Currently our salesteam uses a regular PBX. We have a small office with 15 member of the salesteam, and one manager. Each person on a own direct number.
We need to start to record the calls according to staterules, and wonder if we could set up an asterisk server that can handle that for us.
Our demands are somewhat different then the major ones in here, as we are on the second year of a four year lease deal for our lines. So IP phones are not in our demands at the moment.
What we are looking into is just getting a system that can record each and every call made and recieved, with some sort of search possibilities. What I mean is that if we for some reasson need to play of a call made say a month ago we will need to be able to search prefferabel on both day, number, time-of-day to find the actuall call, or to find the incoming call when people calls us with hidden number. If they call us with a hidden number we will track and locate the recording based on date, then time of day and maybe browse the incoming calls to find the correct one.
What kind of hardware will we need to make this work for us?
Will it be possible to make Asterisk work with leased lines?
What kind of storage is needed to record each and every call made in our callcenter for the past three months? I assume some kind of compression is used to make storage less of pain?
If I have asked the question in a way that makes it hard to understand please let me know so I can rephraze it. I might be of the langauge, english is not my native tongue you know.
You may get more response from biz forum, as this seems more involved than tech. But anyway, let me try to break down the questions.
First of all, a “regular PBX” can mean many different things. Some of them have built-in mechanism to either record or interface with an external recording system. Some of your fundamental options will depend on features of your existing PBX. Also, what is your leased line and how your PBX connects to it?
From a pure capability point of view, yes, it’s possible to use Asterisk for your purpose. But your special environment can make it less attractive, especially if your PBX has no built-in mechanism to interface with a recording system.
In this case, the first thing you need to think about is how to connect your leased line with Asterisk with PBX with end users. If your PBX is really vanilla, the only way to achieve what you need I can see is to use Asterisk to replace all functionality of your PBX plus recording/archiving, and use your PBX as a possible plain channel bank to connect end users - or simply eliminate the PBX from the picture.
For example, if your leased line is T1/E1, one way to do this is like
leased line ==> T1 card --> * --> T1 card --> PBX ::::> end users
||
storage
Asterisk might be good for your purposes but a lot hinges on relative costs and what type of lines you have on the lease? And, whether you are happy with your existing PBX’s functionality?
If you want the additional capabilities of Asterisk as a PBX plus have recording - then Asterisk may be the right solution for you.
If recording is the only aspect that you are concerned about, Asterisk seems like overkill. It’s far from trivial to set up Asterisk, interface with an existing PBX, get the recordings taking place tied into the CDR so that you can search and locate the recording you need.
For T1 24 channel recording - my company sells a stand alone solution for $1200 (plus you supply a decent PC with large HD running W2k or XP, with USB v2.0 port available) This includes software that helps you locate a given recording based on date/time, local line, callerid (if available).
For analog line (POTS) recording of 16 lines, $900 (plus your PC) with the same capabilities.
This is not a sales pitch - it’s just a basis for cost comparison. Asterisk will cost you whatever interfacing you need plus a reasonably well equipped PC running Linux. I would suggest 2.8 Pentium, 2g ram, 200g hard drive as a minimum for full time call logging plus PBX services on 16 lines.
You are almost certainly going to need some professional help setting it up - Asterisk as a PBX is a somewhat challenging install from scratch for a novice - adding the CDR info and logging the calls the way you need to do it, not a job for a novice. I know Asterisk can do it, but frankly - I would hire it done - wouldn’t tackle it myself. I’ve been playing with Asterisk for a few months but there’s a lot to learn.
Regardless of the way you go, you will need to set up a back-up method to archive older recordings. Logging every call in a busy call center uses up some serious real estate on a hard drive. Compressing the recordings helps but that eats resources.
[quote=“gllincoln”] If recording is the only aspect that you are concerned about, Asterisk seems like overkill. It’s far from trivial to set up Asterisk, interface with an existing PBX, get the recordings taking place tied into the CDR so that you can search and locate the recording you need.
For T1 24 channel recording - my company sells a stand alone solution for $1200 (plus you supply a decent PC with large HD running W2k or XP, with USB v2.0 port available) This includes software that helps you locate a given recording based on date/time, local line, callerid (if available).[/quote]
Yes at the moment what we need is actually the recording, and that will be it.
Let me know more about the solution you mentioned, even if it is a comercial one You could pm me or post is here whatever you feel like.
You could pm me or post is here whatever you feel like.