contact center solution

[unikbit]

Hello,

I'm looking for a contact center solution for a small contact center.
The application should have:
- easy to install;
- easy to configure
- CTI
- IVR
- ACD
- custom scripts for inbound &outbound
- progresive, predictive dialing
- affordable postsales support (prefferable 1 year included, after that no more than 10% )
(and so on)

My budget is 10.000 USD including hardware.

Thanks,
Adrian

[asteriskexpert]

Hi,

Can you provide more info regarding the size of your needs .
Because you specify the hardware included.

Regards

[williamconley]

Check the abilities of FreePBX (for IVR/ACD, etc) and of course Vicidial for the predictive dialer (as if there were any others worth mentioning). If the abilities of these two programs combined have what you need, we have the ability to meet your request.

How many boxes are you looking for?

How many seats?

How many lines?

Remote install or will you be sending the boxes to us for configuration?

VOIP or Voice Ts or Analog Cards?

[unikbit]

William,

As I know FreePbX don't have a script building tool for agents.

I want to start small 10 agents and than to expand to 50 seats in 2 years.

I prefer remote install and my help if you need something do to locally.

I will need for the begining to connect 2 pstn lines, and a E1 flux, and Voip lines.

Thanks

[williamconley]

Vicidial will build the script for your agents if you put the template in for the campaign.
10->50 over two years is a good path, and a reasonable place to start.
Remote installs are certainly acceptable if there is considerable distance involved.

I will need to also have the ability to interface (through you if necessary) with your Provider in case of connectivity issues with the E1.

I get the impression from your post that you have some specifics regarding the "E1 flux" that you have not yet mentioned. Do you have some hardware specifics that you would like to share? Certain interface card(s) or gateways?

T1/E1 equipment can vary from not very expensive ($1400) to VERY expensive. Do you have a specific connection available that you need to hook up to a specific card, or is this first installation not for a specific location/situation yet?

[unikbit]

Is my first install. Still I don't have any client but the application should be very easy to use/setup and flexible and to cover 80-90% of requests from my future clients.

[williamconley]

In that case, yes, I can meet your pricing requirement if delivery is within the U.S. and we can keep the E1 card within the lower range of pricing. I would consult with you regarding screen setups and information to be collected/stored from clients and how your "work flow" needs to go.

If delivery is outside the US the only issue is equipment shipping, as all the software will be Open Source. We will have to discuss the pricing/hours for Support. But what you are asking for is within the price range you have suggested.

I would highly recommend you contact http://www.vicidialgroup.com/ before you choose any vendor (the creators of Vicidial, which is the heart of any system involving a dialer).

Remember that there are a lot of Telephone systems and a lot of Customer Relationship Management Systems, and there are even a few dialers (not many, and not good, but there are some)...

But I have only found ONE (Vicidial) that is EASILY capable of being integrated with SugarCRM/vTiger/FreePBX or any of several other CRM/PBXs. So if you start with Vicidial, then you must only look at the requirements and ease of integration with your other software. Then look at those who have done it already and you will save money and increase the power of your final product by utilizing pre-existing solutions.

[unikbit]

I think your proposal with FreePBX and Vicidial is a good one.
I think I can start with this solution and to use money for promotion, and when I have clients to switch if needed

So please let me know how much will cost me.
The server will be a DELL with at least Raid1 and 2 Digium cards one for E1 and one for 2 PSTN lines.

Thanks

[williamconley]

Sounds like a plan. "Dell" however, is a brand and they have a WIDE array of servers with processors ranging from P4 to Core 2 Quad (and beyond!) not to mention new vs refurb. They also have Towers and Blades and several other footprints. Also, Digium has several E1 cards available.

So let me see if I can get an approximation of what you are attempting to say by "DELL with at least Raid1". Shall we assume that a Dell with a Quad Processor operating a 2.3Mhz or above and 2G of RAM with two 250G or above hard drives and a motherboard capable of causing those two drives to be "mirrored" is what you mean?

Next we have the Digium E1 & Analog cards ... the TE122 is a single span, selectable T1 (24-channel), E1 (32-channel), or J1 (24-channel) card and the Digium TDM402B 2FXO PCI Card will drive two PSTN trunks into the box.

Integration of the CRM (SugarCRM) with Vicidial is optional (they can merely reside on the same box at first until you have decided how to keep your data for this center and how that data should interact with your dialer).

Let me know if this is the ballpark we are playing in and I can give you an up-to-date price.

[unikbit]

I would like to know how I will solve the problem of custom scripts and forms for taking data also for inbound & outbound.

For inbound:
- I have to create custom text scripts for every DID I have and to atach every each of it to a queue. Also after the agent read the script for a call he have to take some data from the caller (maybe name, phone number, what is the request etc). I need something to be abble to customize myself to add/delete diffrent types of data fields and than to be stored in database.
Maybe to do something extern but to be able to access it from agent screen (to be able to put a link in the agent script to the form which have to be completed and that link to access maybe an external application)

For outbound
- to be able to create questionares and to store the answers in a database .


F

[Trying]

I am sure many are looking for a tool to easily add/customize fields without being a programmer. This can be done through an external web form or i-frames in the script. If somebody out there has a feature like this developed already please consider sharing/selling it.

[williamconley]

We have successfully added fields but you are right it was a pain to do. After you do it once, however it isn't so hard.

Of course, it would probably be simpler to add a whole new table with a "one-to-one" relationship with the "list" and add records to that only when notes are taken that require the extra fields. The initial setup would be "add-only" to the vicidial page and then the code to "add if it's not there already" is also fairly easy. Also, if you have not noticed, the "List" can get ... well, LARGE. This solution would not enlarge the entire list (adding a field to the entire list will immediately do so), but will only add size when you add notes to a record that did not have them already. We use a CRM (Goldmine) that uses this model from years gone by and it may not be pretty, but it DOES work.

For custom script, the scripting system within Vici seems to be easy enough. I've given it to several managers with no training other than a cheat sheet and they seemed quite content. The script can "pop" or be in a tab, so you can have access to the original vicidial record to modify name/phone etc easily while using the vicidial script. Unless you need custom data (and don't want to use "Notes" for it), Vicidial seems to have this covered.

If you want to have a form that involves a script with "fill-in-the-blank" scenario (ask the client the question, then put the answer Here: ___), that would work with either scenario I described above depending on whether the information being collected was able to be stored in the standard vicidial list. If it can, then a custom pop-up could be created fairly easily, it it has custom data then that same custom pop-up could store its data in a separate table linked to the list, and that is where you would pull your report. The same method applies to "questionnaires". And yes, we've done this sort of thing before. Not hard for a PHP/MySQL person, but time consuming to be sure it will work with the Agents properly. I'd never thought of it before, but we could probably piggyback that system into the existing Vicidial scripting interface using the same resources and just set a special switch to NOT allow that form to be pulled on a regular vici script window but only on our special script window.

Depending on the hardware selection information I have requested above, this is still within the $10,000 limit. So how are we doing on answering that question? (Did the hardware I specified fall within the range of your expected equipment?)