#automatic call distribution

[leeb57555]

Contact Center Software Market Share, Size, Future Demand, and Emerging Trends

Contact center software is a technology solution developed for managing all the conversations between agents and customers. It supports businesses in offering omnichannel customer service and customer relationship management. It also offers a unified view of all types of customer communications across various communication platforms such as social media, email, phone calls, SMS, and other messaging apps. Due to the increasing focus of companies on enhancing their engagement with customers, the contact center software market value is set to cross $102,751.5 million by 2030

There are two types of contact center software, relying on their hosting process. The on-premise solution is hosted on the local server of the business, and the internet hosts the cloud-based solution.

On-premise Contact Center Software

The on-premise solution can be deployed with the help of an experienced IT professional and the hosted partner. The contact center platform is hosted on the server of the company. Usually, there are limitations in accessing this tool outside the office premises.

Businesses that rely on on-premise solutions have to massively invest in the security features for customer data protection and alleviating cross-site scripting. Moreover, when the system is required to be upgraded with advanced features to offer team support, it needs to shut down the business operations.

Browse detailed report - Contact Center Software Market Analysis and Demand Forecast Report

Major Features of Contact Contact Center Software

Workforce Management: Contact center software offers ease in simplifying workforce management by providing shift schedules. It also takes care of planning, forecasting, and streamlining business operations for agents working globally.

Call Monitoring: Call center software facilitates managers, and supervisors in monitoring, routing, and even joining the live calls if required to intervene or talk to the customer. Several contact center solutions also offer automatic call distribution phone systems for determining the right agents who have picked up the call in the shortest time. Thus, the team spends their work hours attending to those calls that fall under their expertise.

Omnichannel Dashboard: A contact center software reflects all the incoming requests into one platform from various communication channels.

Performance Reporting: Performance reports are provided to measure the performance of the call center, through various metrics such as average hold time, handle time, and wait time.

Therefore, contact center software is increasingly adopted for improved customer experience led by easy operations of the contact center with reduced costs.

[vindaloo-softtech]

Things Everyone Should Know About Automatic Call Distribution (ACD)

When managing a contact center or handling the customer service department, you are not unknown to the sheer volume of calls coming in and going out in a single instance. As soon as an agent completes a call, the next call in waiting is automatically routed to them, and this is all thanks to the automatic call distribution mechanism. The primary purpose of an automatic call distributor is to route incoming calls to contact center agents or employees with specific skills. However, contact center owners and admins can make necessary changes to the distribution logic to increase the call processing efficiency of their teams.

Here is everything you need to know about Automatic Call Distribution.

How does Automatic Call Distribution Work?

The Automatic Call Distribution is designed to eliminate unnecessary call transfers, prevent extended customer hold times, and increase first-call resolution rates by automatically connecting customers to the agent most qualified to assist them with their specific issue. It relies on a routing engine that screens incoming calls based on pre-determined parameters. Based on the skills, customer data, real-time contact center performance, customer sentiment, and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered behavioral profiles, the engine automatically matches the customer to the correct agent in the least amount of time.

You may confuse ACD with another integral call center tool, i.e., the Intelligent Voice Response (IVR). While both are integral to business telecommunications and connect the users to the right department or contact center agent, the intent and mechanism is different. IVR uses guided responses from the user to connect them to the correct agent and allows the callers to solve their own issues over the phone. However, an ACD system can make use of inputs from an IVR to collect necessary information for the redirection.

Read more about the basics of IVR and its Importance in VoIP Communications.

The different factors on which an Automatic Call Distribution routes incoming calls are:

The dialed extension number (the caller is calling sales, support, or feedback extension)

Area code

Caller ID

Time of day

Client status (VIP, Premium, Regular)

Any IVR option selected

Database entry

Queue Statistics

Agent Availability

Agent Skills

The Call Distribution can be any of the following ways:

Sequential Call Distribution: The calls are distributed in a pre-defined order to all agents for every new call. If the first agent is busy, the call is forwarded to the next in sequence until an available agent attends to the call. This routing method is effective when the top agents are busy, and the callers need to be kept engaged.

Round-robin (Circular) Call Distribution: The next call is routed to the next in sequence after a previous call is attended. The call is directly connected to the available agent in this routing method as per the sequence. Only after the last agent has taken a call is the sequence repeated.

Uniform Call Distribution: The least active agent is forwarded the next call. This way, the workload is divided among the call agents and allows the calls to be distributed uniformly.

Simultaneous Call Distribution: The call is sent to all the agents, and the first one to answer handles the call. This is, however, effective when all your call agents are of the same skill level.

Time-based Call Distribution: The ACD in the contact center system uses the pre-input time availability of each call agent to determine the right call route. This is a great way to manage business calls when you have users calling from different geographical locations.

Score-based Call Distribution: Every call agent receives a score based on their call performance. These scores become the deciding factors and add weight to routing purposes. This way, lesser experienced agents and those starting out are exempted from attending high-priority calls.

Data-based Call Distribution: The ACD taps into the caller information from the CRM or other tools to determine which agent can better assist a specific caller. This call distribution method is profitable as the experienced call agents can easily manage to upsell or offer upgrades to the callers.

What are the Features to look for in an Automatic Call Distribution system?

Callback Scheduling

In a scenario where no call agents are currently available to take the call immediately, you can’t have your callers stay on hold for any longer than a minute without taking a chance of losing them forever. With automated callbacks, a caller doesn’t need to wait to get the best quality help. They often are presented with an option to select a preferred date and time for their callback.

Voicemail Notification

In addition to callback scheduling, having a voicemail in place is important. Callers can record a short message informing their pain points and the call agents can callback equipped with the correct information or solution. Features like voicemail notifications, voicemail-to-text, and voicemail-to-email ensure that call agents are on top of their communication.

