Remote Agents - Max Number of Dials

[D]

We are using ViciDial for outbound calling using a recorded message. The customer hears the message and has the Option of pressing 1 to talk to an agent and 2 if they are not interested. When the customer presses 1 the call is transferred to an agent's phone...this can be any telephone number designated by the agent. Some agents use VOIP phones while others do not.

We currently have 12 Remote Agents that are available to take these calls when the customer presses 1.

We would like to make around 450 Simultaneous Dials at any given time...that's what our other (non ViciDial) dialer is currently able to do to keep the 12 Remote agents busy. They are currently using around 45,000 minutes per day.

What type of ViciDial server do we need to accomplish this? We currently have a server with 2GB of RAM and 160 GB Hard Drive. Its a dual processor.

How much Bandwidth would be needed to accomplish this...dialing around 450 numbers at a time. Usually there are only 3 or 4 agents talking simultaneously.

Thanks for the feedback.

[mflorell]

for 450 concurrent outbound calls you really should have more than 1 server, especially if you will not be using ULAW as the codec. As for bandwidth, that depends on the codec you want to use.

For ULAW you will need at least 36Mbps
For G729 you will only need about 12Mbps but you will need more servers, or one of the new Digium transcoding cards.

[D]

Thanks Matt.

How many (what's the ideal maximum number) concurrent outbound calls can one ViciDial server with the following configuration handle:

- 2GB of RAM and 160 GB Hard Drive. Its a dual processor.

Also, how many servers would we need for making 450 concurrent outbound calls?

We are using G729. Would our telecom provider that we use for VOIP minutes and termination need to have that type of bandwidth available or is that the amount of bandwidth needed for the internet connection from the Vicidial Server to our ISP? Keep in mind this for doing voice-broadcast and not using the screen pops. The agent will only be connected if the Customer presses 1 to talk to an agent. For 12 agents - each one will only get 3 or 4 calls per hour.

[mflorell]

For G729 you will need to buy 450 licenses from Digium(I believe you can get a discount for such a large amount).

I would not put more than 100 G729 calls on a singel outbound dialing server configured like that, but depending on the dial rate and if you were able to encode the voice prompts in G729 you might be able to get a lot more. I have never tried voice broadcasting with G729 before so I'm not really sure as to the capacity.

[D]

Would our telecom provider that we use for VOIP minutes and termination need to have that type of bandwidth available or is that the amount of bandwidth needed for the internet connection from the Vicidial Server to our ISP? In your previous post you had mentioned that For G729 we will only need about 12Mbps but will need more servers, or one of the new Digium transcoding cards.

Is the 12Mbps required by us to run the ViciDial server or our Telecom provider to do the termination for us if we run 450 concurrent outbound calls doing recorded message voice broadcast and the agent only gets connected if the customer chooses to speak with the agent...this is without any screen pops. The remote agent can receive calls on his or her cell phone or any other phone.

[mflorell]

Both you and your carrier would need 12Mbps for the calls to go through. As for your carrier, if they can handle that kind of volume they should already have much more than 12Mbps on their side.

As for you, you should consider putting these VICIDIAL servers at a hosted facility that will not charge you as much for bandwidth as if you were running these at an office location. You can usually get 100Mbps internet connection at a colocation facility for the price of 10Mbps at a remote office location.