Silent Monitor and Reporting Tool

[bghayad]

Hi All;

If I need to have a detailed reports (rich in information), so which tool to be used? Is it OrderlyQ os something else?

From the other side, is it possible to give a privilage (feature) for the team leader to be able to hear the call that is happening between the agent and the customer without the notice of the Agent and the Customer? From where?

Asterisk 1.4.39.1-vici
Digium Card Wildcard TDM410P (2 FXS and 2 FXO ports).
VERSION: 2.4-309a
BUILD: 110430-1642

Regards
Bilal

[GaD]

There are some vendors of Asterisk reports that you can use. To implement these you might need to do some tweaking around in the database to get what you need. One option that the Vicidial Group has taken into account is the integration with Queuemetrics, which will give you very many reports. From my personal experience I'd recommend you to install this service and database in a separate server to avoid extra un-needed server load on you call handling servers. You may refer to he user manual on how to proceed with the integration....

As for the call monitoring, yes you can do such thing. It is called blind monitoring. You may also refer to the manual for that. There is an option in the realtime report that allows you to monitor. There are also extensions you can dial to achieve this. Sorry I cannot give you more details, but I don't have the manual handy to provide more info.

[bghayad]

Big thanks for this help.

integration with Queuemetrics, which will give you very many reports.

* Did u try it? Because I read at their website that I have to add the campaigns manually, you do not find ita bothering issue?
Also, how much it is possible to generate a customized reports?
Does it work find with vicidial from ur experience if u used it?

From my personal experience I'd recommend you to install this service and database in a separate server to avoid extra un-needed server load on you call handling servers. You may refer to he user manual on how to proceed with the integration....

* You mean the Queuemetrics?

As for the call monitoring, yes you can do such thing. It is called blind monitoring.

* Does it requires special kind of SIP Phones, or normal SIP Phones (like normal Cisco IP Phones that has SIP firmware)? I am asking this because Silent Monitoring features in Cisco Call Manager requires specific models of the Cisco IP Phones, really I do not know .. so that is why I asked this question "if required a special models of IP Phones or not"?

Again, special thanks for your kindly help and support and reply.
Regards
Bilal

[GaD]

I have not tried it together with Vicidial, but I have used and configured and installed queuemetrics for an asterisk box. You don't necesarily need to add campaigns manually, well..., maybe a little bit... You just have to run a script that comes with the program. As a matter of fact I believe you have a button on the Admin section that will sync your queuemetrics with whatever queues you have in your asterisk, so..., it is not that dificult to do...

Customized reports are pretty customizable. There are quite a few options to choose from. TO be honest, I have not had the need to customize reports un my center...

Yes, I do mean to tell you to install queuemetrics in it's own, separate server. You see, the downturn of QM, in my opinion, is that it consumes A LOT of resources in database lookup when you try to run a report. So, install the QM in a separate box and have VICI write to a slave database (the queuemetrics data). I'm not sure how much more load that would mean for the VICI database. In other asterisk 'flavours' like Trixbox or FreePBX (the one I used to install QM for) you can setup a little 'rover' that will replicate the Asterisk's database to the QM's database. Not sure if VICI has this 'rover'


Regarding the call monitoring..., you do not need a special phone. Any SIP or IAX or H323 phone will be fine so long you can establish a call with the asterisk you are trying to monitor. Cisco, in my opinion, has no clue what telephony is, there the need for *special*, **expensive** equipment, but that is just another topic qhere I can spend hours and hours sh**ting them up . In Asterisk you just need a phone connected to the asterisk box. The actual server will create a 'muted' phone call to your extension, more like a conference, where your voice will never be heard to the agent or the client who is talking to your agent.

Any question, I'd be glad to answer....

[bghayad]

Special thanks for this information and replying.

a matter of fact I believe you have a button on the Admin section that will sync your queuemetrics with whatever queues you have in your asterisk, so..., it is not that dificult to do...

* But vicidial does not use queues, it used its own configuration "camapgin and inbound group)", so how it will be this sync in this case?
Also, you are talking about the Admin section in Queuemetrics?

Yes, I do mean to tell you to install queuemetrics in it's own, separate server.

* It is linux based or Windows based?

In other asterisk 'flavours' like Trixbox or FreePBX (the one I used to install QM for) you can setup a little 'rover' that will replicate the Asterisk's database to the QM's database. Not sure if VICI has this 'rover'

* This from Asterisk or from mysql? Ofcourse you are talking about the cdr database, correct?
In case of VICIDIAL, are you talking about the VICIDIAL database "that we create it during the installation of the VICIDIAL installation" or you are also talking about the mysql CDR database that depends on asterisk logs?
In other words, Queuemetrics is depending on the VICIDIAL database or on the asterisk cdr logs that will be store in the mysql database "which requires to enable mysql module and do the configuration in the conf files for this logging database"? But in this case, there will be a two databases on the same machine, the VICIDIAL database and the Asterisk Logging database (both are MYSQL). I am correct?

About the overhead and the hardware utilization:
Actually my call center is maximum 30 agents (10 outbound and 20 inbound), and it will have IVR functionalities like giving the customer profile, doing payments via gateway payment, ... etc, also we will have voice recording and silent monitoring. I would like to have one server (I can buy a strong server that of price about 7000$) to have the one BOX (web server , database, telephony server) to run all togethor. Actually we do not need to use the vtiger. Will the hardware be enough for 10 outbound and 20 inbound? Or I have to bring more than one server? Again, maximum concurrent calls are 30 calls and maximum agents are 30 agents (10 agents for outbound and 20 agents for inbound).

For high availability, I can have another server to be a redundant server.

Now, about the Queuemetrics: For this size of IVR and call center, still I have to have Queuemetrics on separated machine?

Appreciate for the gr8 help and kindly reply.
Regards
Bilal

[GaD]

Sorry for the late reply.....

Like I previously said..., I dunno how QM works with Vici, I have not found the need to use it, at least so far....

QM is linux based, needs Tomcat MySQL and perl I believe....

The data the rover gets is from the CDR DB. I dunno what you mean that you'll have "two databases on the same machine, the VICIDIAL database and the Asterisk Logging database (both are MYSQL)two databases on the same machine, the VICIDIAL database and the Asterisk Logging database (both are MYSQL)" If you use Vicidial there is only one database that contains a table with the cdr and other tables with the VICi configuration.

The problem with the utilization comes from the ammount of people using the database (and a few other not so consuming services). You may have one agent taking calls, but if you have 20 people making reports that date back to 1985, your server will hog!! Now, I would not recommend you to have everythin in the same box. QM has to create a database of its own at least for the configuration and maybe another one with the cdr data (depends on configuration). When you add this database load to the Asterisks MeetMe, I estimate thet you may experience a few problems... I would suggest you to try it out, but be ready to get another server for the QM or for the whole database (Vici database included) for that matter...... 10 agents outbound + 20 inbound does not sound soo bad, but again, it depends on a whole lot of other variables (transcoding, recordings, database lookups, dialer ratio, etc)

To sum up. Go ahead and set it all up in the same box but be ready to get a second server if needed......