Distribution Group Security (Optional)

Let’s say, for example, that somehow your tech support number and extension has gotten out and everyone and their dog is calling you.  Or, the e-mail address for the distribution list has gotten on a spam list and now you can’t find the tech support calls among all the offers for, shall we say, “enhancement products”. Well, you can help alleviate these issues by making a few changes to the distribution group.

1. Add the phone numbers that you want to be able to leave messages for the group to the distribution group.  You do this by adding an e-mail address that is the phone number followed by @icall.com.  So, if you wanted to receive voicemails from (123) 555-1212, then you would add the e-mail address 1235551212@icall.com to the distribution group.
2. Next, change the permissions on the distribution group from Public to Custom and set the Send email to the group options to include only Owners and Members.

Now, only voicemails from the specified phone numbers will get sent to the distribution group and only people who are members of the distriution group will be able to send e-mail via the distribution group.

Conclusion

This has the potential to be a very simple and easy to use solution for the end user (because, really, it is their opinion that counts in the end) that can make the life of the tech volunteer a lot easier.

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