Case Study: Call Center

A client that wanted to setup a 50-user office including a 20-user call center, asked VoiceIP Solutions to craft a solution that would leverage Linux and the Asterisk Open Source PBX to reduce their startup costs and allow for growth.

VoiceIP Solutions created a Red Hat Linux based Asterisk PBX that utilized a dual Xeon server with RAID and redundant power supplies to increase reliability. Users were provisioned with Polycom SoundPoint IP 501 telephones, which offer a suite of business class telephony features and an intuitive user interface. These phones offer onboard echo cancellation and noise reduction capabilities that are well suited to a noisy call center environment. The phones also feature a separate headset port for easy connection of a Plantronics headset, which was installed with each phone. A SoundStation IP 4000 conferencing phone was setup in the client’s conference room to allow remote participants to join office meetings. This device is complemented by the Asterisk MeetMe conferencing application that allows up to 23 outside callers (in this implementation) to participate in a virtual audio conference.

Outside connection to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is provided by two T1 lines to different carriers. The total capacity of these two connections allows for up to 47 simultaneous outside calls. One of these trunks is an ISDN PRI connection. This type of link allows our client to receive CallerID on inbound calls and set CallerID for outbound calls. This feature is nice because general business calls can send the callback number of the main line, but personal or executive calls can display a caller’s private line (DID) number. The client benefited from Asterisk’s high degree of flexibility and customizability in configuration.

Remote users are able to connect into the VoIP server via a VPN network that was supplied by another vender.

A custom application was implemented to allow call ‘follow-me’ features, allowing callers to easily locate offsite personnel. An ACD call queue was established to manage inbound calls to the call-center and track call center agents. QueueMetrics queue log analyzer software was utilized to provide real-time and historical metrics for queue performance.

It was the goal of this call-center based organization to reduce startup costs for their telecommunications infrastructure when compared to proprietary PBX solutions. But at the same time the client desired the advanced features and flexibility found in a modern VoIP Softswitch platform. VoiceIP Solutions delivered an Open Source solution using the Asterisk PBX platform that met the clients’ needs and allows room for growth.