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Asterisk CTI integration with Q-Suite API

Introduction of VoIP has created a paradigm shift in telecommunications where reliance upon one mature and reliable protocol (TDM) is being replaced with VoIP, which enables the unification of voice and data over a single network. Asterisk as a hybrid telephone switch allows seamless interoperability of TDM and VoIP impacting everything from the choice of telephony switch to the way CTI integration and call control are implemented. As a result, different business domain applications have an extremely cost-effective migration path to an IP telephony platform.

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Migrating to Asterisk for Call Center setup

The Flexible and Scalable Solution For Migrating to IP Telephony

The world of telecommunications is moving away from one mature and reliable protocol (TDM) to a new and more flexible (VoIP), primarily due to the unification of data, voice and all other media over an IP (Internet Protocol) infrastructure. We all understand the importance of acquiring a new or next generation contact center technology platform for improving productivity. More important is the need to successfully migrate to a superior contact center platform that can be a competitive differentiator. Continue reading “Migrating to Asterisk for Call Center setup”

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Capacity planning for large call centers using Asterisk

Last updated: August 10, 2016

The architecture of a large call center setup shown below with Asterisk as telephony platform, includes web servers for serving agent web screens and a common database server. A high end Asterisk telephony server can handle over one hundred concurrent channels with compression and voice recording. High-end call center softwares are feature-rich and offer sophisticated agent screen scripting. The demand on the Web server will increase with increasing agent seats. The Web server will have to scale ahead of the Asterisk server.

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ACD – A PBX feature or a Call Center Application?

The demarcation has blurred in the last decade. Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) has a very broad definition now. Traditional phone switches (PBX) which provide phone extensions and connectivity to Telco, offer all the normal functionalities for call handling including Auto-attendant, Direct inward dialing, Find-me follow-me and voice-mail. Call center ACD handles Agents (as opposed to plain extensions), detailed IVR (interactive Voice Response) and Queues. The degree of sophistication within the PBX as well as call center ACD applications have evolved considerably. Automatic call distribution (ACD) is not limited simple call distribution, but an opportunity to created clever mechanisms to enrich interactions with the callers. Cost-effectiveness and increase in productivity are the key factors driving businesses to incorporate sophisticated ACD.

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Scalability of Asterisk for larger ACD deployments

Back in late 2002, when we looked at Asterisk as a possible alternative to CTI platforms based on boards from Dialogic and Pika, the very thought of working with open source telephony was exciting.  The possibilities seemed endless and we had limited ability to analyse possible shortcomings moving forward. In mid 1990s the processor speeds in x86 systems made it impossible to conceive voice processing on anything without on-board DSP. The concept of using motherboard CPU for voice processing did cause apprehension but it was counter balanced by the cost savings. With the talk of SIP and IP telephony  as the emerging protocol for voice communication, Asterisk offered a lot of promise. Today we see Asterisk deployments everywhere with limitless applications. With VoIP well entrenched, Asterisk and open source telephony has demonstrated the usefulness and versatility of this hybrid PBX with seamless handling of VoIP and TDM.

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