asterisk users - Jul 2004 - Asterisk as plain PABX in call centre

Hi all,

I've been lurking here and reading the Wiki for a month or so now,
getting information on the suitability of Asterisk for my
installation.

I'm responsible for the technical stuff at a mostly-inbound call
centre in Melbourne, Australia. Due to our rapid expansion, it's
getting close to the time to put our old beloved Fujitsu 9600 PABX out
to pasture. I'm evaluating different options, both hardware-based and
Asterisk, to go forward.

Right now, we've got a single ISDN line, with a 100-number block
attached to it, and 30 incoming lines. There is also a small handful
of PSTN lines that we need to maintain for historical purposes. Our
phones are all Fujitsu AT-class models - about 30 of them. I'd like to
hang on to them if I can, but it's looking less and less likely,
unless I keep the Fujitsu PABX and run Asterisk in parallel somehow.
We've also got a dozen or so plain analogue lines, used for fax
machines, fax modems (Hylafax!), answering machines (real ones!) and
other assorted weird stuff.

Personally, I like Asterisk, and I'd like to be able to recommend it
to the Directors as The Way To Go. I like the flexibility, the
programmability, the database friendliness, and the openness of the
code and architecture. Terminating calls through VoIP isn't that
important to us right now, but it's a great enabling technology, and
I'm looking forward to implementing it later on. Essentially though,
right now we're looking to use Asterisk as a pretty much ordinary
PABX: voicemail, call queues, call parking, music on hold, etc etc.
Nothing particularly envelope-pushing. If I can avoid using IP or SIP
phones right off the bat, so much the better.

This is *the* most important thing to our business. Changing anything
about how our phones work makes me very nervous (and the Directors
even more so). So in order to convince myself, and the Directors too,
I need some testimonials from people using Asterisk in a call centre
environment. There must be some people out there doing it. How did you
pull it off? What equipment are you using? What do I need to watch out
for along the way?  How's it working out for you now? I'd like to be
able to go to the Directors with as much backup as possible. "Here are
a bunch of similar setups, all working great and saving money".

Thanks very much, in advance.

....jurgen

-- 
thinger@gmail.com is jurgen's gmail address.
Check out http://jurgen.ca/ for more yummy goodness.

On Tue, 2004-07-13 at 12:50, jurgen wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I've been lurking here and reading the Wiki for a month or so now,
> getting information on the suitability of Asterisk for my
> installation.
Great start...
> I'm responsible for the technical stuff at a mostly-inbound call
> centre in Melbourne, Australia. Due to our rapid expansion, it's
> getting close to the time to put our old beloved Fujitsu 9600 PABX out
> to pasture. I'm evaluating different options, both hardware-based and
> Asterisk, to go forward.
I'm in sydney, australia, so I can give you some decent advice, although
the systems I've done so far are not for call centre, nor quite that
large. Give me another 3 months and I'll complete a larger one.
> Right now, we've got a single ISDN line, with a 100-number block
> attached to it, and 30 incoming lines. There is also a small handful
> of PSTN lines that we need to maintain for historical purposes. Our
> phones are all Fujitsu AT-class models - about 30 of them. I'd like to
> hang on to them if I can, but it's looking less and less likely,
> unless I keep the Fujitsu PABX and run Asterisk in parallel somehow.
Depending on why you want to get rid of the fujitsu. What is it that
makes you want to get rid of it? Not enough handsets, not enough
incoming lines, or not enough features etc...
> We've also got a dozen or so plain analogue lines, used for fax
> machines, fax modems (Hylafax!), answering machines (real ones!) and
> other assorted weird stuff.
AFAICT, you are best off trying to have these sorts of lines totally
by-pass the PBX, (any sort of PBX). So, really, just ignore this stuff
for the moment. Later on, you can try out the rxfax/txfax stuff to
replace hylafax and/or other fax machines.
> Personally, I like Asterisk, and I'd like to be able to recommend it
> to the Directors as The Way To Go. I like the flexibility, the
> programmability, the database friendliness, and the openness of the
> code and architecture. Terminating calls through VoIP isn't that
> important to us right now, but it's a great enabling technology, and
> I'm looking forward to implementing it later on. Essentially though,
> right now we're looking to use Asterisk as a pretty much ordinary
> PABX: voicemail, call queues, call parking, music on hold, etc etc.
> Nothing particularly envelope-pushing. If I can avoid using IP or SIP
> phones right off the bat, so much the better.
Of course you can do this, but you will need a channel bank for all
those non-VoIP phones you want. You will probably want to use T1 channel
banks with the TE4xx cards. One E1 coming in plus 2 or three T1 channel
banks.
> This is *the* most important thing to our business. Changing anything
> about how our phones work makes me very nervous (and the Directors
> even more so). So in order to convince myself, and the Directors too,
One thing that many people (including me) often over-look is that
whatever system you buy, whether NEC, Fujitsu, or asterisk is new. It is
different, and it will take some adjustment time. This is just a fact of
life. You can minimise the time through proper planning, but at the end
of the day, there is some time required. 
> I need some testimonials from people using Asterisk in a call centre
> environment. There must be some people out there doing it. How did you
> pull it off? What equipment are you using? What do I need to watch out
> for along the way?  How's it working out for you now? I'd like to
be
> able to go to the Directors with as much backup as possible. "Here are
> a bunch of similar setups, all working great and saving money".
Isn't this sort of stuff listed on the wiki?? 

Regards,
Adam