asterisk users - Jan 2004 - Asterisk vs. Websphere Voice Response?

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I am a collaboration consultant doing some research for a major client who
has a problem.  They have an existing IBM Direct Talk 2 IVR which they were
going to upgrade to the current Websphere product, but choked on the price.
My task is to find out the following:

1. The spec calls for a 24 analog line system with a fairly sophisticated
response matrix using SQL into Oracle & text-to-speech (among other
things).  Is Asterisk in the same class of product as Websphere, or is it
for a more straightforward "voicemail" office environment?
2. I assume Asterisk runs on PC class servers using PCI cards for incoming
lines.  Can the hardware side of a 24 line system be put together for less
than $10K, or is it typically a lot more than that?
3. Can Asterisk be administered and/or programmed remotely?
4. Is Asterisk being used by any Fortune 500 companies in mission critical
settings that you know of?

Sorry for the general nature of the questions; although I use and promote
open source products such as Linux, I am not that familiar with IVR
servers.  Thanks for any help you can give me...

Sincerely,

E.A. (Ted) Thomas, CEO
eThomasGroup.biz
"Collaboration for Business"
502-802-6130
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On Thu, 2004-01-22 at 21:32, Ted.Thomas wrote:
> 
> 
> (Embedded image moved to file: pic18467.gif)
> 
> I am a collaboration consultant doing some research for a major client who
> has a problem.  They have an existing IBM Direct Talk 2 IVR which they were
> going to upgrade to the current Websphere product, but choked on the price.
> My task is to find out the following:
> 
> 1. The spec calls for a 24 analog line system with a fairly sophisticated
> response matrix using SQL into Oracle & text-to-speech (among other
> things).  Is Asterisk in the same class of product as Websphere, or is it
> for a more straightforward "voicemail" office environment?
I don't know what all websphere does, so I can't comment on it
directly.  24 lines, no problem, but don't do it analog. SQL/oracle also
no problem. Text to speach.... This is where an acceptable quality is
the problem. Festival is freely available, but requires a long time and
a lot of work to make it sound good. So the answer is not out of the
box, but it can be made into soo much more.
> 2. I assume Asterisk runs on PC class servers using PCI cards for incoming
> lines.  Can the hardware side of a 24 line system be put together for less
> than $10K, or is it typically a lot more than that?
T1 card 1 port(24 lines) $500, T1 card 4 ports(96 lines) $1500. So yes.
> 3. Can Asterisk be administered and/or programmed remotely?
Do you understand how to work on a linux machine? SSH, X tunneling, VNC,
whatever, of course it can.
> 4. Is Asterisk being used by any Fortune 500 companies in mission critical
> settings that you know of?
Are you a sheep? If so, go back to choking on the cost of the IBM
product. If you are ready to do your own work, come on in. Just be aware
that while you will definately save in hardware costs, you may incur a
fair amount of cost in hours learning and building or else you hire
someone to do it for you.
> Sorry for the general nature of the questions; although I use and promote
> open source products such as Linux, I am not that familiar with IVR
> servers.  Thanks for any help you can give me...
Question 3 makes me wonder about how much you know.
-- 
Steven Critchfield <critch@basesys.com>

Hi!
> 1. The spec calls for a 24 analog line system with a fairly sophisticated
> response matrix using SQL into Oracle & text-to-speech (among other
> things).  Is Asterisk in the same class of product as Websphere, or is it
> for a more straightforward "voicemail" office environment?
Not knowing the prodcut that you want to compare to: Same class.
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+introduction
> 2. I assume Asterisk runs on PC class servers using PCI cards for incoming
> lines.  Can the hardware side of a 24 line system be put together for less
> than $10K, or is it typically a lot more than that?
Far less. Did you inlcude the phones in those $10k?
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+Hardware
> 3. Can Asterisk be administered and/or programmed remotely?
Yes. Even though there is still a lack of comfortable management tools a 
simple secure shell does it.
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+GUI
> 4. Is Asterisk being used by any Fortune 500 companies in mission critical
> settings that you know of?
No clue, people always hide their company names, but read this:
http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+hardware+recommendations

Cheers, Philipp

Thanks for all your responses on this, but on and off line... I got my
questions answered, at least for now.

E.A. (Ted) Thomas, CEO
eThomasGroup.biz
"Collaboration for Business"
502-802-6130

__________________


I am a collaboration consultant doing some research for a major client who
has a problem.  They have an existing IBM Direct Talk 2 IVR which they were
going to upgrade to the current Websphere product, but choked on the price.
My task is to find out the following:

1. The spec calls for a 24 analog line system with a fairly sophisticated
response matrix using SQL into Oracle & text-to-speech (among other
things).  Is Asterisk in the same class of product as Websphere, or is it
for a more straightforward "voicemail" office environment?
2. I assume Asterisk runs on PC class servers using PCI cards for incoming
lines.  Can the hardware side of a 24 line system be put together for less
than $10K, or is it typically a lot more than that?
3. Can Asterisk be administered and/or programmed remotely?
4. Is Asterisk being used by any Fortune 500 companies in mission critical
settings that you know of?

Sorry for the general nature of the questions; although I use and promote
open source products such as Linux, I am not that familiar with IVR
servers.  Thanks for any help you can give me...

Sincerely,

E.A. (Ted) Thomas, CEO
eThomasGroup.biz
"Collaboration for Business"
502-802-6130