asterisk users - Jan 2005 - Re: Asterisk-Users Digest, Vol 6, Issue 284

> 1. Create agent phone logins.
> 2. Create real-time report to monitor agent login/logout activity.
> Should
> have the ability to view which agents are currently logged in/out of
> the
> system.
> 3. Create historical report to pull agent activity.  Should display
> login/logout activity.  Be able to pull information by rep and
> timeframe.
> 4. Create "hold calls/bypass" statuses for agent login.  This
status
> should
> allow the rep to pause all incoming calls to their login for reasons
> such
> as: 1-Break, 2-Lunch, 3-Meeting, 4-Project, 5-Other.  This status
> should not
> log the agent out of the phone, but only temporarily take them out of
> the
> queue to receive the next available call until they end the
> "hold/bypass"
> status and make themselves available for incoming calls.
>
>
> I?m thinking no, but I figured I?d ask anyways before telling my
> bosses
> they?re out of their minds. Even if there's an existing interface out
> there
> that can provide 1 or 2 of these things, it'd be a nice start. Most
> of it
> I'd have to work with a developer to get created, and I'm thinking
> option 4
> is impossible, but 1 2 and 3 is possible with time.  Help?

Don't tell your bosses they are out of their minds! These features all
exist in one form or another on the call centre "big iron" from
companies like Avaya, Nortel, Aspect, etc. If your bosses have
experience in larger call centres they will know about these features
and it is an extremely mature market.

Is Asterisk mature enough to play there ... not yet, but obviously we
all hope to get there. Considering the maturity of this market, it
would be wise to reuse the nomenclature and process (in principle) that
the major players have already done in order to maintain comfort level
with our bosses that might let us deploy this thing!

#1 is a configuration issue usually done through a control/reporting
station like an Avaya CMS.

#2 is usually called Real Time Adherance reports.

#3 is agent statistics and often is complex enough to be a stand-along
package.

#4 is called "make busy" and is one of several states that an agent
can
be in while present in the queue. Others include things like:
- (acd) ready
- on acd call
- on non acd call
- make busy
- after call work
- on (other media) call/event.
etc.

FYI The major players have also unbundled portions of their equipment
and one of them has even embraced Open Source. Avaya runs their
flagship product line on commodity Intel servers on Red Hat linux -- so
we are in good company.
David Cook