Peter from Freeside here.... Thank you to my friends and customers who responded earlier.
Okay - I know... no commercial posts, which is why I haven't responded to the thread, but I saw Cameron's post this morning and thought I would jump in really quick with a couple of comments... The dig about the install being a trophy was probably deserved. :) I've improved the docs over the last month. Hopefully it no longer earns you a trophy. :) We have a Vmware image available on the demo page - super easy for evaluation. Billing is complicated, and while the configuration page has a note about each option, config can be a bear. We can help with that, ping me off list. Docs are sparse - Would it help to beg the opens source community to help with docs? I will. Ppppplease... :) We spend a full day on support customers and new features. The docs end up low on the list. Matt nailed it on the head. Again for more info ping me off of the list. -Peter On 5/12/10 11:24 AM, "Michael Baird" <m...@tc3net.com> wrote: > We are interested in the call rating/billing/CABS abilities as well, the > website is sparse on any details. > > Regards > Michael Baird >> Hi Paul, >> >> Freeside is supposedly set up very well to do VOIP rating and billing. >> There are several very large VOIP operations that use it for their >> billing right now, and although I have not set it up, all of the >> facilities are there to tie it in. >> >> As far as documentation, yeah, it is very sparse. I don't think that >> it is necessarily to "get" people to pay for support, I think it is more >> like they don't have people on staff to write documentation. They >> basically do support and write code. The wiki has gotten better, but >> it is still a far cry from being comprehensive. If you have access to >> some linux/perl/sql people, you can probably get it installed. >> >> I actually got Freeside installed and running on a machine back in >> 2002. I think it took me a full week of messing around to get it >> installed. When I finally did get it running, I messed around with it >> for a month, and then took the hard drive out of the machine and put it >> on a shelf. I think it is still around here somewhere. It is a >> trophy - like the first time I solved a Rubiks Cube and I put it on the >> shelf for a month afterward. While I am sure that my sysadmin and I >> could get it installed and running, we leave that to the Freeside >> support crew because they can do it easier and know how to fix most of >> the issues that come up. >> >> Freeside is kind of like the billing version of Mikrotik. It is >> complicated and has a relatively steep learning curve, but there is good >> available commercial support for it, and because it is open source it >> can be modified to do just about anything. >> >> Matt Larsen >> vistabeam.com >> >> >> On 5/12/2010 4:17 AM, Paul Hendry wrote: >> >>> Hey Matt, >>> >>> I'm just about to start looking at Freeside for automating VoIP rating and >>> billing. Have you had any joy with that? Only problem with Freeside I've >>> seen so far is the lack of documentation which I'm guessing is on purpose to >>> get you to pay for support. >>> >>> Many thanks, >>> >>> Paul. >>> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: Matt Larsen - Lists [mailto:li...@manageisp.com] >>> Sent: 11 May 2010 21:07 >>> To: WISPA General List >>> Subject: Re: [WISPA] Call Tracking / Customer management software >>> >>> We use Freeside with integrated RT Ticket System. The next upgrade of >>> Freeside (we are planning on implementing it next month) is also >>> supposed to include a calendar that is tied to RT. >>> >>> This has worked very well for us, although Freeside has a few wonks that >>> have to be dealt with on occasion. >>> >>> All of this software is open source, so you don't pay for the licensing, >>> but you will probably have to pay someone for support unless you have >>> access to some Linux/SQL/perl gurus. If you do have access to some >>> coding talent, it is easy to add more functionality and features to >>> Freeside. We have added business reporting dashboards, bandwidth >>> control exports, integration with Xymon for customer monitoring and >>> integration with Asterisk to do robo-calls to customers who are late >>> paying their bills or have gone off line and may need technical >>> support. That kind of stuff isn't happening with Powercode. >>> >>> Matt Larsen >>> vistabeam.com >>> >>> -- _____________________________ Peter Bowen President/CEO Freeside Internet Services, Inc. P: (415) 375-3722 C: (805) 216-9743 pe...@freeside.biz -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