Intelligent Call Queing

Your ACD would require a call queuing feature depending on the routing methods implemented. Call agents can view the calls they have in waiting and manage their call workflow to reduce the call churn accordingly. Admin can review the call queue history to add/remove agents to better manage call traffic. Call agents can add VIP or blacklist tags to prioritize certain calls.

Call Monitoring

Call monitoring is vital to improve the agent training process and allow managers to assist agents in real time. In addition, to listen ongoing calls, managers can ‘barge’ in when the call might derail to offer instant support and a higher level of customer assistance.

3rd Party Integrations

Businesses already use multiple business software programs for everyday operations. You simplify the communication process by allowing integrations with your CRM, IVR system, email marketing platform, and your agents don’t need to spend time learning new systems.

The Benefits of Automatic Call Distribution

Having highly customizable call paths and call routing options doesn’t just help to prevent call center agent burnout and increase efficiency.

Additional automatic call distribution benefits include:

Streamlines communication

Higher first call resolution rates

Lowers operating costs

Improves customer experience and higher customer satisfaction rates

Fully optimizes workforce

Faster customer resolution times

Fewer lost customer support tickets and requests

Shorter hold times for customers

Increases employee flexibility/empower the remote workforce

More personalized customer experience thanks to CRM integration

Wrapping Up

Automatic Call Distribution systems offer contact centers with a wide range of features that can easily boost agent productivity and customer satisfaction. Yet, they are not an autonomous tool and needs to be connected to your contact center software to function. Alternatively, you can go for a solution that offers ACD as one of its core features, such as the contact center solution developed by Vindaloo Softtech.

[crmvoipsoftwaresolutions]

Contact Center Software Improves Customer Service Quality

With the modern trends in communication technology, contact center solutions have become more advanced than ever. They have developed into a fully functional tool for enriching customer service. Because of their flexible and scalable approach, businesses can manage their operations on one platform at a relatively lower cost. Here are some examples of how contact center software enhances customer experiences.

Ensures quicker resolution with call routing

The call routing feature works as a call management tool to direct calls to relevant agents for quicker resolution. Skill-based routing is one of the most effective call-routing strategies. It allows the routing of incoming calls to a particular agent or group of agents with relevant skills for serving customers more effectively. It also helps in improving the first call resolution (FCR) rate.

Reduces waiting time through the ACD system

Automatic Call Distribution or ACD is a contact center feature that automatically routes incoming calls to an organization’s specific agent or department. Since this feature streamlines queue management, it reduces customer waiting times as well as lowers the call abandonment rate.

Delivers consistent service with omnichannel communication

49% of today’s tech-savvy customers expect brand support and service through three to five channels, including websites, social media, and more. Omnichannel capabilities help businesses to merge all of their communication channels into a single platform and maintain a high level of customer service. This feature allows agents to quickly resolve customer queries and consistently deliver customer service despite interruptions such as call dropouts or network disturbances.

Creates personalized experience with CRM integration

A CRM gathers customer information through their interactions with the business. With the integration of CRM into the contact center, software agents can access customer data to understand them better before answering or picking up the call. It prepares agents for the conversation and accelerates the resolution process while raising customer satisfaction.

Empowers strategic decision-making through data analytics

With the help of an omnichannel enterprise contact center solution, data from all communication channels can be easily integrated into one place. It helps in enhancing both corporate operations and customer service experiences. For example, contact center agents can utilize customer profiling to ultimately assist customers in a more personalized way. 

Implements self-service capabilities with IVR

Interactive voice response (IVR) systems use speech recognition technology to identify, classify, and direct callers to the most appropriate agent. Customers can utilize the systems by entering their names and other details to make payments or obtain self-service. This saves their time and enhances the overall customer support experience.

Drive efficiency through workflow automation

The contact center software automates repetitive operations such as data entry, follow-up call scheduling, contact management, and more to streamline daily operations. This enhances accuracy and prevents agents from being overworked.  It also lets them effectively focus and concentrate on their primary responsibility of offering great customer service.  

Utilize the capabilities of business contact center solution

Contact center software offers a plethora of benefits for companies to improve revenue generation. The company can manage a large volume of incoming calls while providing a great customer experience due to the sophisticated capabilities of call center solutions. A firm can guarantee brand voice consistency over all communication channels by using omnichannel contact center software. With the assistance of industry-leading call center solutions, businesses can provide their clients with highly customized customer support. It has a wide range of call operation features that encourage proactive client involvement, increasing the likelihood that customers will be satisfied. 

Are you looking for the best contact center software to enhance your customer service quality? AC InfoSoft offers different call center solutions with powerful features and functionalities. To learn more about these contact center solutions, please visit https://www.acinfosoft.com/call-center-solutions/

[prokopetz]

Concept: GMless, semi-competitive tabletop RPG where everybody is a vampire or vampire-adjacent critter, with a set of randomly selected vampire weaknesses drawn from a big deck of cards. However, you don't hold your weakness cards, or even know what they are: instead, they're distributed to the other players.

At any time, another player can hold up a card (without showing it to you) and declare that the action you just took automatically fails or you suffer a point of damage because you transgressed one of your weaknesses. They don't have to reveal what specific weakness was transgressed – only that it was.

When this happens, you have two choices: you can either accept it, take the loss, and move on, or you can say "bullshit – there's no way that's one of my weaknesses". If you're right, you score some sort of meta currency and/or the player who tried to bluff you eats a penalty.

However, if you're wrong – i.e., if the player you called out is able to reveal a card with your name written on it establishing that you really do have that weakness – then your vampire immediately explodes.

[zillychu]

Hi there! I'm a human artist who is (very loosely) following the Disney/Universal vs. Midjourney case, and you seem like you're pretty knowledgeable about it and it's potential consequences, so if you have time/energy to answer a question I have about it I'd greatly appreciate it! If not, no worries, feel free to ignore! I haven't had the chance to read through the whole complaint document itself, but at the very top, point 2 mentions:

"...distributing images (and soon videos) that blatantly incorporate and copy Disney’s and Universal’s famous characters—without investing a penny in their creation—Midjourney is the quintessential copyright free-rider and a bottomless pit of plagiarism. Piracy is piracy, and whether an infringing image or video is made with AI or another technology does not make it any less infringing."

