Ken D'Ambrosio
2008-Jan-24 04:57 UTC
[asterisk-users] Your "favorite" Asterisk application.
Hi, all. I've done some Asterisk recelling, but recently got roped into a Sr. SysAdmin position. Our PBX is c. 1823, and -- well, as pretty much all circuit-based systems do, it sucks. It sucks to administer, moves suck... you know the drill. So, I'd love change to an Asterisk system. My boss, who loves to spend money for no particular reason, wants to go proprietary, though. So I'm going to have to try to sell him. I figured one place to start would be some of the really cool applications that Asterisk has that -- generally, at least -- don't require licensing. Some of my favorites are follow-me, meetme, voicemail-to-e-mail and fax-to-e-mail. What are some of your favorite features/applications, be ith native or third-party? Thanks, -Ken -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.
The fact that it is so amazingly configurable should be enough :) -Kev Ken D'Ambrosio wrote:> Hi, all. I've done some Asterisk recelling, but recently got roped into a > Sr. SysAdmin position. Our PBX is c. 1823, and -- well, as pretty much > all circuit-based systems do, it sucks. It sucks to administer, moves > suck... you know the drill. So, I'd love change to an Asterisk system. > My boss, who loves to spend money for no particular reason, wants to go > proprietary, though. So I'm going to have to try to sell him. I figured > one place to start would be some of the really cool applications that > Asterisk has that -- generally, at least -- don't require licensing. Some > of my favorites are follow-me, meetme, voicemail-to-e-mail and > fax-to-e-mail. What are some of your favorite features/applications, be > ith native or third-party? > > Thanks, > > -Ken > > >-- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by Mail Call antivirus software, and is believed to be clean.
I love writing dialplan, using vi. Does that make me weird? PaulH On Wed, 2008-01-23 at 23:57 -0500, Ken D'Ambrosio wrote:> Hi, all. I've done some Asterisk recelling, but recently got roped into a > Sr. SysAdmin position. Our PBX is c. 1823, and -- well, as pretty much > all circuit-based systems do, it sucks. It sucks to administer, moves > suck... you know the drill. So, I'd love change to an Asterisk system. > My boss, who loves to spend money for no particular reason, wants to go > proprietary, though. So I'm going to have to try to sell him. I figured > one place to start would be some of the really cool applications that > Asterisk has that -- generally, at least -- don't require licensing. Some > of my favorites are follow-me, meetme, voicemail-to-e-mail and > fax-to-e-mail. What are some of your favorite features/applications, be > ith native or third-party? > > Thanks, > > -Ken > >
Asterisk really comes into it's own with cute scripts that can do almost anything with ridiculous ease. One of the things I've done with a number of Asterisk machines is to put in a script that downloads the latest weather forecast and reads it back to you using a TTS engine. Ken D'Ambrosio wrote:> Hi, all. I've done some Asterisk recelling, but recently got roped into a > Sr. SysAdmin position. Our PBX is c. 1823, and -- well, as pretty much > all circuit-based systems do, it sucks. It sucks to administer, moves > suck... you know the drill. So, I'd love change to an Asterisk system. > My boss, who loves to spend money for no particular reason, wants to go > proprietary, though. So I'm going to have to try to sell him. I figured > one place to start would be some of the really cool applications that > Asterisk has that -- generally, at least -- don't require licensing. Some > of my favorites are follow-me, meetme, voicemail-to-e-mail and > fax-to-e-mail. What are some of your favorite features/applications, be > ith native or third-party? > >
I recently went through the same thing. My company was paying huge amounts of money for voice PRIs at several locations, ongoing PBX support to a third party, and huge amounts of money for a teleconference bridge to yet another third party. I was bored one weekend so I implemented Asterisk. Before I knew it, it had usurped my companies telecon bridge provider and I was rolling it out across the enterprise. Thus far we're looking at a 75% cost savings, not to mention a unified telephony solution (four digit dialing throughout the company, IVRs, Asterisk to Exchange Unified Messaging, etc.). I haven't even finalized all the applications yet and it already has so many more applications and expanded functionality over our old phone system it's amazing. In my mind, it's this simple: if you go with a proprietary solution, you're relying on a 'black box' solution. That means if something goes wrong, breaks, or needs a change rapidly, you're totally dependent on the vendor. In critical environments, this is a no-no. It's amazing how many people simply ignore their phone and take it for granted, but if it goes down it's an emergency of epic proportions. Recapturing telephony as a critical business service that's provided as any other data service