Do you have any idea of numbers of users, and number/type of external lines as this can be quite important when deciding what type of asterisk setup and hardware to go with. (For example, if your lines are already presented over ISDN PRI or BRI, or if they are provided over IP, by an IP telephony provider.)
Also you will need to think if you want to support analogue devices such as modems/fax machines etc. Do you have existing IP handsets that you want to integrate, and what are these? Or are you starting from scratch? Or are you going to use PCs with soft phones and headsets? (Often very suitable for a call centre setup) What sort of support do you require for the system / handsets? Do you need CTI integration / soft phones / headsets etc? How many lines in total are coming in to the system? Do you need hotdesk users or are they all based at the same desks every day? What are the requirements for redundancy/failover? (ranging from 'none' to 'magic failover between two sites') If you can answer this, then it will help work out what sort of hardware you will need (software can be changed about to suit, but choice of server setup/cards/media gateways is important in that decision as well.) Software, There are many pre-built solutions that are based on asterisk which have GUIs to use/admin them. These may or may not do what you want out of the box. Hot desk support is particularly limited in many of these. Or you can install just the base asterisk and roll your own. This is a bit more complex (and maybe unneeded if you are using on the most common features.) but it has its benefits, such as not being restricted by a particular GUI or management system, and being able to customise things a bit more. Rob On Tue, 2010-01-12 at 10:55 +0000, Peter Childs wrote: > This is currently still at a proof of concept stage. > > After being mis-sold a Alcatel phone system, that does None of the > things we asked for.... (Ok it takes calls but that's about it) We are > looking at alternatives to try and bring some of the features we > previously had on our old Analogue STS phone system. > > Looking at all the docs I can find Asterisks looks like it should be > able to do the job and a whole lot more. > > This is for a small call centre so ideally we want all the features of > an average call centre, ACD, Call Recording, Queue's etc etc. > > Any pointers on how to get started would be most helpful. -- _____________________________________________________________________ -- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com -- asterisk-users mailing list To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit: http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users