Do you know if human-made fanart would also be included in this? Or is this something that would only be aimed at big companies? the "incorporate Disney's characters" part is giving me some pause, but like I said I haven't had the chance to read the full document and I'm not confident in my knowledge of copyright law. 😅 Thank you in advance if you're able to answer this! (Brought to you by a concerned fanartist with near-equal disdain for both Disney and AI. also sorry for the essay-length question 😅)

No problem at all, I'm happy to help ease your worries!

To put it simply, nothing is going to change for us. This is only going to affect unethical LLMs like MidJourney, OpenAI, etc. trained on copyrighted material without consent.

This is because Disney (and Universal) are arguing that LLMs are already infringing current copyright law. LLMs make money by directly using their copyrighted images fed into machine that then regurgitates their IP, and is sold for a premium, en mass.

So there's that, but even more importantly: it's already illegal to make money off of fanart.

Which, corporations don't really care about unless you're making a LOT of money or getting a LOT of attention. This is because it's quite expensive to take someone to court, and you have to prove your business was negatively affected by said fanart (nearly impossible in most cases). You've got to be making quite a bit more money than the court costs, and provide documented proof of damages (to your wallet or name) for corporations to go after you.

Which, your individual/indie fanartists don't qualify... but MJ most certainly does.

So, not to say something bad can't possibly crop up from this court case, but there are quite a few things protecting us: there's no angle in the court case that targets fair use (this indirectly protects non-commercial fanart), the court case touches on human interpretation being essential for transformative art (which LLMs don't have since they're automatic), LLMs are already infringing existing copyright law (making money using Disney's images), Disney has quantifiable proof of damages to their company by said LLMs (nigh impossible for individuals to do), corporations have a vested interest in keeping fair use around as free advertisement (fanart is akin to spoken word about your product), and fair use is intensely tied to freedom of speech.

So don't worry! There are reasonable concerned voices considering how evil Disney and Universal both are--but most of the vehement arguments being made against this court case are from scared techbros who want unfettered access to your money and labor. Current copyright and IP law is far from perfect, but anyone calling for total abolition thereof wants protection taken from individuals like us.

[skymallnine]

Do we have any indication of what the Cardassian visual spectrum is? Earth reptiles are kind of all over the map on this.

Personally, I like to imagine that it’s blue/green/infrared. This would have lots of fun ramifications, starting with

Redleaf tea

Humans call it redleaf tea because it’s red, while Cardassians call it redleaf tea because it’s hot. Like for them it’s redleaf tea because it turns the mug red. Drinking a tea “black” means it’s cold. Cue many hilarious misunderstandings re: Earl Grey.

Speaking of “grey”

…this would also add an extra, wacky dimension to Garak’s complaint about Romulan hearts being grey. Maybe their hearts only look grey at a specific temperature (shortly after being mysteriously murdered, one assumes). The infrared would have to match whatever green and blue tones the heart had; any warmer or cooler and it would no longer look grey.

Also, Cardassians would not look grey to other Cardassians. If we’re assuming they have less internal temperature regulation than humans, they’d be changing colors to match the ambient temperature, while humans remained a more stable color. In fact, the color of the room would shift to match them.

(the metaphors about the Federation write themselves)

Lighting

Anything warm would be emitting light, so everything is brighter by default. A warm, dimly lit room might appear equally bright to a cool, brightly lit room. But the light distribution and color temperature would be very different. The first room would have much more diffuse, warmer-colored light. The second room would have very focused, very blue-green light by comparison, appearing more like harsh fluorescents.

Clothes

Clothing would have a similar (infra)redness to the person wearing it. Matching fabric colors to someone’s complexion would be a very different process, since they’d automatically colorshift to be closer together. However, you could add more color contrast between the skin and the fabric by choosing insulating fabrics. Or maybe mixing different fabric types for different color effects. Warmer species could change the color of fabrics by touching them, adding temporary patterns/markings.

If you sell clothes, any species that doesn’t share your visual spectrum is going to get… interesting color combinations.* For example, where a human sees blue+purple, you’d see blue+dark blue. And purple, yes, but only when worn, and the purple hue would wash over the entire garment as it warmed up. Then, if someone with cooler hands touched the garment (perhaps on the shoulders), they would leave blue handprints.

*Cardassians might be able to infer shamelessly bullshit colors outside their visual spectrum by watching how they heat up. When Dukat looks at the red pah wraith earrings, they would initially look black, but they wouldn’t heat up as fast as a black gul uniform. So, weirdly, red would look more black to a Cardassian than black does — and black would look more red. A gul coming in from the sun would be the brightest thing in the room; Natima’s white dress would be more subdued, with a much dimmer (infra)red glow.

[dorabellingham]

Caught in the act

warning: sexual intentions

characters: jude x fem!reader

summary: when you are spending time at his parents' house and he has very compromising ideas

may contain spelling and translation errors!

Jude was lying on the sofa in the living room, absently fiddling with his cell phone, while you finished organising the things you had brought to his parents' house. You wore a loose tank top and shorts that showed your legs, and honestly, he was already losing concentration since you had passed through the room for the third time.

Jude's parents were in the kitchen, talking about the weather, when his mother appeared at the living room door.

-Let's take Taco for a little walk. Who's going?

Jude raised his eyes quickly.

-No, mum, thank you. We are tired of the trip.

He smiled, trying to look casual, but you, who didn't fully understand what they were talking about, noticed the slight tone of haste.

Denise shrugged.

-Okay. We won't be late.

As soon as the door closed and the sound of Taco's paws disappeared, the older Bellingham got up from the couch, walking to you with that smile he already knew well. He seemed relaxed, but he had something in his eyes that delivered his intention.

-What was it?

