Can Asterisk used to set up a Call Center? Thanks

If can ,which .conf file would be used?

Asterisk can be used to setup a callcenter.

Look at qeues.conf and agents.conf

hi,

i’m basically new to this forum and found out asterisk and how it can make wonders with regards to voice networks. actually, we are planning on setting up a call center with 50 seats, my question is can asterisk this type of voice traffic and also, is asterisk flexible and adaptable in terms of, say, adding more seats in the current setup? how much bandwidth would then be used up?

also, what would be a typical setup for a call center using asterisk? a link or better yet a diagram showing this type implementation would be very much appreciated…

thank you very much…and expect more questions to follow…hehehe

:laughing:

Thank you Zoa!!

We did one implementation for a 400 seat callcenter, it can be done, but dont expect it to be click and play.

First you need to know what exactly do you need, inbound outbound, predictive dialing, some kind of campaing creation, CRM integration etc etc.

Will the calls be sent to a voip provider or to a pstn network ?
What codecs will you be using ?

a 50 seat callcenter might be a little over your head if you are new to asterisk, you will first need how to walk :smile:

thanks for the reply…
i would like to know what are the basic configuration needed or if there is a link that offers a tutorial on setting up an outbound based call center wherein all transactions are recorded or log and that agents are able to login into the system providing both time records and manageability of shifts.

also would a setup such as:

agents<—>asterisk 1 <—>voip<—>asterisk2<—>pstn<—>customers

suffice for a call center?

you’ve also mention the ques.conf and agents.conf…would these be the two configuration files that i must tinker to establish my setup?

are there any tutorials or sample configuration files or better yet a rundown of these two conf files and the importance of their function to such a setup?

thank you very much…have a nice day…

i dont know about any tutorials that handle all you will need, you might be able to find one that covers only the voip part.

The setups looks normal to me.

Those two files are indeed the 2 files you need to use.

Zoa.

hello again,

just a quick question: does asterisk records calls done by agents or will it need a third party application to do such task?
the recorded calls are needed for monitoring and assesstment purposes. thanks.

Asterisk can monitor calls, but dont try to record 200 calls simultaneously,

thanks, so it is most probably advisable to have a database separate from the asterisk server wherein calls are being dumped while being monitored by asterisk. is there a workaround on this? i mean is there a way to take the calls coming thru asterisk, record them, and then save them in a database for further processing later on?thanks…

It is possible, use the source luke :smile:

hi,

thanks zoa for the reply…i’m just curious though and i hope you don’t mind me asking if it is not much trouble to you and if it is alright, may i know what features you have implemented on the call center that you have setup consisting of 400 seats (that’s a lot! :smiley: )…i’m thinking that you probably made a cluster of asterisk and made one of them the primary server (am i right in my presumption?..correct me if i’m wrong)…can you provide some insigths on the pros and cons of a call center setup using asterisk?..also if it is ok with you may i know what line they had?..(t1, e1, ds3, etc) that they hooked up on their asterisk boxes…this is just to give me a bird’s eye view of how have implemented a call center using asterisk…thank you very much… :smile:

We send out all calls over trunked iax2 to another place, where they are terminated onto te410p cards.

The people are calling with a custom version of the idefisk telephone:
asteriskguru.com/idefisk_beta.html

with that kind of traffic, how does your asterisk server handle all that calls?..
i mean if you have used many asterisk server how would you make all of them communicate within the same LAN?..is it also thru iax? or is there a way to cluster asterisks servers to communicate on the same LAN thru a delegated primary asterisk server?..is there a way for this? if there is a link or url kindly direct me to it. thank you very much… :smile:

We do the loadbalancing with a customized version of the idefisk softphone, but you could do it with one asterisk server accepting all the calls and transfering them to other servers.

I have no link for that, sorry

thanks zoa for the reply. may i know what distros you used on the setup or what distor would you recommend for a call center setup?..would using debian advisable? also what are the specs of the machines to manage the type of calls being handled by a call center? many thanks :smiley:

The operating system doesnt really matter, we use debian.

The machines we use are all dual xeons or dual opterons. But i think we could do the same with simple p4s.

thanks again…just a few more questions…aside from asterisk have you used other hardware (like channel banks, etc.) or have you used asterisk only and iax compliant soft phones? also, just curious though on the flexibility of asterisk with regards to expansion of additional lines for users…i see that digium cards supoprt only up to 4 line for analog phones, how would you be able to add more lines?..is it by using a channel bank as i see this is the usual recommendation?..and would just any channel bank work with asterisk? what would be the usual setup/configuration for using asterisk with a channel bank? my apologies for the questions, just wanted some opinions regarding these issues…thank you very much. :smile:

hi all again,

i just want to clarify if a T1 line would be able to support a 24 voice channel does that mean that it would be able to handle 24 concurrent voice calls? if so, then would the TE410P card from digium support 24x4 concurrent voice calls (96 simultaneuos calls)? thanks

yes :smile: