Adding PBX functionality to Vicibox server - good idea?

[bilmar]

Currently we have a freePBX server running voice, IVR and Voicemail AND another server running ViciDial .

PBX only has to support 30 extensions and two IVR menus so it is a pretty simple config

Since both servers are running Asterisk and I am comfortable with manual modification of Asterisk conf files does it make sense to manually modify Vicidial server's Asterisk config to integrate PBX functionality too or is this a bad idea?

I see us having 3 digit PBX extensions with one DID going to PBX IVR and another DID going to ViciDial using 4 digit extensions.

Will ViciDial complain or perhaps overwrite manual changes I make to extensions.conf or sip.conf?

Let me know if this is dumb idea or doable

Thanks
Bill

[williamconley]

We still have several systems running this sort of modification (with different versions and requirements based on what the Customer Had To Have). They all have one thing in common, however: Expensive/Time Consuming to upgrade ... so they don't.

However: Vicidial has all the functionality you need without altering the .conf files. It has IVRs. It has "desk phones" (remote agents) and it has Queues (although in Vicidial they are Ingroups).

My advice is to try to do it within Vicidial. If you must have modifications for a specific feature in extensions.conf first try admin->carriers, then use the system settings custom dialplan entry. But I'd bet everything you want to do is already part of the Vicidial codebase OR easily added as a "carrier", use system settings custom dialplan entry as a last-ditch effort to avoid modifying a conf file directly. This way you can continue to upgrade without losing any of these changes or having to remake them.

As an added advantage, properly done, these calls could be logged and viewed in the real time screen just like all the others.

If all else fails, try your changes in a virtual server first before messing with your live system. That way when you run the "single agent fake campaign" and it fails ... you don't care cuz it's a sandbox and you can fix it tomorrow after a good night's sleep instead of "holy crap! the system is down!" lol

[bilmar]

Thanks for the info - I will give this a try.

One concern is that typically in ViciDial, users have to log in in order to accept calls.
In a traditional PBX with hard phones, the phones just work - all the time.

Can ViciDial be set up such that hard phones will always ring if IVR sends a call to that extension( or group) - without anyone logging in?


Bill

[williamconley]

Remote Agent phones "just ring". If you set them to "OnHook", they can even Not Answer if nobody is there and the call can ring over to the next desk or go to the voicemail for the Ingroup. If you leave off OnHook, the call will go to the VM for that phone. Perfect for desk phones. Lots of options in the Ingroup settings.