There is growing company demand for services in the Cloud or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions. It is driven by the lower start-up cost, on-demand growth and the availability of good quality infrastructure. More importantly, the shared service components lower the overall cost of technology management. Contact Centers are no exception and there is a growing demand for Cloud based contact center services driven by the availability of multi-tenant call center software.

For cloud service providers who provide infrastructure, connectivity and bandwidth, this presents an excellent opportunity to expand their portfolio with the ability to offer Contact center-as-a-Service (CaaS). On-demand contact centers offer the ability to provision services rapidly, minimize capital investment and scale with ease. Considering the complexity and cost associated with planning an on-premise contact center platform, this is a real value added service.

The impact of the powerful technology stack of Linux, MySQL, Apache and Asterisk on a cloud based contact center architecture is immense. Linux offers the the power of networking and distributed setup vital to Cloud. MySQL offers a powerful database engine and Apache is the dominat Web server. Asterisk brings power and flexibility required for a next generation VoIP enabled telephony platform. You can complete the technology platform with a multi-tenant call center software for Asterisk that offers functionality out-of-the-box and scales with growth.

A powerful call center software provides ACD and Dialer engine with contact management functionality. The ACD offers call control,  call routing, call management, CTI, IVR development tool and script building. The Dialer offers preview, predictive and progressive dialing. Admin interface should have web services API for clients to integrate into their applications.

Cloud based contact center on demand is a fertile field of opportunity that will see unprecedented growth for the obvious reasons. It eliminates in large measure the need for IT maintenance, software upgrades and capital expense of  hardware. It allows clients to scale their operations up and down. Asterisk driven Cloud based contact center setup will see explosive growth due to the availability of very high quality, low cost,  multi-channel, multi-tenant call center software.

CRM Software offering real-time insight into lead and contact management has become a critical component of modern Sales and Marketing. Most organizations use popular CRM like Saleforce or Microsoft Dynamics or custom developed CRM application. These are either hosted in the Cloud and SaaS based or, custom developed Applications hosted internally in-premise.

The need to achieve greater customer contact by smarter and quicker lead penetration while maintaining organization-wide visibility is by far the most important objective for a CRM integration to a Dialer platform. Dialers have been an integral part of most call center software suite and come with their own user-interface as well as agent-customer interaction script building tool. CRM on the other hand will have a separate user-interface view offered to its users. The main focus of integration of the CRM software with a Dialer platform is to be able to make customer contact with warm/hot leads in the CRM and keep the status of the lead published. This is especially important for medium and larger organizations using contact centers for customer contact. Call Center software offers Dialers that are very sophisticated, capable of Predictive, Preview and Progressive dialing. It is important not to give up these sophisticated list and contact management automation capabilities while synchronizing with a CRM.

One popular method of achieving Integration of CRM and Dialer platforms is to plan for data synchronization using Web Services like SOAP, XML-RPC or even plain XML DTD over HTTP. Popular CRM like Salesforce provide Web Services API that allow data inserts and updates.  Sophisticated Dialer and Contact Center ACD platforms provide their own Web Services API as well. Dialers with sophisticated customer contact list management will allow list based dialing in Predictive, Preview and Progressive modes. One example of data synchronization is using a Web API within the Contact Center Suite that will allow hot lead insertion at the very top of the list for immediate dialing.  The CRM can be updated with the lead status before and after the dialing to ensure propagation of the lead status from the Dialer to the CRM. Q-Suite, a popular contact center suite for Asterisk with a well developed Web services API, offers such capabilities.

Dialer integration usually conjures up the image of “dial” button on the CRM screen. This is fairly primitive approach and all it does is relieve the difficulty of using a phone to dial the number. It may seem simple enough to place a Dial button on the CRM screen that can trigger dialing from a Dialer platform but introducing CTI functionality into a CRM screen would require a lot of programming and the willingness of the CRM provider to open it up for additional code development.

Generally not every user of the CRM is a customer contact center agent. Therefore the strategy of moving data in and out of the Dialer database and keeping it synchronized with the CRM is a cleaner and more efficient way of CRM integration. There are very powerful Call Center Software Suite for Asterisk platform with Web API that can work well in the Cloud as well as on-premise.

