Asterisk for Call Centers

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Asterisk for Call Centers

Considerations for Asterisk as Call Center telephony platform

There are several considerations while building a technology platform for call center. Telecom in general and telephony in particular are migrating to VoIP. Asterisk being the dominant hybrid PBX, provides an excellent telephony platform for call centers, with its seemless interface to both TDM (PRI T1/E1) and VoIP (SIP/IAX/H323). The sheer number of applications available within Asterisk makes is the overwhelming choice for both TDM and VoIP telephony (switch) platform. With Asterisk as the telphony switch, contact centers will still require a feature rich call center software ACD that can satisfy all the functional requirements, out of the box. The ACD has to be scable to grow with the call center. Q-Suite is an ideal ACD for call centers using Asterisk as PBX.

Scaling Asterisk with Call Center growth

Scaling is an important consideration in the selection of contact center technology platform to accommodate on going growth in call centers. Asterisk runs on x86 hardware and the processing power is limited by the smotherboard and its CPU. This will impose an upper limit on the number concurrent calls that can be processed by the CPU. Requirements like voice recording and transcoding consume CPU power as well. Therefore the call center solution should be scalable to multiple Asterisk servers. ACD within the contact center software should be able to handle multiple Asterisk telephony servers to accommodate larger inbound call handling capacity. Q-Suite ACD design will scale to multiple Asterisk servers with growth.

Q-Suite ACD for Asterisk based Call Centers

Group calls by DID/DNIS/ANI or other unique incoming identifiers
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
ACD call handling based on time of the day scheduling as well as holidays and special occasions
Ability to register agents who will be allowed to take incoming calls
Provide call information (referred to as call pop-up) to agents before handing over the call
Skills-based routing to route calls to the most appropriate agent available
Queue Prioritization based on business factors for the same type of calls
Ability to log agents into all the queues for which they have required skills
Provide required telephony functions like transfers, conferences etc

Redundancy, High Availability and Mid-call recovery

Indosoft call center ACD software Q-Suite can provide redundant, high availability setup for call centers. It offers call recovery for single point of failures. Q-Suite comes with a Socket and .NET API to allow CTI integration to existing applications. Q-Suite call center ACD makes it a lot simpler to migrate to Asterisk as a telephony platform.

Q-Suite - Indosoft Call Center ACD Software for Asterisk

If you are looking for call centre ACD software for setting up an Asterisk based contact center, look no further than Q-Suite. The effectiveness of Q-Suite based contact center technology platform using Asterisk will become obvious when you look at the features, ease of setup, and the value for money. Q-Suite is a multi-tenant, call center software with an ACD which can scale to multiple Asterisk servers. Redundant Q-Suite ACD setup has built in call recovery fail-over mechanism to protect on-going and future calls from single point of failure.

This call center software offers almost all important features that you require for your contact center, right 'out of the box'. It provides customizable Web interface for Agent as well a good .NET based API for embedding and integrating the CTI to your custom applications and CRM. It comes with a sophisticated ACD capable of queue prioritization and skills based routing . The contact center agents can work in blended mode on both inbound services and outbound calling campaigns.

The Script building tool within the call center software is powerful enough to satisfy the requirements of most inbound and outbound contact centers. The script builder comes with an array of drag and drop tools to develop powerful scripts that will fulfill requirements ofmeet the demands of most sophisticated script building requirements.

Cradle to grave reporting is an intrinsic component of the call center software CDR. There are detailed reporting for Agent productivity, Queue and Agent Statistics, Performance reporting, Wallboards and other necessary metrics to manage the operations of your contact center. Voice recording and Listening are built into the standard feature set of the call center software.

Multi-tenant

A Multi-tenant call center software permits segregation of different contact center tenants into separate partitions. This feature is especially useful for hosted providers of contact center service. The Indosoft call center software Q-Suite and the Indosoft PBX iHostPBX are both multi-tenant enabled software capable of scaling to multiple Asterisk. The super-user has the ability to setup and allocate trunks that each tenant can use. All the customizations are available to the tenant. Within each tenant there are various privilege levels to allow the tenant to effectively manage the contact center operations. A single tenant can run multiple contact center operations.

ACD

Automatic Call Distribution
Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) refers to the ability of the call center software to manage, route and handle interactions. The Q-Suite provides one of the finest ACD for any call center software and is specifically designed to run on Asterisk. The ACD comes with a powerful Dialplan builder for creating sophisticated IVR (Interactive Voice Response). Every call routed to an agent will have detailed call pop-up with DID/DNIS, campaign and Queue information. The ACD is linked to the scripts allowing not only the pop-up of the call and queue detail but also the relevant script including web applications and CRM.

