please answer!!!

hello i am a student of university in software department.
i have a question about phone based database and its development.
i see a software that install in a school.
parents can comunicate whit school by telling a number.
in school this phone line connect to a computer.
parents hear a wellcome message,then they can select numbers from 1 to 9.
numbers doing special task,for example number 4 can help them to giving message of their childreen's teacher.
actually this system can connect to the database and edit or delete records of them.
every student have a id number that parents give them to system by pressing their number to telephone.
this number actually is password.
i dont know this technology!
can you help me about this technology!!!
i want to write a very simple program that same as one.
for example my program stand in a computer and talking a message and giving a number from user(in above,parents)
then say goodbye message then disconnect.
i know c language and in this term reading visual basic.
but if your help isnot code based i ___ .(a word like thank you very much).
your help in several way can help me,from suggesting a book to linking a webpage.
thank you.

majid please refer to the rules when posting for your subject type in the future.. Thanks

From what I can understand from your post it sounds like the school has some sort of system like a voicemail platform that allows the user to communicate between the database and such with touch tones.. More than likely this was written in some sort of unix shell.. I'm not familiar with this kind of thing however and can be wrong

This kind of reminds me of voice over IP maybe.. you can check more information on this on cisco's website: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk6...amily_home.html