Contact Centers are the backbone of modern web driven commerce. They handle more and more complex transactions from multiple channels and are expected to deliver higher performance at lower cost. Modern contact centers are being stretched with technology demands that require them to handle multiple channels like Voice, E-Mail, Chat and Social Media seamlessly. The economic pressures to lower cost of operation and increase productivity is ever increasing. This presents a game changing opportunity to introduce an Asterisk based contact center platform, take advantage of its incredibly flexible next generation architecture and increase performance and lower overall cost.

Social Media convergence, CRM integration and Multi-channel communications require a flexible telephony platform with a contact center software that can grow on-demand. It is more important than ever not to get locked into proprietary platforms that will result in huge costs to accommodate this changing industry. Asterisk based contact center technology and software presents an incredible opportunity to stay ahead of the curve and lower the overall cost of acquisition and operation of contact centers.

Call center software for Asterisk can effectively compete and excel on features and performance with all the leading and high priced platforms. Asterisk as a PBX can offer a lot more than any other equivalent system. With an open source technology stack comprising of Linux, Asterisk, MySQL and Apache, you have the most powerful backbone for a contact center. With the availability of call center software like Q-Suite offering advanced feature-set, redundancy and scaling, building out a sophisticated Asterisk based contact center is extremely cost-effective. Such a platform with advanced ACD and Dialer software will offer all the next generation features for a multi-channel contact center. It will also allow the flexibility of keeping the infrastructure in-house or move it to a Cloud and Distributed setup.

Asterisk based contact centers are bringing a permanent shift in the technology stack for call centers.

Technological innovations are driving growth and productivity in the contact center industry and  one way to tap into the technology advancement is by building out a cost effective Cloud Contact Center with Asterisk as the PBX. Cloud setup in a reliable data center provides instant scalability and does away with the need for large capital investment and capacity planning. Availability of reliable infrastructure and bandwidth at reasonable cost and the option choosing VoIP and SIP for Telco connectivity are added reasons.

Telephony switch (PBX) and its accessories are a large portion of the initial cost. It is a vital component of a contact center controlling the switching and connectivity to the outside world.  Asterisk, one of the best known hybrid PBX telephone switches is open source and used by millions of users worldwide.  It also provides seamless integration of the underlying VoIP and TDM connectivity. Asterisk is enormously flexible, comes with an incredible set of features and commercial support is available through Digium. There are other benefits in migrating to Asterisk. It is designed to work with commodity hardware and helps avoid proprietary equipment lock-in. There is considerable cost savings by utilizing Asterisk to build out a Cloud based contact center technology platform. Next step is to identify an ACD and Dialer software engine to drive the Cloud contact center setup.

Q-Suite is a robust, feature-rich and scalable multi-tenant contact center software for Asterisk available for for both hosted and premise-based solutions for medium and large call centers. Inbound features within Q-Suite’s unique ACD provides Skills Based Routing, Queue Prioritization, Virtual/Personal Queues, Agent Hot-Desking and Customizable IVR. Outbound operations benefit from Q-Suite’s efficient self-pacing Predictive Dialer capable of running multiple concurrent outbound dialing campaigns. Q-Suite’s Script Builder and Dialplan IVR Builder tools are easy to manage and meet the most complex any customer contact center. The Script building tool within Q-Suite with an array of drag and drop tools is powerful enough to satisfy the requirements of most inbound and outbound contact centers.  Cradle to grave reporting is an intrinsic component of the call center software CDR. There is detailed reporting on Agent productivity, Queue and Agent Statistics, Performance reporting, Wallboards and other necessary metrics to manage the operations of your contact center. Voice recording and Listening are built into the standard feature set of the call center software.

Scaling is an important consideration when selecting a contact center technology platform. Scalable to multiple Asterisk servers, Q-Suite allows for easy expansion for future growth while avoiding proprietary equipment lock-in. With .NET and socket interface libraries, Q-Suite enables medium and large call centers to easily integrate into other products requiring CTI, such as your CRM.