You asked, crossing your arms and staring at him suspiciously.

-Nothing, babe. I was just here thinking... -He put his arms around your waist and pulled you close, tilting his face until he almost touched his nose to your neck. -We're alone...

You raised an eyebrow, holding back your laughter.

-And what do you think that's the reason for, exactly?

He shrugged, kissing the corner of your mouth gently.

-To enjoy.

Before you could protest, Jude lifted you by the waist and put you sitting on the kitchen counter. He held you by the legs, fitting his body between your knees, and you let out a nervous giggle.

-Babe, your parents can come back at any time...

-Sweetie, they went for a walk with Taco. That always takes time.

He murmured, gluing his lips to yours before you could invent more excuses.

You tried to keep control, but the way Jude kissed you made your mind erase. His hands slid down your waist with familiarity, and his warm touch seemed to ignite your skin.

–You are so beautiful... so perfect... my love.

He said, his voice hoarse and low, while distributing kisses around his neck.

You, feeling his hands go up his thighs, took a deep breath.

-Jude... your parents...

-Shhh, Y/n... -He replied, with a smug smile. -Trust me. We have time.

However, as a direct signal from the universe, you heard the sound of the front door opening. You immediately pushed your boyfriend, coming down from the counter awkwardly, your heart racing.

-Jude, my God, are you in the kitchen?

Mark called, while the sound of Taco's paws echoed through the room.

-Yes, dad, here we are.

Jude replied, trying to look casual while fixing her messy hair. You were slightly red, fixing the tank top and muttering things softly.

His father appeared at the door with a dog's collar in his hands and looked at the two.

–Are you okay? You seem... how to say it?... nervous.

-We're great!

You answered automatically. Jude let out a low laugh, realising his hasty tone.

His mother came in right behind, and Taco went straight to you, putting his paws on your leg as if he wanted to climb on your lap. You took a step back, still nervous, but smiled to disguise.

While your in law's began to put things away and talk about the walk, Jude leaned to you and whispered in your ear, with a provocative smile:

-I think they suspect.

You, still embarrassed, gave him a light elbow.

-You're impossible, Jude.

He just laughed, putting his arm around you.

-I love you, sweetie.

You rolled your eyes, but you couldn't hold back your smile. After all, no matter how chaotic it was, you knew you were completely surrendered to him.

I brought a short one shot because I'm having a terrible day, today the results of the college entrance exam came out and I didn't get in :(

[vertagedialer]

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[12percentspider]

Info time: Diabetes and related issues [this is long but I highly suggest reading]

Do you ever see something and you go "that doesn't sound right, but I don't know enough about diabetes to dispute it"? Well, I can help you there. I can help you know enough about diabetes to dispute it if need be. Especially because well, there are seemingly a lot of scams going around where people claim to be diabetic [in my experience it's maybe 3 scammers that just remake] and the information is not very correct in most cases. Not to mention this type of scam pisses me off because I am in fact diabetic, and not only are people preying off of others' lack of information about the chronic condition, but it's also trivializing a serious lifelong condition that can be fatal. If you have now or have lost a loved one to diabetes complications, you are already aware of how dangerous it can be as well as how dangerous misinformation is as well.

What is diabetes? Diabetes is a chronic condition related to the endocrine system- the pancreas specifically. However, if complications get serious enough other parts of the body will be affected. In type 2 diabetes, the body's cells have become resistant to insulin, which is a hormone produced by the pancreas that allows cells to use glucose from the blood- your body's energy it needs to function. When someone is 'type 2', the food that person is eating is not able to fuel them, regardless of caloric content. Glucose is commonly called "blood sugar". It's a type of sugar that is processed and then transported via the circulatory system to your cells where it's needed. With type 1 diabetes (which used to be called "juvenile diabetes"), the pancreas does not produce any/enough insulin for some reason or another, generally because of autoimmune or other damage. [For me personally, I was diagnosed as an adult and had to have it confirmed as type 1 due to the presence of autoimmune antibodies, also apparently my pancreas hadn't quite given up at that point.] As we've seen before, insulin allows your body to use the food you are putting into it. As a double whammy, you can have type 1 with resistance, so not only is your body not producing any/enough insulin, what's there can't be used properly. [RIP Spider who has this] So to explain the effects, think about what happens when you're literally starving. Now imagine that's happening no matter how much you eat. Your body may go into starvation mode and store fat. This can be misleading, which when combined with fatphobia has people concluding that "well, you have diabetes because you're fat, duh". Heck, I have/had diabetic relatives who believed that eating too many carbs will automatically cause the condition because that's what everyone is told/assumes. Eventually, you'd starve and your body would start deteriorating as so. HOWEVER because you would have so much glucose that just sits there because it can't be used, your kidneys are going to work overtime to try and correct this- and they can't do it alone. Your liver can also suffer severe damage. That's not to mention a whole host of other complications that can occur.

So what about it? Well, obviously there are treatments. Insulin injections have existed since the 1920s. There are also medications that can help your body actually use the insulin it's being provided, be it naturally or artificially. So yes, people with diabetes are dependent on prescriptions to survive. My grandma lost a sister in childhood due to insulin treatments apparently not being available in the extremely rural area they were living in at the time. More recently, the israeli occupation has banned insulin from being distributed to Palestinians. [Insulin has also been used historically in psychiatric hospitals to force low blood sugar in psychiatric patients, but that's a whole other rabbithole about psychiatric abuse.] There are resources for the US and beyond if you or someone you know and/or love are in dire straits financially and need help with insulin or other diabetes medications/ related medical help. That's only one aspect of treatment, though. Because pain, stress, hormone changes, other medical issues, and plenty of other factors can raise your blood sugar to dangerous levels, other kinds of treatment to manage other factors may be necessary.