Key ACD Features

Time of the Day, Day of the week, Calender scheduling
IVR creation with a sophisticated GUI Dialplan Builder and XML interface to data sources
Multiple DID/DNIS per inbound contact center service
Queue prioritization, Multiple Music On Hold, Service Level, Branching
Skills based routing (Agent skill assignment, Queue Skill assignment)
Script builder
Custom Call Dispositions and Wrap-up codes
DND and Custom DND
Detailed CDR
Transfers (Live, Assisted and Consultative)
Detailed Cradle to Grave Reporting
Detailed Live Wall Board

Agent Interface

Agent Web Interface
Q-Suite offers web browser agent screen that can be customized and controlled using a powerful set of tools available within the call center software. An extremely sophisticated Script Builder for creation of scripts with custom variables and embedded URL like any web enabled CRM or web-sites. Custom disposition or wrap-up codes as well as custom DND codes allow for detailed reporting of agent activity.

Agent Web Screen Features

Configurable Agent Screen
Customizable Screen Layout and Contents
Customizable Wrap codes / Disposition
Custom Break/DND codes
Transfers (Blind/3-way/Consultative)
Nail-up and Dial-in feature for Voice
Multi-page scripts
Client - Info and Incoming Call Details

Agent .NET API integration
Q-suite offers a very powerful .NET library as well as an OCX library to integrate CTI software into your existing custom and native client applications. The .NET API provides complete access and interface to the call center software and its CTI database. This provides you with the opportunity to make the call center software and its CTI engine to work under the hood with your custom CRM or application.

Socket API integration
Q-suite offers comes with a socket library to allow eas integration of your existing custom CRM or application to the call center software and its database. If you are looking to migrate your vertical application to Asterisk and need a powerful CTI engine with a fully developed ACD, the Q-Suite socket API will provide all the hooks and interface to this powerful call center software.

Dialer

Outbound Dialer
Q-Suite offers an extremely proficient dialer available within its call center software suite for Asterisk. Predictive, Preview and Agent ready dialer modes are concurrently available within the call center software solution. The Predictive dialer is self-pacing and compliant to FCC regulations.

Key Dialer Features

Predictive, Preview and Agent ready dialer
Monitor List performance and alter List priority
Time of the Day Enforcement
NPA-NXX call time scheduling for the Dialer
Multiple concurrent predictive dialer campaigns
Dropped call recording in the predictive dialer mode
Concurrent predictive and preview dialer mode for the same campaign
Predictive dialer connects within milliseconds, to hear the 1st 'Hello'
Callbacks scheduling
Script builder
Custome Call Dispositions and Wrap-up codes
DND and Custom DND
Ansering Machine Detection
Transfers (Live, Assisted and Consultative) and Third Party Verification calls
Detailed Cradle to Grave Reporting

Contact Center Reports

Indosoft call center software offers detailed cradle to grave reporting for both inbound and outbound contact center operations. These reports cover every aspect of the contact center operations. Agent performance, lead performance, queue performance and media cost performance can be easy monitored. A detailed CDR reporting is also generated by the call center software.

Inbound contact center reports

Real-time Agent Status
Real-time Queue Status
Agent Time Profile
Queue Performance Report
Agent Queue Performance Report
Agent Disposition & Wrap-up Report
Media Dollar Call Tracking (DNIS/DID)
Live Listening
Listening to Voice Recording
Custom Reports

Outbound contact center reports

Real-time Agent Status
Real-time Dialer Status
Agent Time Profile
Custom Disposition Report
General Performance Report
Lead Performance Report
Real-time Dialer Performance Graph
Live Listening
Listening to Voice Recording
Custom Reports

Script Builder

Within the call center software, you will find one of the most powerful web based script builder available for contact center solutions on Asterisk. This script builder tool is an invaluable tool in developing scripts, integrating web applications and creating custom variables for your outbound campaign or inbound services. With ability to create multiple script pages, it is possible to have surveys and scripts with branching to the different pages. Simple applications like 'Help Desk' or 'Trouble Ticket' are easy to create and integrate into the call center software. You can embedd your Web pages and applications with the script with a click of a button.

Script Builder Features

GUI based WYSWYG Script builder
Embedd Text with data from the leads and system
Create different types of custom fields
Trigger various actions like call recording
Multi-page script with jump from one page to other based on customer response
Integrate your web applications
Open web application by passing parameters in the command line within the Script Builder
Assign Scripts to Lists (outbound) and Queues(inbound)

Dialplan Builder

Dialplan builder is a GUI tool to develop IVR and call routing in Asterisk from within the call center software. It is an extremely powerful tool to develop call flow. It has an elaborate set of functions to process an incoming call and decide its routing and managements.

