Vicidial and Trixbox Pro Call Center Edition?

[bangsters]

Hi. We have a production Trixbox Call Center Edition running. I am currently looking for predictive dialers and came across vicidial. After reading for some time, a lot have been suggesting about not using trixbox for vicidial (i'm using the Call Center Edition, not the Free one so replacing Trixbox is impossible for me). Is there a way to have a second server with a vicidial install work in conjunction with my Trixbox Pro Server, and have the calls transferred to the extensions of our agents in our TB Pro Server?

We urgently need a predictive dialer to work with our infrastructure.

Please advice on what is the best approach to this?

Thanks

--F

[mflorell]

I believe that uses code from PBXtra, and if it is then it really doesn't function like Asterisk due to all of the patching of the Manager API and other things that Fonality has done to get their functionality working. I have not tried it, but I have talked to people who have unsuccessfully attempted it.

If you try it, please let us know how it goes.

[bangsters]

I just thought of something, will try it out later this morning when I head out to the datacenter to install vicidial in a separate server.

This is what I'm thinking of doing, let me know if this sounds feasible.

With Trixbox Pro Call Center Edition (TB CCE), I can set multiple IVRs per DID number and have them ring my blast group for the outgoing campaign. I then will setup Vicidial on a separate server, and set up remote agents. Those remote agents will have the DID number that will ring my outgoing campaign in TB CCE. Theoretically it should work.

This way, Vicidial will proceed to dial the list. If a number is picked up, then it will ring the TB CCE number and then the call gets transferred to one of my agents.

I only have a couple concerns with this setup.

1. From the Vicidial server to the TB CCE server, will the calls be charged 2x? Since it will make a call to the list (say .02 per minute), then once the call goes through it will also call my TB CCE (another .02 per minute??). Is there a way to make this a free call or something?

2. Will the Vicidial reporting work or in limited data? Since I'm thinking that there will only be one agent (remote agent) that all calls go to, so it will not be able to identify which agent from TB CCE actually picks up the call.

3. Any drawbacks in terms of network/bandwidth? Or it should be fine?

4. How do I set Vicidial (i install VicidialNow) outbound routing and inbond routing? In TB it is in the web gui. I can't seem to find it in vicidial admin gui.

5. Can vicidial detect if the remote agent's DID channes are maxxed out or not? For example, the DID number I allocate for this has 25 channels to be used by 25 agents, if all those 25 channels are used up vicidial won't be able to transfer the call to the remote agent. Will vicidial hang up the list or still continue to dial the list?

6. Can vicidial record the calls? Or do I have to install another server for recording the calls???

This are some of the things I can think of at this time. Any other suggestions or advice? Will this idea work?? I'm actually running short on time since I cannot find anny suitable predictive dialers to work with TB CCE.

Thanks and my apologies for the lengthy post.

--F

[mflorell]

I only have a couple concerns with this setup.

1. From the Vicidial server to the TB CCE server, will the calls be charged 2x? Since it will make a call to the list (say .02 per minute), then once the call goes through it will also call my TB CCE (another .02 per minute??). Is there a way to make this a free call or something?

IAX trunk between the two servers will be free. Are they on the same network?

2. Will the Vicidial reporting work or in limited data? Since I'm thinking that there will only be one agent (remote agent) that all calls go to, so it will not be able to identify which agent from TB CCE actually picks up the call.

Depends on how you set it up. You don't have to use the TB CCE features at all to use VICIDIAL, you can have VICIDIAL call a DID that goes right to a TB CCE phone when the agent logs in to VICIDIAL, then they act as a normal VICIDIAL agent.

3. Any drawbacks in terms of network/bandwidth? Or it should be fine?

Depends on your network.

4. How do I set Vicidial (i install VicidialNow) outbound routing and inbond routing? In TB it is in the web gui. I can't seem to find it in vicidial admin gui.

you program it in the extensions.conf file. No web GUI yet for dialplan programming.

5. Can vicidial detect if the remote agent's DID channes are maxxed out or not? For example, the DID number I allocate for this has 25 channels to be used by 25 agents, if all those 25 channels are used up vicidial won't be able to transfer the call to the remote agent. Will vicidial hang up the list or still continue to dial the list?

You can set a maximum number of channels if you use remote-agents in VICIDIAL, but I don't really think using that is the best way for you to use VICIDIAL in your situation.

