Automated Phone Calls Via Workflow???

Sure, you've got four workflow actions that you can choose from when setting up your fancy new automated processes.

• Tasks
• Email Alerts
• Field Updates
• Outbound Messages

What if I said you could extend this to include:

• Automated Calls
• Pre-recorded messages
• Robot voice messages (text-to-speech)
• Text messages

Pretty sweet right?  Check out Call-em-All.  Let's get it out of the way now... I'm not affiliated with them and they were just a lucky Google search result that I found when searching for broadcast messaging solutions. Sign up for an account and then register for API authorization to get some test credits.

Through the GUI, you can setup call broadcasts; essentially the same as a mass e-mail, but with phone calls.  It's an easy service as all you do is upload your calls list (first name, last name, phone number) and record a message to be played.

They've got a great API that comes loaded with documentation, code samples, and a staging environment. 

You can leverage this to create some Apex that can be initiated by a button/link click, scheduled, or yes...even a trigger.

In the following sample, I will be initiating a call broadcast from my Opportunity by updating the Stage. Utilizing their text-to-speech feature, the call will dynamically include the Opportunity's name and stage. There will be two parts; the class and the trigger.

First, the class (excuse the body as it's lengthy):

public class Call_em {
@future (callout=true)
    public static void callMe(string a, string b){
        string Name = a;
        string stage = b;
        string username = 'username';
        string pin = 'pin';
        string broadcast_type = '1';
        string phone_number_source = '3';
        string broadcast_name = 'SAMPLE API Broadcast';
        string caller_id = 'caller_id';
        string PhoneNumbers = 'phonenumbers';
    string TTSText = 'This is a test call for the' + Name +' opportunity. The stage has been set to ' + stage;
        string proxy = 'http://staging-api.call-em-all.com/webservices/CEAAPI_v2.asmx?WSDL';

        HttpRequest req = new HttpRequest();
        req.setMethod('POST');
        req.setEndpoint('http://staging-api.call-em-all.com/webservices/CEAAPI_v2.asmx?WSDL');
        req.setHeader('Host', 'api.call-em-all.com');
        req.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/xml; charset=utf-8');
        req.setHeader('SOAPAction', 'http://call-em-all.com/ExtCreateBroadcast');
        string bod = ''+username+''+pin+''+TTSText+''+TTSText+''+broadcast_name+''+broadcast_type+''+caller_ID+''+PhoneNumbers+''+phone_number_source+'';

        req.setbody(bod);

        Http http = new Http();
        HTTPResponse res = http.send(req);

        System.debug('These were the results: ' +res.getBody());
    }
}

And the trigger:

trigger Opportunity on Opportunity (before update){
    for(Opportunity o: trigger.new){
        if(yourcriteriahere!){
            Call_em.callMe(o.Name,o.StageName);
        }
    }
}

Explanations: I've kept the class as simple as possible for now. Ideally, you would probably not want to create a new broadcast every time the trigger was initiated. You would want to create your broadcast in advance and add the new number to it.
Note that the method is annotated with @future and callout=true. This is required as the trigger will make the callout asynchronously. The first part of the class is just setting up some variables. Looking at it, I don't think I used the proxy variable. My trigger will feed it two strings (yum); the Opportunity Name and the Opportunity Stage. I then create the new POST HTTPRequest, decalre the endpoint, and set up a few headers. Notice that my endpoint is set to their "staging" URL. I would recommend that this be set to a variable so that you could toggle between their staging and production environments relatively easily.

The trigger speaks for itself. You can use the "Call_em.callMe(o.Name,o.StageName)" line as an action for a button or even modify it to be used in a schedule Apex class.

Once you get this sample working, dig around in their API a little bit. You should be able to leverage existing broadcasts, modify lists, send text messages and so much more!

API Documentation: http://www.call-em-all.com/dev/docs.aspx

</end sales pitch> ...just kidding