There is a lot of excitement regarding Asterisk, the leading hybrid telephony switch. But what makes Asterisk so uniquely beneficial as a contact center technology platform? For starters, the underlying telephony switch is usually a large portion of the initial cost when buying a packaged proprietary contact center solution. Asterisk, on the other hand, delivers a proven, open source, next-generation switch that has been tested and implemented by millions of users. Therefore, a call center technology platform that utilizes Asterisk is capable of delivering an immediate cost savings.

One of the most important component of an outbound contact center is ‘Dialer’. The Dialer refers to the overall dialing system and should offer advanced dialing features capable of running multiple concurrent outbound campaigns in both Predictive and non-Predictive dialing modes. The flexibility of your dialer is a key component to creating successful outreach programs and the minute features of a high quality dialer can make the all the difference when reaching for true differentiation.

Predictive dialing should be self-pacing and efficient in order to increase agent talk time and avoid leaving agents idle while on the clock. The connect time between the caller going OFF-Hook and the agent getting the call should be in the order of milliseconds. Other key features to look for in a high-quality dialer are Concurrent Dialers, Individual Pacing Setup and Drop Rate Controls. Concurrent Dialers allow for multiple outbound campaigns to be operated simultaneously, without exceeding the total calling capacity of your setup. Individual Pacing Setup allows for control of the call pacing for each of these concurrent campaigns and delivers maximum control to call center administrators. The Drop Rate Controls enable call centers operating in multiple countries to easily meet regulatory guidelines for all countries they may be calling. The term drop rate simply refers to the ratio of dropped calls to calls connected to a live agent. Finally, all good dialing algorithms are Self-Pacing with the ability to self adjust the rate of dialing to various factors, including wait-time, dropped call percentage, drop rate, and hit-rate. A self-pacing dialer keeps your outreach operations humming smoothly and requires little overview in order to minimize agent wait time between calls.

Indosoft offers Q-Suite, an ACD and Dialer software for Asterisk. Q-Suite offers a predictive dialer for Asterisk with precision controls for outbound campaigns to maximize productivity. Its Concurrent Dialer, Individual Pacing Setup, Drop Rate Controls, and Self-Pacing algorithm with multiple concurrent dialers enable call center floor managers to achieve the dynamics required for profitability.

Enterprise-grade dialers deliver functionality beyond predictive dialing. For robust control of dialing, and the resulting control over customer interactions, seek a dialer capable of delivering Preview Dialing and Progressive Dialing. Preview Dialing allows agents to review the lead before dialing, with the option to not dial the number but schedule a call for a later time. This feature is useful for targeted, personal outreach programs on a small scale.

Now we see wide spread deployment of Asterisk for setting up large contact centers. With ACD and Dialer Software available to scale to large contact center operations,  it becomes important to manage the workforce efficiently. Workforce Management requires real-time and historical feed of reports and statistics from the call center floor to determine productivity, staffing and performance.

Next generation Contact Center ACD and Dialer software will allow feed of real-time and historical data and reports to Workforce Management (WFM) Solutions, eliminating countless hours of data entry. The real-time supervisor dashboards, agent productivity reports, ACD activity and campaign performance reports are key performance indicators that allow effective call center floor management. Contact center operations rely upon statistics and reports to determine productivity, staffing and performance for effective workforce management.

Asterisk to telephony is what Linux is for operating systems. It is by far the best available IP telephone system and provides an easy base to setup up powerful cost effective contact centers. The power of Asterisk makes is easy to supplement it with a good contact center software ACD (Automatic Call Distributor) and build an advanced contact center technology platform. Contact center softwares have an ACD to handle inbound calls and a Dialer capable of predictive, preview and progressive dialing. A good contact center software should provide customizable Agent Screens with screen pops, a script building tool, an IVR building tool, Real-time and Historical reporting, Skills based routing for inbound, Supervisor Dashboard, a self pacing predictive dialer, QA and an API to manage further enhancements.

The overall economics and technology advantage of an Asterisk based contact center setup is obvious and is driving its adoption and growth.

