Unification of data, voice and other forms of media in communications has generated a push to IP telephony. We all recognize that TDM is mature and reliable, but it is gradually giving way to IP telephony. This is largely due to the flexibility that comes from using IP (Internet Protocol) networks. When it comes to acquiring a new technology platform, folks in the contact center industry understand the importance of acquiring call center ACD to improve immediate and near-term productivity. Equally important considerations are the changes happening in the technology world which will have serious impacts on the economics of the call center.
Currently, while assessing call center solutions and technology platforms, a determining factor is the ability to transition from TDM to IP, and in general to be able to cope with the VoIP world. With the availability of open source Asterisk, investing in a proprietary IP telephone switch poses huge challenges in the long term. R&D costs are becoming exorbitant for switch developers when competing with the unrelenting march of feature-sets and enhancements available from Asterisk. The large install base and willingness of the users to test new features contributes to this prolific growth. Therefore, evaluating Asterisk for its IP telephony platform is a must for larger contact centers. An Asterisk based platform will bring considerable cost savings and provide greater control over the contact center technology solution, which will have positive on the long term viability of your call center. Commercial support is available from Digium, as well as the open source community at large.
At Indosoft we began porting our call center software to work with Asterisk in late 2003, thus stopping our development work on proprietary CTI boards and instead focusing on Asterisk as the telephony platform for our Call Center ACD. One of the contributing reasons was the hopelessness of keeping PBX features on CTI boards up to date with the emerging open source PBX functionalities. The other factor was the realization that the CTI board manufacturers might find it difficult to economically match Asterisk IP capabilities.
With Q-Suite 5.0, we offer a very high end call center ACD software for Asterisk. It is a feature-rich, scalable, out-of-the-box software that comes with a powerful ACD and predictive dialer. It has extensive reporting capabilities and will satisfy the functional requirements of the most advanced call centers. With Q-Suite 5.0 you can switch to Asterisk with the right contact center technology solution and migrate seamlessly to IP telephony.