Now that that's out of the way, let's get to specifics. So the most common problem you're going to see mentioned is high blood sugar. We've already covered what the effects are, but what is considered high? For the most part, "high" is 200 milligrams per deciliter. My CGM (continuous glucose monitor) lists "high" as anything 181 or higher but stops giving an exact number after 350. This is why I had a good laugh that time I saw a scammer using an image of a meter reading glucose in the 120s- that's good blood sugar. If you're going to get even more specific you want your pre-breakfast blood sugar to be 80-130. So when you see an accompanying image reading in the 500s, that's extremely dangerous. That's "you're in danger of going into a coma" dangerous.

Insulin pricing? How come I'm seeing people saying they need $300? In the US, pricing cap was set to $35 somewhat recently. What this means is that per insulin pen (as far as I've experienced, the above-linked resource post should have links with better clarification) it's $35. Can't be more than that for one pen. How many doses that provides is very up in the air. It absolutely varies from person to person. I have relatives with type 2 that have to inject a dose of very long-acting insulin weekly, one has gone back and forth with daily doses on top of that. I'm type 1 and have to take one dose of long-acting nightly with injections of a short-acting insulin before every meal, with the exact dosage amounts varying per meal. Insulin is measured in units (there's probably an actual mL amount, both of mine are 100 units per mL with a 3mL pen). How many units someone needs is determined with their medical provider (or care team? When I went to 'diabetes education' after diagnosis I was set up with a "care team").

Edited:

["...pharmacies can refuse to split boxes of insulin pens depending on company/store policy. so if someone lost their insulin and needed to get a replacement because insurance wont pay for more, the pharmacy could make them get a full box of three or five pens."]

via: anon ask (thank you much!!!) So it turns out that yes, with $35 being a cap it would very much likely be for EACH pen, with 3 being $105 in this case and 5 being $175.

But at any rate, if someone is in an emergency situation in the US should be able to get an insulin pen for $35 pretty much when they get to a pharmacy [again, from edit: no, not every pharmacy]. Yes, I get that this can be difficult in some situations, but that's outside the concept of insulin prices.

If someone's blood sugar is over 500 though, they almost certainly need a hospital more than they need an insulin pen. Yes, alright, the actual real single mother on twitter who was the source of the profile images/meter images that whatever the current url for vero-og has stolen and been using for months... that was actually months ago and I'm sure she doesn't need to be told to go to the hospital right now. [That said, if you get an ask from someone and the url is a variation off of 'vero-og' that is a confirmed scammer.] And then on top of that, yes, why would you block people that can get you free or discounted insulin? If someone was offering to save your life for free or find you what you need for far less than what you were expecting to spend, why wouldn't you take it? Unless what you're actually after is money.

SO TO RECAP: Insulin does not cost $300, $350, $370, whatever someone is sending you an ask about. In the US, it is federally capped at $35 per pen, with further resources available, as well as further resources being available internationally. If you need help, please be honest about it. I promise there are people who care, you don't have to try and explain yourself- but it absolutely does not cost that much and if it did, there are ways to lower the cost by quite a bit if there aren't resources to make it free. Diabetes is a lifelong chronic condition that is not caused by "being fat" or "eating too much", it is caused by your body not functioning right and your body can starve no matter how much food you eat. Unfortunately, people have been lying on this site for months if not years claiming to have type 1 with an insulin emergency. These people cannot possibly have diabetes, or they would be well aware that they do not need hundreds of dollars to get their insulin. They are counting on you not knowing this so you will donate to them. The 'vero-og' scammer had been harassing someone who donated and threatening them with the intention of bullying more money out of the donor.

[thefanficmonster]

Not sure if ur accepting requests for the bear.. but could we maybe get a Mikey x reader where she finds out she's pregnant after he died (big angst tbh) and she comes to the restaurant a mess and tells everyone and it's sad but everyone's shocked or something idk if that makes sense lol, thanks

Ahhh the angst! My favorite genre to write 🙈 Thank you so much for the request, darling! I hope you enjoy the fic 💌

Too Much, Too Late

Michael 'Mikey' Berzatto x Reader (Female) [The Bear]

Warnings: Mentioned Suicide, Mentioned Past Drug Abuse (dealing and consuming), Pregnancy, Swearing, SPOILERS for The Bear

Genre: ANGST, Hurt/Comfort, Found Family, Angst with a happy ending

Summary: see request above

It was a job like any other. It was supposed to be one of those briskly-in-swiftly-out deals. All you had to do was keep it on the down low, distribute your products, get your pay and leave.

However, that didn't happen exactly as planned.

"Why are you in such a rush, sweetheart?" You found yourself accosted by a man who was very clearly three sheets to the wind already. The redness of his eyes, the dilated pupils and the alcohol on his breath suggested he was under several influences. Still, none of that was any justification for his borderline sleazy behavior. "Why don't you accompany me in blowing through this, huh?" He held up the baggie he'd just bought off you, causing you to roll your eyes.

In another setting, preferably under vastly different circumstances you would've probably found him attractive and would even like to uphold a conversation with him. Then again, in those ideal circumstances you imagine he wouldn't have been nearly as obnoxious as he was being in that moment.

Besides, you had a strict rule against participating in drugs with your clients. Or just drugs, period. Anything stronger than weed, that is.

You wanted to get him off your back as soon as possible so, instead of shutting him down in your typical cut-throat manner, you decided to let him down slowly and vanish before his object permanence kicked in. "Another time, pal. I have a busy night ahead."

It worked like a charm anytime someone tried to sweep you off your feet.

However, none of those other occasions had any follow-up. This one, on the other hand....

"Hey."

You had been caught up in your thoughts, making a mental itinerary for the next few days worth of deliveries when a voice startled you out of your tranquility.

It was the following morning and you were headed to the dumpster that was your plug's house - if you could even call it that.

Looking up, you couldn't help but frown at the sight of the 'flirt' from last night standing on the porch of your plug's house, leanings against the fence, smoking a cigarette.

"Hi?" The word came out automatically, a notation of confusion to it which made him smile.

