I am shortly moving to a company that has a call center in place with roughly 100 agents. Their existing setup is unorganised and not at all flexible, not to mention it was extremely expensive. I have setup a standard pots based asteris system for 20 users so have some minor experience. I have no doubt that a trixbox type solution could be implemented on the premises to out do and modernise their existing setup.
I am not sure how to proceed or what to look at. Basically I would look to start testing an Asterisk system, that connects to an ISDN 30, uses an IVR, call queues etc. Everything that a call center would generally use.
Has anyone setup a call center on Asterisk, can you give advice? What about predictive diallers etc.
I assume that there is an ISDN equivelant card to use with Trixbox, what should I be looking at, any pitfalls problems.
Sorry for so many questions, but I need some advice from those that have implemented large call center systems.
[quote] I have no doubt that a trixbox type solution could be implemented on the premises to out do and modernise their existing setup.
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No it couldnt, for a 100 users you will need to design the system from scratch. also 100 agents will need 4 e1’s at least.
Wait till you move to the comany and see if THEY have any issues with what they have. Dont just assume they have issues.the cost is not going to be low either by the time you factor in time 100 new handsets, training, integrating the system into the back office systems etc.
But this is a commercial company whos revenue and ultimatly YOUR salary is based on the five 9’s reliabilty of that call center and by saying
[quote] I am not sure how to proceed or what to look at[/quote] realy means that you need to stay well clear for the time being.
Deploying and designing large systems is more about the soft design (Human interface and interaction) than about hardware and software.
Thanks for the reply, but I wasn’t very clear. I would not be looking to replace their system immediatly and would spend the next 2 to 3 months building up a test bed system, while learning and customising to fit.
The existing system does work, but it is very limited and is now restricting growth. They have reached the point where they will be needing to expand their existing system, but they are looking at similar equipment and it will no doubt cost a large amount and still be fairly restrictive.
I still have no doubt that an asterisk/trixbox/vicidial/sugarcrm type implementation can be built up to match their existing setup and allow us to slowly phase it out while accomadating the need for expansion.
I already know the company and systems quite well, and can see potential to save money and enhance their existing system. No assumptions have been made on their system, I already know it is not fit for purpose anymore.
What I’m looking for is advice and experiences of people that have already setup similar systems. I also know that trixbox/asterisk is widely used in large call centers so it is possible, and will more than likely save them a fortune. I know I’m looking at either BRI (pretty sure this is what they have) or PRI card for the server etc.
We use asterisk in callcenter. We have over 120 agents and 4 asterisk servers.
One server (3xE1 on sangoma cards) works for incoming calls - infoline for our clients(0-800,0-700 etc.) and backoffice
Second server (4xE1 - sangoma cards) works as registrar for sip clients (we use our own softphone based on VaxVoip library) and sip router.
Two last servers we used to GSM calls (4x vGSM card - 4 sim on each)
and everything work sfine
[quote=“Craig”] Basically I would look to start testing an Asterisk system, that connects to an ISDN 30, uses an IVR, call queues etc. Everything that a call center would generally use.
Has anyone setup a call center on Asterisk, can you give advice? What about predictive diallers etc.
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I was primarily talking about Asterisk, my original post wasn’t clear. Although I have seen a few people talking about running call centers on Trixbox, and as the underlying structure is still Asterisk I would have thought it was possible in both cases although possibly with slightly different tweaks.
So I’m looking at multiserver? What’s the best way to decide on the split, one for inbound and one for outbound/predictive? From what I’ve read there seem to be quite a few asterisk/trixbox call center implementations out there. Will be an interesting R&D project methinks.