Dialplan Builder Features

GUI based WYSWYG Dialplan builder
Create sophisticated IVR
Database interface
Branch options
Branch to Queues
Branch to Other Dialplans
Integrate to Web services
Create Billing events for IVR
Library of functions for IVR

Our PBX interface

The iHostPBX by Indosoft is a complete GUI to setup, manage and run your phone system. Built upon Asterisk PBX, it can handle your requirements,whether you are a small or large premise based organization looking for a stable sophisticated phone switch or a service provider offering multi-tenant hosted service. A key ingredient to any good phone system regardless of your industry domain or size, has to be able to grow, adapt, and change with the increasing demands and requirements. The iHostPBX not only meets those demands head on buit will exceed them by provide your organization with the savings, flexibility and freedom to take them to the next level.

Dialplan Builder Features

Setup and management of multiple trunks
Setup various types (SIP, Skype, IAX, TDM, H323)
Setup and management of multiple auto-attendants and DIDs
Time of day routing, multi-level IVR auto attendant creation
Creation of administrative and end-user accounts and extensions
Creation of ring groups and call queues
Manage call recordings
Setup and management of voicemail (mailboxes, voicemail to email, voicemail folders)
Access and creation of custom feature/star codes.
Music-on-Hold management
Creation and management of conference rooms
Access to the iHostPBX script library

FAQ - Indosoft call center software for Asterisk, Q-Suite

When do we need a call center software for Asterisk?

If your contact center uses Off-Hook agents logged into multiple queues and you require skills based routing and queue prioritization, you will require a call center software with a good ACD functionality. You may have experienced difficulty in enforcing queue prioritization, queue balancing and skills based routing with agent in Asterisk due to a variety of reasons. queue implementation in Asterisk works differently. An ACD specifically meant to handle contact center operation will provide a variety of features like scripts, pop-up and script associated to calls (DID/DNIS), Dispositions and Wrap-ups as well as craddle to grave reporting.

How do you license Indosoft contact center software Q-Suite?

Indosoft call center software is licensed on a per Asterisk server connection to Q-Suite. We do not impose any per agent seat license for the contact center. The one time license gives you perpetual right to use the software. We will provide the required know-how to source the hardware for the call center infrastructure as well as perform the required installation through remote access. This applies to both TDM using PRI or VoIP using SIP.

What are the feature sets of the Indosoft call center software?

The Indosoft call center software Q-suite is designed to be an out of the box complete contact center technology solution. The details listed above.

Does Indosoft call center software solution permit blending?

Yes. Indosoft call center software allows blending. A blended contact center agent will be in both outbound campaign as well as inbound service. The agent can be in a predictive dialing campaign making outbound call as well as take calls coming into an inbound DID.

What kind and type of hardware is required for the call center software suite?

Hardware is a key determinant in the capacity of any Asterisk based contact center. Everything from voice recording, CODEC conversion, predictive dialing and total number of concurrent voice conversations consume hardware resources. Standard basic single Qsuite license requires two hardware servers for the default installation of the call center software. Quad core processors, hardware RAID, 15 RPM for the HD, in excess of 8GB RAM and redundant power supply are essential to the server. Voice recording and CODEC voice compression will also require processing power and RAM. If you are using Digium or Sangoma TDM hardware for Asterisk, it is preferable that you do not use more than 6 PRI E1/T1 ports in a single Asterisk server because of the interrupt demands. An enterprise grade contact center has many requirements and the planning should be conservative as the cost of hardware is relatively less compared to the cost of disruption to service. Indosoft call center software installation uses one server for Apache/MySQL and the other server for Asterisk/Q-suite(Indosoft call center software for Asterisk).

Can we use Skype for Asterisk as a part of the contact center solution with your call center software Q-suite?

Yes. Skype for Asterisk can take advantage of the Skype connectivity and its calling rates to make calls. Skype interconnectivity to Asterisk allows Asterisk users to make use of Skype's superior codec and voice quality for VoIP. Skype also provides business control panel to manage the accounts. There is a one time per license fee cost associated with Skype For Asterisk for the channel driver for Asterisk based systems. Adding Skype for Asterisk to any Asterisk server will enable access to the Skype network, its PSTN access and Skype users.

We have our own CRM and agent application. Can we integrate with your call center software to use Asterisk?

We provide a powerful set of API for .NET and well as a socket interface to integrate your application to our CTI Engine. We also have a set of XML interface to our database. It allows your special application to take advantage of the ACD and the Dialer for Asterisk. You organization might have invested and developed powerful user-interface for managing applications like collections, mortage approval, trouble-ticket and specialized domains. It is a straight forrward exercise to integrate the CTI engine of our call center software using our powerful set of API.

Can we get access to the call center software for evaluation?

Yes. After reviewing a web demo of our call center software and determining that it meets the requirements for your call center solution, we will be glad to provide you with access to real working contact center setup at hosted sites.

How long have you been deploying Asterisk based call center software?

We started migrating our contact center software in early 2003. By late 2003, we were deploying Asterisk based call center solutions. Over the next 2 years we rebuilt our ACD to work efficiently with Asterisk. In 2008, we started deploying the multi-tenant version of our call center software suite for Asterisk software.