"I don't know if you not remembering me is for better or for worse. I understand I came off a bit....gross last night." His unoccupied hand clasped around the back of his neck, an apologetic half-smile on his lips.

Despite being puzzled by the predicament, you found yourself chuckling, "No, no, I remember you. And don't worry about it, you were pretty tame compared to other shitbags I've had to deal with."

Your wording made him let out a laugh, "Yeah, 'shitbag' sums me up nicely."

Realizing how your words were poorly transmitted, you hurried to correct yourself, "No! That's not what I..."

He laughed yet again, amused by the blush that had crept onto your cheeks, "I know, I'm just fucking with you." He flashed you a charming smile as he tossed his cigarette and offered you his hand, "I'm Michael, by the way, but everyone calls me Mikey."

You were surprised by your own lack of hesitation as you took it, "Y/N, nice to meet you, Mikey."

What did surprise you was his smooth gesture - bringing the back of your hand to his lips, pressing a quick kiss to your knuckles. You could see relief flood his features when you only scoffed in amusement. "Hope you don't mind, I asked around about you at the party last night. You're quite the phantom, you know. Nobody knew anything except your plug and it was a whole other hassle having to track him down."

You would've been lying if you said you didn't find his effort flattering. "Why go through all that trouble?"

There was that charming smile once more, now accompanied by a wink, "Cause that ain't a face you simply forget, darling."

That's how it all started, three years ago. But you can hardly remember any of it now. Everything has quickly been overshadowed by the tragedy that rocked your world.

Losing the love of your life. No one and nothing can ever prepare you for such a thing. No one can take away or aid the pain it brings on. No one can tell you how to move on, if you ever will. No two grieving processes are the same and yours has been very quiet. Too quiet. You can't even remember if you've cried since you found out a week ago. You can't remember having spoken to anyone since that dreadful phone call.

It's all been building up, piling on - the calm before the storm.

And the storm has just crashed down on you, tears finally spilling over past the barrier you're able to hold them at. Sobs scratch up your throat, racking your ribcage, echoing back at you off the bathroom walls. All the agony, all the pain, the regret, the guilt the grief - it all spills out in those harrowing sobs as tears stream down your face, falling onto the sink counter and pregnancy test on it.

The positive pregnancy test.

"No, no, no...." You mumble to yourself in despair, unsure of what exactly you're saying no to.

You don't even have time to process how you feel about it, if you want it, whether you're happy about it or not. All that's plaguing your mind is the gnawing thought of what if?

What if you'd found out two weeks earlier? What if you told him? What if that changed his mind? Would you still have him by your side if he knew he'd be a dad? Would this be a reason for joy and excitement for the two of you? Having your own little family, fucked up in its own way but miles better than your individual families.

You never met his, he never met your. Unlike him, though, you haven't seen your folks in years, five to be exact. He put up with his, you had cut off yours.

You're well versed into his family and their dynamics though, thanks to all the stories Mikey told you throughout the years. You specifically remember him talking about his siblings with such adoration. Natalie and Carmen. The only supposedly sane ones of the bunch.

Wiping the tears off your burning red cheeks, you regain control of your breathing, effectively calming yourself down as you take a long look at yourself in the mirror. You will yourself to put a hand over your belly, taking a moment to let the realization of there being a living thing inside you sink in.

Your and Mikey's baby.

A baby that'll never know the wonderful man that is their dad.

"Don't worry, baby. If they don't want us, we'll always have each other."

* * * * *

After a sleepless night, you find yourself struggling not to nod off on the train.

You thought you'd feel a lot more....well, something more as you approach the inevitable meeting with Mikey's brother. Instead, you're quite numb, immune to whatever you might be faced with once you arrive at the restaurant. Nothing he might say or do can faze you, not after the week you've had. Though you're pretty sure his hasn't been any better. He lost his brother after all. It could be a point of mutual understanding for the two of you or a point of collision and apperhension.

Only one way to find out.

You're surprised by the sheer boldness with which you enter the sandwich shop. Again, you thought you might exhibit at least mild hesitation but you have never been prone to such reservations. You still do things like you used to back in your dealer days - briskly-in-swiftly-out.

This is no different.

Upon entry, the interior feels familiar. You've been here only twice before, always after closing, snuck in by Mikey as a date night. He'd cook for you while you DJed with the restaurant sound system in the office. It was the peak of romance in your relationship.

Never once did you think one day you'd be coming in alone, during work hours, the memories bringing tears to your eyes.

You push the pain to the backburner when a waiter approaches you. "Welcome, what can I get ya?"

You force the closest thing to a smile you can manage, "Carmen Berzatto, if possible."

Just then, as if on cue, sounds of chaos flood out from the kitchen into the seating area. It doesn't really seem to bother any of the three tables enjoying their meal, but you are certainly a little shocked. You remember Mikey mentioning shit would get chaotic in back of house, but you'd never imagined it'd be this bad.

The waiter casually peers over his shoulder, pressing his lips in a thin line, "I can't promise you anything but I'll go ask. Who's asking for him?" He inquires, already uneasy at the thought of what he'll be met with in the kitchen.

"Mikey's girlfriend." You watch, in real time, as the poor guy's eyes hollow out in shock, his eyebrows raising impossibly high.

Despite being rattled by your response, he manages to clear his throat and murmur a quick, "Please wait here" before disappearing out of view.

Less than a minute later, the door to the kitchen swung open again, the man emerging from the kitchen shocking you with his lack of resemblance to Michael. Fair hair, bright blue eyes, overall soft features whereas Mikey was all sharp edges, dark brown hair and chocolate eyes.

He too, quite like his brother, is doing a poor job masking his confusion as he offers you a tattooed hand as a greeting, "Hi."

You take it, "Hi."

The rowdiness picks up yet again, causing Carmy to motion for you to follow him, "It's a little too loud in here." You nod and follow suit as he leads you out through a back exit to a fenced of area. He shuts the door, drowning out most of the noise before he turns back to face you, "Alright, tell me everything."

