I am posting this as I believe there are others in my situation.
This also might give some service providers ideas about what they want to work on.
I am a IT manager, not an IT guy per se. I have spent some time working my way through this jargon maze 
. After much back and forth I now believe I know what I need.
I have searched the web, gone over dozens of company sites in this industry.
Many of them claim to do pretty much “everything”, that statement is not worth much to me.
A general problem is that they all assume a very high level of technical knowledge. None of them even have a glossary of terms, I find that astounding. As if the only ones they cater to are other technical people. A lot of people are involved in this industry, from management to directors to journalists etc. Getting things down to understandability should be a priority.
If you know of any company that can provide the service I need, please provide links of company website, thank you very much!
I need a server (dedicated or virtual) with:
Linux
Asterisk
MySQL
I need full access to the Asterisk server, root access.
I need to have the Asterisk server set ut to the specifications below, and then take it from there myself.
I need a flexible approach, not a “fully integrated telephony system” that is rigidly set up.
Is someone has made a user friendly interface to the Asterisk server that would be great.
The Asterisk server must be set up to receive about 100 DID’s to start with in a testing phase.
At least 50-100 simultaneous calls should be possible.
The inbound calls will be answered with just a busy signal for now in the test phase. Later I will need more, but this is good for now. So I do not need all the telephony stuff now, that will come later.
The Asterisk will produce a call log.
The call log will be put into the local MySQL database.
The database will export the call log data out to a different server on the net with a different MySQL database.
This export will need to be done near real time using say something like Pentacoast Kettle.
That’s about what I need.
It should be:
- A decent size company with 24/7/365 support (not a one or two man band).
- A company that understands that I am not as technical as them and can provide some support and guidance.
- Based in a developed country, preferably northern Europe or USA.
- Upfront on cost and pricing. Setup cost and monthly maintenance cost.
- A hosted Asterisk server as a standard product, not an expensive custom job.
- Ability to do minor customizations on an upfront hourly rate.
- Ability to grow with the customer, I am in development phase, and expect rapid growth later.
- A decent website that will explain what they do (not just a page that says “We are IP experts and can do anything”).
Some decent reference cases on the website that I can easily check.
Thats it really, not much.
Thanks for any tips and links.