By far the most popular telephony software,  Asterisk is starting to show its presence in the high end contact centers. Its dominance in the small and medium call centers is already well known. There has been a number of Asterisk Solutions for call centers available dating back to 2004. Now larger contact center operations are charting a move to Asterisk based call center platform.  They are able to make a business case based on the economic value and the cost benefit analysis. Overall, Asterisk as a PBX telephony platform provides unsurpassed feature sets for both VoIP and TDM connectivity.

Asterisk Exchange provides a listing of call center ACD available for Asterisk. There are some very good high end call center software that allow deployment of sophisticated contact center technology solutions to meet demands placed upon modern call centers. A very high-end call center solution for Asterisk must deliver  Full-Functionality requirement to call centers, “out of the box”. Such a feature-rich, scalable solution will come with a powerful ACD based on skills based routing, a predictive dialer and detailed reporting capabilities to satisfy most functional requirements of any advanced call centers.

Call center software is the most critical component of any contact center. It influences the choice of the telephony switch and determines the overall cost of the call center technology platform. In the long run, the right selection will influence the profitability of the call center. It is important to select a technology solution which will provide competitive edge for the call center. Telephony switch is a big cost item in the overall cost of the contact center infrastructure unless it is something like Asterisk. Asterisk is a leader in IP telephony and provides a complete PBX, an essential element of within any office or contact center. A call center software using Asterisk as the telephony platform, provides an instantaneous cost advantage.

There are a number of things to look for in a call center software. Feature-sets like predictive dialing, advanced ACD with Skills based routing and Queue prioritization, real-time and statistical reporting as well as quality monitoring are a must. A distributed architecture allowing home and remote agents with VoIP capability is essential for long term. Once you transcend the basic feature-set, it is time to look under the hood determine the level of sophistication for each of the feature listed above. There are white papers which provide functional overview of the call center software ACD.

A high level evaluation of the call center software should include,

1. Functionality available within the call center software
2. Cost per seat
3. Level of technical support

There is a lot of material available on the web about various call center software available in the market. It is a question of doing your home work and asking the right questions. You will not go wrong with the selection Asterisk as your telephony platform. Once you have picked Asterisk, evaluate the available call center solutions for Asterisk and determine the most suitable call center software for your business.

There is a lot of excitement in the telecommunications world regarding Asterisk, the leading hybrid telephony switching platform, and many businesses and application builders are viewing Asterisk as a potential game changer. It is well known how Asterisk on standard server hardware, can deliver full PBX functionality, do Voice over IP (VoIP), and interoperate with standards-based telephony equipment. What makes Asterisk uniquely beneficial as a telephony switch, or more importantly, why Asterisk  is considered by mature business applications required contact center ACD (Automatic Call Distribution) to service their clients.

One unique benefit of Asterisk is that it provides an extremely cost effective migration path to IP telephony. While comparing Asterisk to other telephony switching platforms, it is important to note that the underlying telephony switch is usually a substantial portion of the initial cost when buying a packaged proprietary ACD (Automatic Call Distributor) solution. Asterisk is unique as a switching platform in that it delivers a proven, open source, next-generation switch that has been tested and implemented by millions of users worldwide and is extremely cost effective. Therefore, any contact center software and next-generation ACD that utilizes Asterisk as its telephony switching platform is positioned to deliver immediate cost savings to its users. Feature-wise proprietary switches are struggling to keep up with what Asterisk offers and the gap will widen with time.

Business applications and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems are domain specific and evolve over time. Interaction to provide timely, important and actionable information to customers is an essential part of doing any business let alone over the phone. Business systems and CRM should control the telephony interaction with customers. Computer Telephony Interface (CTI) allows integration of ACD and call control into business systems. This is a sure way to ensure that business systems and CRM drive the telephony interaction with customers and not the other way round.

Q-Suite is a top of the line call center ACD for Asterisk, delivering a feature-rich, scalable, out-of-the-box software that comes with a powerful ACD and a dialer. Q-Suite provides a uniform interface for CTI integration in the form of well-published API in both .NET and Socket library. This enables Q-Suite ACD to work under the hood, enabling vertical businesses to integrate CTI into any existing or new business application. This white paper on CTI integration for Asterisk based on Q-Suite makes a case for the uniform interface using a mature Contact Center ACD.