compuwizz
join:2001-03-05
Blacksburg, VA
| reply to JoelC707
Re: Suggestions for predictive dialing software
I'd vote for Asterisk in the case of delivering a survey. I highly doubt a Callmanager Express install could handle a large call volume that a survey would generate, plus getting Callmanager to talk to a database to record the responses will be much more difficult if not impossible. Call Manager Express is geared towards branch offices which need a survivable remote gateway in order to function if the phones can't talk with the main call manager server. As far as I've ever seen, it really isn't setup to be used for generating automated calls.
Hire a Asterisk specialist to write an AGI script that connects to a database backend. It would maybe take him a weekend to get it all working and you'd still wouldn't have spent as much as if you bought a 2821 with the Call Manager licenses and interface cards. |
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JoelC707
join:2002-07-09
Tucson, AZ
clubs:
| reply to mazilo
My thoughts on using Asterisk have been bouncing back and forth. On one hand I'd rather use something that I can get support on if I need it. While there is plenty community based support out there and I can now buy support from Fonality if I need it, it's not what I would call enterprise grade support. Cisco while being more expensive has the enterprise backing, granted I don't know Cisco that well either but I am leaning and I know my way around IOS already so I've essentially got a leg up on that one. Asterisk is cheaper though (basically free except for the hardware, which I already had) so it won out with my boss.
The people trying to talk me out of Asterisk were other IT people, not employees. The employees here with the exception of the two owners (one is a computer guru and my boss, the other spent 20 years as a Bellsouth manager) know nothing about phone systems. I understand what you're saying about not really learning via the GUI but it's what I've got to work with and I don't see it changing anytime soon unfortunately. |
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mazilo
From Mazilo
Premium
join:2002-05-30
Lilburn, GA
| reply to JoelC707
said by JoelC707  :The contact list will be relatively small compared to most telemarketing installs but your number could be on the list since our client is Georgia based. That will be cool.
As to Asterisk, I've had a LOT (and I mean a lot) of people try and talk me out of using it. Perhaps, it is time to listen to them, especially if they are experts and can easily be at your disposals in the process of trying to learn asterisk. You will also learn whom your employees really are competent in this matter.
Now granted I've never used the CLI version of it but the GUI version (Trixbox) doesn't seem that complicated and seems like something I could handle. TrixBOX is great and I used it before; however, like an MS Windows, this GUI thing is really not a good idea to learn something for good. It conceals everything from anyone who is trying to learn.
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Mazilo
US Phone: +1-678-601-0907
UK Phone: +44-703-194-2574 |
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JoelC707
join:2002-07-09
Tucson, AZ
clubs:
| reply to mazilo
You are right, to a degree. It is telemarketing but it is for one of our clients that wants to do a phone survey of their customers. The contact list will be relatively small compared to most telemarketing installs but your number could be on the list since our client is Georgia based. And since this entire project will be for calling people who have a prior relationship with our client, the Do Not Call list doesn't apply. That said if this works (this is just a test for us to see if we want to get into this for other clients) we may end up with a broader call base and the DNC may come into play there so being able to scrub numbers based on the DNC list would be a beneficial part of the program.
As to Asterisk, I've had a LOT (and I mean a lot) of people try and talk me out of using it. They all claim it is difficult to setup and some even went as far as to say "you wouldn't be talking to me if I were managing an Asterisk server because I would be stuck in the server room all day". Now granted I've never used the CLI version of it but the GUI version (Trixbox) doesn't seem that complicated and seems like something I could handle. I do know Trixbox lets you manually edit any file but you have to be careful what you edit and how because it could get overwritten by Trixbox. We were going to go for a Call Manager Express setup on a Cisco 2821 router but we needed to scale it back a bit and Asterisk made the most sense considering I already had a spare server to stick it on (we still need to get the 2821 router at some point but it's not as important now). |
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mazilo
From Mazilo
Premium
join:2002-05-30
Lilburn, GA
| reply to JoelC707
said by JoelC707 :What I need is a predictive dialing program (preferably free) that will let me load in a list of contacts and dial them automatically and connect the call to a person at a computer. I need this to integrate with Asterisk for our phone system. I smell you want to build a system for telemarketing use. If so, be sure to put my phone numbers in your call list and you have my EXCLUSIVE permission! Feel free to have your telemarketer agents to call my number anytime, any hours, any minutes, and any seconds as you wish. The more your telemarketer agents can call me, the better I will feel and I am not joking about this. Where in the world will you see this kind of invitation where everyone is trying to stay away from any pesky telemarketers. 
I'm not against something running on linux but I am much more comfortable working in windows so I would prefer a windows based backend. So far the only program I have found mentioned here is VICIDIAL and while it looks like it will do what I want, it seems to assume you are using the full version of Asterisk and not Tirxbox like I am. I'm not sure I can make it work since I don't really know how to manually configure Asterisk. Just a friendly suggestion here: You are better off to learn asterisk than to depend on any GUI asterisk system, i.e. trixBOX. It took me the whole weekend and some week days to learn how to program my asterisk system running on my Fonera WiFi router and am still learning. This means, GUI is not an option for me and am very glad to get my hands dirty learning on how to configure my asterisk system.
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Mazilo
US Phone: +1-678-601-0907
UK Phone: +44-703-194-2574 |
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JoelC707
join:2002-07-09
Tucson, AZ
clubs:
| I'm not sure if this belongs here or in Software or somewhere else. I searched in both and I found more hits here than I did in software so this seemed like the better place for it to go.
What I need is a predictive dialing program (preferably free) that will let me load in a list of contacts and dial them automatically and connect the call to a person at a computer. I need this to integrate with Asterisk for our phone system.
I'm not against something running on linux but I am much more comfortable working in windows so I would prefer a windows based backend. So far the only program I have found mentioned here is VICIDIAL and while it looks like it will do what I want, it seems to assume you are using the full version of Asterisk and not Tirxbox like I am. I'm not sure I can make it work since I don't really know how to manually configure Asterisk.
I do have the HUD server installed on Trixbox but I don't think it has a way to load in a list of phone numbers to call but otherwise it seems to do what I want. Thanks for any suggestions. |
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