It takes all the will you have coupled with all the pride within you not to let yourself shed any tears as you sum up five of the best years of your life in front of this stranger. It gets especially hard when you see his eyes gloss over but you manage to keep it together. Your chest feels somewhat lighter once you bare one of the biggest secrets in your life, knowing there cannot be any repercussions now.

Because...well...he's gone.

"Fuck..." Is all Carmy can say to break the silence after you've concluded your story. His gaze is trained on the ground, his hand cupped around his mouth. He suddenly lifts his head to look at you, making you feel a little too exposed. Those eyes stare right through you. "Why didn't he ever tell us about you?"

You shrug, you have no real answer. You don't know why he would tell them but you're none the wiser as to why he didn't tell them either. So, you just stay quiet.

He nods, pausing for a second to collect his thoughts before speaking up again, "I-I gotta ask...did you suspect anything? Like, did you see any signs?"

You were expecting this. That doesn't mean it hurts any less to actually hear him ask it. You force yourself to inhale a shaky breath before replying, speaking around the knot in your throat, "No. I saw him that morning, he seemed fine. Nothing out of the ordinary. We were talking about the game. He was excited the Sox had won. He made us breakfast. I ironed his shirt for work and I sent him off. And...." You take a moment to maintain your composure, "...that was the last time I saw him."

"Fucking hell..." He sighs out, the curse pouring out from the depths of his soul. He takes a pack of cigarettes out of his back pocket, taking one and offering the pack to you, "You smoke?"

You shake your head, "Yeah, but I can't right now." You let out a bitter chuckle as you add on: "Last night...I found out I'm pregnant."

Carmy chokes on the puff he'd just inhaled, coughing out the smoke. He gives you a deer-in-headlights look, trying to gouge your reaction so he can mimic his accordingly. You help him out by giving him a slight smile, allowing him to reflect it back at you ten fold.

"No fucking way." He laughs, prompting you to nod, your eyes filling with tears for the millionth time today. He tosses his cigarette, motioning for you to approach him, "Come here." His arms wrap around you and you damn near break down, finally allowing yourself to shed those tears you've been holding back as you hug him back, squeezing him tightly.

You didn't realize how much you'd needed that hug, that comfort. You had no one to offer it to you. It's funny how quickly people can become important in our lives - in this case, only minutes after entering yours.

You're both startled when the door is thrown open revealing a man you don't recognize initially. His demeanor allows you to connect him to a name soon though.

"Cousin, what the fuck?! We're fighting a war in there...- oh, my bad." He straightens his attitude when he notices you, "Hi there."

Sniffling, Carmy wipes a stray tear before offering Richie a wide smile, "Cousin, we're gonna be uncles."

The confusion on his face provokes a laugh out of you, a genuine one at that. It's refreshing, nostalgic almost. And although you're well aware you'll have to retell your and Mikey's story several more times to catch people up to speed, you know that it'll be a little less dreadful each time.

* * * * *

It's over. The five minutes of utter hell and chaos are over.

You share a look of disbelief with Syd before bursting out in hysterical laughter, enveloping each other in a hug.

"We did it."

"We fucking did it."

Wiping sweat from your forehead with the back of your hand, you beam up at Richie who is equally as high on the feel of accomplishment. His arms wrap around you so tightly, he momentarily lifts you off the ground.

It's finally the calm after the storm. You can finally relax without waiting for the other shoe to drop.

You rush out to the dining are, going straight to Sugar and Pete's table where your one year old son is being entertained by the couple, cackling as Pete tickles his feet.

"Hope he wasn't too much trouble." You say as you approach their side, your voice prompting Sugar to get up and practically tackle you with upmost joy.

"Great job back there, Y/N." She beams at you, holding your hands tightly when she pulls away.

"You too, mama." You smile back, resting a hand over her swollen belly just in time to feel a kick.

Turning back to Calvin, you see him making grabby hands at you, giggling when you pick him up, peppering kisses all over his face, "Hi, baby!" You coo to him, adjusting his surprisingly still clean shirt. A fancy one, curtesy of Richie. Him, Fak and Calvin are in matching suits tonight and it's the most adorable thing. "Wanna go see uncle Carmy?"

It's ridiculous you even asked. The little boy cheers happily, kicking his feet as you carry him back to the kitchen, stopping in front of the freezer door to knock on it.

"What?!" You hear Carmy's rough voice boom from inside.

"Carmy!" Calvin calls out to his uncle, his tiny hands tapping on the freezer door, "Hiiii!"

"Hi Baby Bear." His tone has softened now, raising to an octave higher, "Your mommy is a badass, you know that."

"Oh he knows." You reply, resting your forehead on the cool metal, "We did it, Carm. We took care of it. Everything's handled, don't worry." You take this moment of calmness on his end to reassure him that no matter what anxieties are plaguing him, everything is and will be fine.

"I know you did, Y/N. You're an awesome team. Just wish I was in the fire with you, you know?" He says through a shaky breath, causing your heart to ache.

"Oh this was just the frying pan, dude. You'll be there for the many fires to come." Your words are successful in making him laugh, bringing you relief.

"I cook too!" Calvin proudly proclaims, making you both chuckle.

"You'll cook too, Teddy Bear. You'll be the best fucking chef ever." You gave up a while ago trying to shield Calvin from the sailor mouths of the Berzatto family and the restaurant as a whole. If he has a potty mouth from a very early age, you'll just blame it on his dad and uncles.

You never dreamed you'd find yourself in the cahoots of such a batshit crazy and immensely loving family. It really makes you feel a sense of fulfillment looking back at how far you've come and look forward knowing that you'll never come to a point where you'll be alone.

You'll always have your son, the Berzattos and The Bear by your side.

[vindaloo-softtech]

CallCentr8 is a complete WebRTC-based multi-tenant contact center solution that supports high call volumes and provides core features such as call scripting and disposition management, ACD, IVR, call recording, and real-time reporting. The software supports advanced call distribution methods and easily integrates with third-party business tools.

