Vicidial Features Questions IVR, Queu !

[techtra]

Good Evening Guys I am very new here - 1st post. I am in search of a Call Center that works.I ve heard good things about Vicidial. I am not planing to have no more than 10 agents for now.I tried Elastix - it's easy but i do not like the fact that agent have to log in listening a hold music - meanin in an active connection with the Server in order to receive call. I think that consume to much bandwith for no Reason.
I just Installed VicidialServer on a VM for Testing, but Downloaded Vicidialnow because it look like it's easier to use.
But i dont see no where for the IVR , the Qeues etc etc.
now do I have to have Free PBX installed to work with Vicidial ? Vicidial look like you have to know your command line pretty well wich I dont.I ve been using Astersk for only 3 months and mostly played with the GUI Distro.

[williamconley]

But i dont see no where for the IVR , the Qeues etc etc.

They are not Queues, they are Campaigns.

now do I have to have Free PBX installed to work with Vicidial ?

No. No need for any other software.

Vicidial look like you have to know your command line pretty well wich I dont.

Nope. Everything you need to do can be done from the GUI.

You need to download the manager's manual (free version will get you up and running). And read it. All. There are exercises to get you each step of the way.

And then read the "stickies" on each forum before you post on them (those would be the posts at the top that say "sticky"). Put your configuration into your "signature" so you don't have to post it with each question. Hardware, software, vicidial version and vicidialNOW version (they are different and upgrades cause them to not be "in sync" so putting both simplifies it). ANY any other software you may have installed.

When you bump into a problem, ask. If you want to be up and running quickly, pay someone to get you going. If you want to learn to run Vicidial inside and out, do it yourself by reading the manual cover to cover (and purchase one if you want to save some time and recoup your investment in your hardware without spending it in HOURS).

[mflorell]

As a side note, web-configurable IVRs (which we call Call Menus) are available in the SVN trunk codebase of ViciDial and they are in production at several companies right now.

[techtra]

Thank you very Much Guys. I will get it Tested in one of my VM's and then I guess pay someone for an Audit and Config before I put it into Production.

I will Get the Manual and if necessary I will buy the paid Version if i do Decide to go with VicidialNow.

Best Regards,

[williamconley]

If you test Vicibox from the Vicibox Demo iso, you don't even need to install it. Live CD.

Vicibox and VicidialNOW are both full install .iso's. VicidialNOW was created by a group specifically to allow CentOS (which is in the redhat family) to run Vicidial because it was up to that point virtually impossible to use Vicidial in the Redhat family at all. Vicibox was created and published by The Vicidial Group (the makers of Vicidial itself, you are presently on their forum). It runs in Ubuntu, the present development standard for Vicidial (used to be slackware, but they changed to Ubuntu).

[techtra]

Ok so how come I need to install both vicidialnow and vicibox ? shouldn t vicidial now include everything ?

[williamconley]

lol. not what i meant. vicibox and vicidialnow are the same thing on different operating systems.

vicibox, however, has a version that is a demo cd that is "Live" (You don't need to install it to use it, just boot from it and it runs without a hard drive for "testing").

also, vicibox was made by the makers of vicidial.

vicidialnow (same version of vicidial) was made just to allow CentOS to be viable as an OS for vicidial. It has some extras, as well, such as integration with vTiger. But its primary function is to allow those who require CentOS to use Vicidial.

So it is One or the Other, you don't need both.

[techtra]

Ok thanks. Now my other question is why are you offering Free pbx install with vicidial for $500. what's the Purpose of both ?

[williamconley]

Originally, it was VERY helpful in that FreePBX makes adding "trunks" and "extensions" very simple.

Now that Vicidial makes it possible (and arguably easy), those functions of FreePBX are no longer necessary to avoid editing configuration files.

Today: FreePBX is a "PBX". Vicidial is a "Dialer". To run an office with vicidial is not so easy, ordinarily a PBX is more appropriate.

FreePBX is to the "PBX" world what Vicidial is to the "Dialer" world. Both in the same box means ONE hardware purchase. Later, when more $$ is available, putting them in sep boxes is fairly normal. But for a small office branching into Dialing ... it's very helpful to have both. Not to mention cost-effective.

Considering that some offices just starting out in the "call center" concept still need a phone system, this allows both in one box. Also, when you are not using your "dialer" you can still use your "pbx" so the money was not wasted. And when you decide to use the dialer again, it's still there. Waiting.

[techtra]

ok Got it now if i understand do you virtualise them or both running on the Same box as in same partition ? this is the reason why I was also thiking of using elastix call center because I had the flexibility of using the same Server for the pbx for the small business am starting also.because I will have my Server on a colocation sooooo it was kind of money saving.
And manly I need the call center for inbound and be able to monitor everything because my agents will be overseas and more than likely working at home at the begining using softphone.

[williamconley]

nothing virtual in telephone servers. drops the capacity too far. they exist on the same server, but with vicidial 2.0.5 do not share much dial plan. they merely co-exist. purely a "reduce hardware costs" concept. although they CAN (if you know what you're doing) jump from one dial plan to the other for specific purposes, when necessary. (like leaving voicemail for a freepbx user when the call was originally in vicidial)

[techtra]

Well My production Server is virtualize with Open Vz. The guy that did the install for me Swear that it is ok to use that and the big companies that are doing VPS and Hosted PBX use that, According to him Open Vz is not like Vmware or Xen it is a true Server Virtualization that gives you really high performance on the VM. I just hope it's true coz I paid some money for that Job.because am startin a Calling Card Business, so I virtualize the Server for a vm for Billing Prod, Billing Dev and Call Center Prod.
According to him it should be Smooth.

That ad that you have for $99 for Sugar CRM I might be interested in that if I do Decide to go with vicidial. SugarCrm will be also installed on My Server and Tested to see if it s the solution I need to manage my small business.
so If you have some kind of integration with vicidial and I do decide to go with Vicidial then I would Be interested.
What does the Integration do exaclty ? Display customer Info when they call what else ? pardon me if I get the Concept wrong
Regards,

[williamconley]

The ability to "display customer info" is already built into vicidial. The $99 version I installed (Sale is over! Used the sale to kick in for development.) is a quick way to get Vicidial Sales into SugarCRM to use Sugar as the "Back End" customer service system or "closing tool" to track longer term sales to completion (pipeline, customer contact, etc).

Vicidial has tools to easily export data, Sugar has tools to easily import data ... but putting them together seems to be beyond many people (especially without having to build a new web page for each user or something similarly unmanagable like that).

So we built a method to use the credentials in Vicidial to push the data directly into Sugar for the same user to continue with the sale. But now the user has email, document storage, and all the other power of Sugar available to complete the sale.

I have a lot of "one call sale" call centers that won't even consider such a thing, but they need to transmit their sale data to the "back end" company ... and this solution works quite well for that also.

We've even got a few clients that will take the credit card information directly in the SugarCRM screen (on a new tab) and authorize the sale "Live". Then send it to SugarCRM for "Fulfillment" of the product. The CC data is then stored at the Merchant (discarded locally, but replaced with a "client code" for reference) to capture the money later that day after the sale is verified by the "back end" company.

All these things, I'm sure, will be in future versions of Vicidial, but each of our customers makes specific requests and requirements for what THEY need right NOW, and we make it for them.