In the ever-evolving realm of contact centers, minimizing startup and operating costs should be high on the list of items that a center should want to accomplish. There are numerous way to go about this, such as buying used office chairs instead of new ones, but if you are looking to cut costs without sacrificing functionality, using softphones instead of physical phones can be a good start.
Softphones are the functional equivalent of physical phones, but are typically lightweight applications that get installed on CSR workstations. Some of these are free, some of these are not. Since cutting costs is the main focus here, we will stick to three of the more popular free Windows versions, that work quite well with Indosoft’s Q-Suite: Zoiper, 3CX, and X-Lite.
Each of these clients has its advantages and disadvantages over one and other. Zoiper consumes the smallest amount of available resources, but does not have the most eye-appealing interface. 3CX allows numerous accounts and is easy to use, but can have audio issues from time to time. X-Lite has the best looking application and is the most well-known, but is much heavier on workstation resources and can bog down less powerful desktops.
There will always be a place for physical VOIP phones, but in the rapidly changing environments of Asterisk-based ACD contact centers, there may be a desire to limit spending and space. Making the conscious decision to implement softphones is one way to help succeed in that goal.