is important for just about any environment in my mind. My advice would be to simply stand it up and demo it. My company is notoriously Microsoft centric, but when they actually see/hear Asterisk, it's hard to ignore the value. On Jan 23, 2008 11:57 PM, Ken D'Ambrosio <ken at jots.org> wrote:> Hi, all. I've done some Asterisk recelling, but recently got roped into a > Sr. SysAdmin position. Our PBX is c. 1823, and -- well, as pretty much > all circuit-based systems do, it sucks. It sucks to administer, moves > suck... you know the drill. So, I'd love change to an Asterisk system. > My boss, who loves to spend money for no particular reason, wants to go > proprietary, though. So I'm going to have to try to sell him. I figured > one place to start would be some of the really cool applications that > Asterisk has that -- generally, at least -- don't require licensing. Some > of my favorites are follow-me, meetme, voicemail-to-e-mail and > fax-to-e-mail. What are some of your favorite features/applications, be > ith native or third-party? > > Thanks, > > -Ken > > > -- > This message has been scanned for viruses and > dangerous content by MailScanner, and is > believed to be clean. > > > _______________________________________________ > -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- > > asterisk-users mailing list > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users >-------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.digium.com/pipermail/asterisk-users/attachments/20080124/a7d7e3b8/attachment.htm
Ken D'Ambrosio wrote:> Hi, all. I've done some Asterisk recelling, but recently got roped into a > Sr. SysAdmin position. Our PBX is c. 1823, and -- well, as pretty much > all circuit-based systems do, it sucks. It sucks to administer, moves > suck... you know the drill. So, I'd love change to an Asterisk system. > My boss, who loves to spend money for no particular reason, wants to go > proprietary, though. So I'm going to have to try to sell him. I figured > one place to start would be some of the really cool applications that > Asterisk has that -- generally, at least -- don't require licensing. Some > of my favorites are follow-me, meetme, voicemail-to-e-mail and > fax-to-e-mail. What are some of your favorite features/applications, be > ith native or third-party? > > Thanks, > > -KenWe moved from a Cisco Call Manager about 2.5 years ago to Asterisk. One of the hurdles I had was that the Call Manager had a receptionist panel so they could see who was on the phone, transfer calls, etc... I set up a demo of of the Flash Operator Panel and it alleviated that sticking point. It's a little slower than an executable would be, but it's web based and flash so it's runs on just about every browser and OS. You can even do some slick things like pop up windows in the browser to provide information about who is calling. Works good for a CMS system where a customer service rep can automatically be shown information about the customer who is on the line. http://www.asternic.org/ -- Mark Johnson http://www.astroshapes.com/information-technology/blog/
On 1/24/08, Ken D'Ambrosio <ken at jots.org> wrote:> Hi, all. I've done some Asterisk recelling, but recently got roped into a > Sr. SysAdmin position. Our PBX is c. 1823, and -- well, as pretty much > all circuit-based systems do, it sucks. It sucks to administer, moves > suck... you know the drill. So, I'd love change to an Asterisk system. > My boss, who loves to spend money for no particular reason, wants to go > proprietary, though. So I'm going to have to try to sell him. I figured > one place to start would be some of the really cool applications that > Asterisk has that -- generally, at least -- don't require licensing. Some > of my favorites are follow-me, meetme, voicemail-to-e-mail and > fax-to-e-mail. What are some of your favorite features/applications, be > ith native or third-party?You should state what the phone system will be used for. If it's primary mean of making business - you can do some really amazing stuff with integrating Asterisk with your own services. Let's say - identify your own customers, keep track of which customer called you and when, keep call recordings in customer's profile, have popups that will open customer's profile upon phone ring. Then you cold take a quick read of profile and answer the phone "Hello John, you want to order another Chili Pizza?" It would need some programming, but this is the best thing about Asterisk - there's no limitation as it is for black-boxed systems. Regards, Atis> > Thanks, > > -Ken > > > -- > This message has been scanned for viruses and > dangerous content by MailScanner, and is > believed to be clean. > > > _______________________________________________ > -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- > > asterisk-users mailing list > To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: > http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users >-- Atis Lezdins VoIP Developer, IQ Labs Inc. atis at iq-labs.net Skype: atis.lezdins Cell Phone: +371 28806004 Work phone: +1 800 7502835