[saphronethaleph]

Life Support Issues

“All right, so… where do you have the plans?” the Rebel technician asked. “An R2 unit like this could have a hundred hiding places.”

R2 beeped and whistled.

“Ah, I see,” Threepio said. “Yes, Artoo has reminded me that in fact the plans are not only in a data card, but also redundantly stored inside his own system – that’s how he was able to access the systems so readily. He will be able to transfer them quite readily through a standard data access port.”

“We can get that set up, sure,” the tech agreed, gesturing, and his assistant brought over a cable.

As he did, though, Threepio looked with interest at his old friend and counterpart.

“Were you supposed to do that?” he asked.

R2 beeped again.

“Yes, I suppose it is a good thing that you did, but I’m asking if you were supposed to,” Threepio replied. “Don’t try and play semantics with me, Artoo.”

R2 provided a long string of bleeps and whistles, and C-3PO stepped back.

“You did?” he asked. “Oh my… well, I suppose I did ask you to do that first one.”

“Do what?” the tech asked, halfway through plugging in the cable.

“Well, we were on the Death Star,” C-3PO replied. “And while rescuing Princess Leia, Master Luke and their friends, I had Artoo shut down all the garbage compactors on the Death Star, and then open the door to the one that they were in. Artoo has informed he that, in fact, he opened all the entrances shortly before we left.”

He made a displeased noise. “In addition, he flushed all the drinkable water into the black water systems, raised the temperature in the food storage areas to two hundred and fourteen degrees centigrade, and sealed the doors to every lavatory on the ship. I am also reliably informed that the artificial gravity generators have been independently set to what he calls ‘shuffle’ and that the plumbing system on the Death Star is comprehensive enough to permit him to transport fluids randomly around the entire plumbing system through a series of several thousand distributed commands which trigger on and off at random, at times ranging from five minutes to three days.”

A pause.

“Also, that reversing the gravity in the shuttle and vehicle maintenance bays produced a quite satisfying crunching sound of valuable equipment breaking. Artoo, did you really have to do all of that?”

R2 whistled, helpfully.

“Yes, I suppose they did blow up Alderaan,” Threepio admitted. “I’m just worried that at this point we might be committing war crimes ourselves.”

“This is becoming ridiculous,” Tarkin said, as blaster fire crackled up and down the corridor. “Half the ship is fighting itself and the other half is trying desperately to find a fresher.”

The firing intensified outside, then Darth Vader loomed imperiously out of the door and the various factions went from exchanging fire to fleeing.

“Have you found anything about what happened?” the Sith Lord asked, returning his attention to Tarkin. “I could believe one of these failures was accidental, but this is clearly deliberate.”

“It has been a little hard to gather information,” the Grand Moff replied, testily. “Since my analyst team is having to defend their access to a shuttle bay which might have an intact shuttle and the last Star Destroyer to try and render assistance was destroyed by two thousand turbolaser batteries all firing on it at once on automatic. But clearly there has been some sort of unauthorized access.”

“The plans,” Darth Vader said, firmly. “The Princess clearly passed them off to someone. The same group as her rescuers… Kenobi’s team. Kenobi is dead, but the smuggler ship must have had a strike team…”

He trailed off.

“But this is the work of an expert slicer,” he resumed. “A normal commando team couldn’t have done this much damage this quickly.”

“There is a report that one of my analysts found,” Tarkin said. “That a golden protocol droid and a blue-white astromech droid were acting suspiciously near Docking Bay 327.”

“Ah,” Darth Vader said, his tone somewhat different. “That explains everything. In fact, I am suspicious that there must be something we have missed.”

“Vader?” Tarkin asked.

“R2 has left us something else,” Vader answered. “I can feel it.”

Tarkin started giggling.

“...ah,” Vader declared. “There it is.”

“Nitrous oxide?” C-3PO asked. “Really?”

R2 whistled.

“I don’t care if you had to improvise and that it’s easily produced from available life support gases,” C-3PO replied, shaking his head. “Really, R2.”

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

Did you know ???

𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝟏𝟗𝟔𝟗, 𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭 𝐚 𝐨𝐧𝐞-𝐨𝐟𝐟 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐭𝐲𝐩𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐩𝐭 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐁𝐨𝐬𝐬 𝟒𝟐𝟗 𝐌𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐠.

Known internally as the LID Mustang—short for Low Investment Drivetrain—this project aimed to fix the production model’s notorious weight distribution problem.

Instead of packing the heavy Boss 429 V8 up front, Ford’s engineers reversed the engine and mounted it over the rear wheels.

A Clever, Cost-Effective Makeover

Working with their Special Vehicles unit and a local Detroit skunkworks group called Kar Kraft, Ford took a standard Boss 429 engine paired with a C6 automatic transmission and installed it in a custom, removable rear subframe. A specially built transfer case rotated the power 180 degrees, feeding a modified 9-inch rear axle. This clever setup shifted the weight balance from a 60/40 front-to-rear split to a more promising 40/60, reducing wheelspin and potentially improving handling.

An Experiment That Didn’t Take Off

Despite the improved weight distribution, the mid-engine layout didn’t deliver a significant performance boost. With little more than reduced wheelspin to show for it, Ford decided not to pursue the idea further. At one point, reports in Motor Trend suggested the lone prototype was headed for the crusher at a Detroit-area salvage yard.

A Mysterious Disappearance

Recent whispers from credible Ford insiders, however, have added a twist to the tale. After its test program, the LID Mustang was parked at the Dearborn Proving Grounds with other test mules. Rather than being scrapped, the car seemingly vanished—leading some to believe it might be hidden away in a private garage somewhere in Dearborn or Allen Park, waiting for its moment to reemerge.

This story of wild innovation remains one of Ford’s most intriguing “what if” moments—a reminder that sometimes even the boldest experiments can slip quietly into legend.