6. Can vicidial record the calls? Or do I have to install another server for recording the calls???

Depends on number of concurrent calls, and how you set up your agents. If you use remote-agents through VICIDIAL you cannot easily record through VICIDIAL. If your agents login to the standard VICIDIAL interface and don't use the TB CCE agent functions then you can easily record.

This are some of the things I can think of at this time. Any other suggestions or advice? Will this idea work?? I'm actually running short on time since I cannot find anny suitable predictive dialers to work with TB CCE.

I would suggest that you read the VICIDIAL Manager Manual.
[/quote]

[bangsters]

IAX trunk between the two servers will be free. Are they on the same network?

They are on the same network. Same rack, both have public IPs.

Depends on how you set it up. You don't have to use the TB CCE features at all to use VICIDIAL, you can have VICIDIAL call a DID that goes right to a TB CCE phone when the agent logs in to VICIDIAL, then they act as a normal VICIDIAL agent.

If I do this, do I have to assign a DID per agent? Or vicidial can dial the extension directly? If so, can someone walk me through it or help me set it up? I'm quite confused by this, I thought I need to create agent logins in vicidial and assign extensions to them, so they will then be logged into both vicidial and TB CCE and have 2 extensions each? Or I can just create logins in vicidial without any extensions and have it forward to DIDs in TB CCE, thus if I have 30 agents, I have 30 DIDs one per agent?

Depends on number of concurrent calls, and how you set up your agents. If you use remote-agents through VICIDIAL you cannot easily record through VICIDIAL. If your agents login to the standard VICIDIAL interface and don't use the TB CCE agent functions then you can easily record.

Are the recordings automatic, I mean can I program vicidial to record automatically all outbound and inbond calls for QA purposes?

Lastly, I'm headed to the datacenter to install orecX for recording software. So I wouldn't need this anymore woudl I? Or, can I install OrecX on the same server that I install vicidial on? I'm just trying to minimize costs hence I ask this.

Thanks again sir.

[mflorell]

IAX trunk between the two servers will be free. Are they on the same network?

They are on the same network. Same rack, both have public IPs.

That is good. Bandwidth will not be an issue then.

Depends on how you set it up. You don't have to use the TB CCE features at all to use VICIDIAL, you can have VICIDIAL call a DID that goes right to a TB CCE phone when the agent logs in to VICIDIAL, then they act as a normal VICIDIAL agent.

If I do this, do I have to assign a DID per agent? Or vicidial can dial the extension directly? If so, can someone walk me through it or help me set it up? I'm quite confused by this, I thought I need to create agent logins in vicidial and assign extensions to them, so they will then be logged into both vicidial and TB CCE and have 2 extensions each? Or I can just create logins in vicidial without any extensions and have it forward to DIDs in TB CCE, thus if I have 30 agents, I have 30 DIDs one per agent?

You will need a "DID" for each phone(not necessarily for each agent) and they do not have to be real-world DIDs, just something you make up for VICIDIAL to use on your Trixbox machine since it will have an IAX trunk going into it.

Depends on number of concurrent calls, and how you set up your agents. If you use remote-agents through VICIDIAL you cannot easily record through VICIDIAL. If your agents login to the standard VICIDIAL interface and don't use the TB CCE agent functions then you can easily record.

Are the recordings automatic, I mean can I program vicidial to record automatically all outbound and inbond calls for QA purposes?

Yes, recording can be automatic as soon as the call comes in to an agent.

Lastly, I'm headed to the datacenter to install orecX for recording software. So I wouldn't need this anymore woudl I? Or, can I install OrecX on the same server that I install vicidial on? I'm just trying to minimize costs hence I ask this.

OrecX is a bit different since it records the entire call for every call that comes over SIP. With VICIDIAL you would not get the queue time recorded, with OrecX you would.

Yes you can have them both running on the same machine.

[bangsters]

ok I got it installed and set a public IP for the server. Can snyone assist me on what to do next to be able to do trunking and to set the routes

[mflorell]

I would suggest posting on the Jobs/Consultation forum:
http://www.eflo.net/VICIDIALforum/viewforum.php?f=6

[pylinuxian]

else why would they call it call center edition ?

[pylinuxian]

else why would they call it call center edition ?