FreePBX and Call Center

General Help
1

Hi ,

I’m working as an IT for a company with 50+ extensions.
We have a support line that currently has no call center capabilities , but we would like to upgrade and move to a more advanced system.
Our system has a PRI 30 with 400 DIDs.

We’re interested in a system with queue management / announcements for caller on queue / actual average waiting time for the “main” line, graphical (maybe web) view for managers on missed calls etc etc.

is can i Achieve something like this with freepbx? what are my options ?

Any input is highly appreciated .

Thank you !

2

Have you ever used Open Source software before? The system has a highly capable Queue package and several add ons are available for reporting.

3

yes I’ve used Trixbox a while back ,
I have it running on one of our small branches working fairly well without maintenance.
does the queue system has the option to play music on hold (radio, mp3 etc. ) can you play the place on queue every XX seconds ?
do you have any experience with the reports ?
are those Realtime reports ? (auto refresh with the current queue , avrage wait time , missed calls , etc etc. )

Thanks for your reply !

4

If you ran trixbox than your are familiar with an older version of FreePBX that trixbox ran.

Take a look at all of the options in Queue module.

The reason I asked if you are familiar with open source is since it is free you should install a copy and see if the features meet your needs.

As far as real time Queue reports, take a look at www.asternic.org, the same people that write FOP. The queue report module does what you want.

5

nice !
I’ll look into that ,
do you have any recommendations regarding Hardware ?
phones / PRI cards ? etc etc.

6

right now I’m using a Telrad 400 Telecom.
does the job other than the Call Center / Queues.
I’m from Israel. not sure if it’s relevant.

Thanks !

7

The Aastra phones are the ultimate for call centers. They have an application that allows you to log in and log out of the queue and see queue status on the display. They are widely distributed in Israel.

As far as hardwre it doesn’t matter. Any server class HP, Dell or Supermicro box will work like a champ. I am partial to HP’s because they have easy to install management utilities for Linux.

8

How about PRI card ?
also , Which Aastra phone model do you recommend ? I see theres quite a price range.

Thanks

9

You need to use the 6757i, they have a large enough display to make the call center features meaningful.

You can get away with the 6755i’s. While the 6731i’s support the full feature set but anything beyond just logging in and out of the queue requires quite a bit of scrolling. The sound quality is the same on all of them.

10

THanks for your help so far .

11

What kind of card will I need to connect with the PRI 30 lines that I have ?
how can I tell ?

Thanks !

12

I am not sure I understand your question, especially the “how can I tell” part.

You need a card capable of terminating an E1 circuit that is compatable with Asterisk.

The big three vendors (in no particular order) are Digium, Sangoma and Rhino.

Openvox makes quality, economical cards. Hundreds of vendors make the so called “clone” cards and I would avoid them.

13

Sorry ,
What I ment was , I have a PRI 30 channel of Telrad.
and I wasn’t sure which card is the “Asterisk version”.
does E1 mean “PRI 30” and I only have to choose from the different vendors that are compatible with Asterisk preferably Digium Sangoma / Rhino ?
How crucial is the echo cancelling on these cards I see there is quite a price jump when you choose echo cancelling.
when configuring the DIDs does it have anything to do with the cards or is it only on the FreePbX configuration (I only have an experience with analog cards.)

Thanks .

14

PRI refers to the type of ISDN line. The transport is still an E1.

I have never had a need for hardware echo cancellation on digital circuits. You are outside the US so I can’t comment.

DID’s have nothing to do with the cards.

15

Hi ,
on your previous post you mentioned :
“You need to use the 6757i, they have a large enough display to make the call center features meaningful.”

I’ve started going over the features of the phones .
the phones looks impressive.
I’m trying to figure out the differences between my current phones and the 57i.
if you’re aware of these and could kindly answer I would appreciate it.

  1. Is it possible to get a second dial tone with the 57i ?
  2. I see that the 57i has no light fields button , how do you approach busy lights field ?
  3. can you set up record on demand for the 57i. will this feature work for the end user even if the user is a part of a queue and the queue is being auto recorded.

Thanks.

16

I suggest you also take a look at the Aastra XML docs so you can see the entire extent of what the Queue module can do with that phone. The phone specs don’t go into the XML scripts. I don’t have a link handy for the Administrators guide, hopefully someone else can chime in.

In answer to your question:

1 - The phone has four line appearance keys, more can be added to the soft keys. What do mean by “pull a second dialtone”

2 - The 57i has 12 buttons with LED’s that work as BLF’s

3 - Yes you can set a button to dial the *1 code in a call

17
  1. 2nd Dial tone : today when we dial 9 we get a a second dial tone indicating we are dialing out.
    on freepbx I’ve dealt with the user has to dial all the no in a row and then the pbx either connects him or gives him an error message. it’s a little different when you go from the 2nd dial tone point of view. thats all.
    2 - the 12 buttons , part of them are for incoming pstn lines or they’re all internal ?
  2. the *1 is silent ?

do you happen to know of any hebrew support ip phones , do you have any opinion on SNOM phones ?

Thanks .