Category Archives: PBX

Asterisk PBX Tips

Toktumi – New VOIP App

Posted on by
1

Toktumi

They say that when a lot of people start jumping into the bandwagon, then you can consider the activity a success. Take mobile phones, for example. In the beginning, only the relatively rich and important people had to have them. After a while, even the average person used mobile phones. Today, almost everyone carries a mobile phone around. More so, more and more businesses are venturing into this industry.

The same thing could be said of VOIP. In the beginning, there were only a handful of VOIP providers. More so, there were even less people who knew about VOIP and used it on a regular basis. Well, anyone who has been following the goings on in the world of VOIP would know that it has become a success and seems to continue on this path in the unforeseeable future.

Furthermore, if the emergence of new VOIP apps and companies is any indication, then we can declare for sure that VOIP is here to stay. Here’s a new addition to the plethora of VOIP apps available – Toktumi. This app is developed by a “who’s who” of VOIP – Peter Sisson – and is basically a phone service that is PC-based. Toktumi is not that new, if you think about it, as it has been in operation since 2006, albeit through a private beta only. Now, however, consumers everywhere can have a taste of what Toktumi has to offer for free. Of course, it is only free if you call other Toktumi clients. For other phones and other VOIP service calls, charges apply.

So what does Toktumi have to offer? Why should VOIP enthusiasts even think of trying it out when they are already using a great VOIP app? For one, Toktumi is supposed to be a breeze when it comes to installation. They are actually targeting small businesses for their main market and their 5-minute installation should present no problems even for the “un-techie.” Some features of Toktumi include conference calls, assigned phone IDs, inbound calling (but of course!), voicemail, and auto-attendant forwarding.

Rafe Needleman at Webware says that Toktumi is just like Skype – but for grown ups. So what does he mean? He didn’t really expound on this on his article but sums it up as being a treasure because it “solves a real need” without bleeding the customers dry. That makes sense, doesn’t it?

Best Open Source VOIP Applications

Posted on by
Reply

VOIP

We just love lists, don’t we? Since we are into VOIP in this blog, I thought why not present a list of the best open source VOIP applications? Lucky for me, I didn’t have to look far for this sort of information – I ran across an extensive list presented by Virtual Hosting Blog. I picked out some of the items on the list. If you want the whole thing (it is quite long), you can see the whole list of the top 50 open source VOIP apps.

SIP Proxies

  • OpenSer: OpenSER has been described as a “mature and flexible” SIP server so it’s no surprise that it’s popular among users. OpenSER development began with FhG FOKUS SIP Express Router, but then diverged into its own feature-laden software package that was released in 2005. Since then it’s been exhibited around the world, and makes a great addition to Linux systems looking to employ VoIP technology.
  • VOCAL: Open source VoIP developers can benefit from the software and tools found in VOCAL. Developed through the Cisco sponsored labs at Vovida, VOCAL is fully customizable to business needs and can provide call routing, billing information, call control and more in an easy to control and maintain Linux based system. It’s been successful due largely in part to its immense capability for adaptation and scalability, and likely will only see further integration into business systems in the future.

SIP Clients

  • Linphone: Linphone is promoted as a solution to help users communicate more freely over the Internet using voice, video and text messaging. Recent updates to the program have made it even better, solving many compilation issues while adding improved interoperability and new features. While currently only stable on Linux systems, development is under way for a Windows version as well.
  • PhoneGaim: If you haven’t heard of PhoneGaim you’ve likely heard of its proprietary counterpart Gizmo Project. While it doesn’t have the instant name recognition of its VoIP cousin Gizmo, PhoneGaim is still a product to take note of. Developed in an attempt to challenge Skype, the program is loaded with integrated features that help make the VoIP experience rewarding, even for those just using the software at home.

PBX

  • Asterisk: Asterisk is perhaps the greatest open source VoIP success story of them all. It is the leading open source telephony engine and tool kit and is used in thousands of servers and VoIP setups all over the world. What makes it so great? The standard system supports many features available in proprietary PBX system like voice mail, conference calling, interactive voice response, and automatic call distribution but also has the versatility to be adapted and personalized based on business or individual needs.
  • OpenPBX: Developed by Australian company Voicetronix, OpenPBX is a popular solution both with small offices and with large call centers. With features like unlimited voicemail, auto-attendant, automatic call distribution, music on hold and call parking it’s easy to see why. It also has the advantage of highly compact Perl code, meaning it’s very easy to customize and extend.

Now why aren’t I surprised that Asterisk is there? ;)

Asterisk in Focus: What’s Great About It?

Posted on by
Reply

As I was reading some old news and features on VOIP and related topics, I ran across a feature on Asterisk, which was published about a year ago. The title is “What’s So Great About Asterisk?” and it was an article published on VOIP-NEWS. The main point of the article about Asterisk is that it is open source and that means it is far cheaper than its mainstream counterparts. On the other hand, the article points out that support may not be as reliable for Asterisk as compared to the proprietary versions. This, of course, is an essential consideration for businesses.

The downloaded Asterisk software is community-supported through email and online forums and this works for many folks, Miller said. But for mission-critical businesses he recommends them using Digium’s Asterisk Business Edition for a “fully regression tested” version of Asterisk that comes with 24×7 tech support and complete maintenance and support programs.

Large enterprises will also have to be convinced that open source PBXs, which so far have mostly been used in small and medium sized businesses, will scale to the thousands of users they need the products for.

This point of view is understandable although I would say that since the article was published, a lot has changed (for the better) with Asterisk and open source PBX in general, don’t you think?

Another point that caught my interest in the article:

Does that mean open source PBXs will soon brush the proprietary versions aside? Unlikely, though as users get more comfortable with other open source solutions such as Apache, Linux and MySQL, which are in the mainstream now, they’ll also get more comfortable with Asterix and other open source PBX solutions.

Indeed, just because something is considered open source now does not mean that it will stay so forever. And more so, just because something is open source does not automatically mean that it will not be appropriate for “professional” applications! I am sure that there will be many others who will agree with me when I say that Asterisk works just fine for many business, especially those who lean towards the small scale.

Perhaps it is a matter of analyzing and determining one’s needs first. The next step would be to determine if Asterisk (and other open source systems) could provide an answer for these needs. Go over forums and discussion groups, though, and I am sure that you will see a lot of individuals and business owners testifying for open source systems.

Hi-tech Features With Hosted PBX

Posted on by
Reply

We all know how VOIP can drastically cut costs – both for personal use and business purposes.  When it comes to the latter, however, business owners are always looking for ways to cut down on the costs and yet at the same time, be able to maintain top features for the business.  If the business is big, there is usually no problem – they have the budget for these things.  However, for small businesses, the budget is usually tight.  As a result, they usually have to settle for low-end technology and this includes their phone systems.

With new technology becoming more available and at a more affordable cost, small business now have a chance to avail of services that can make them look like Fortune-500 companies – without having to spend as much.  How is this possible?  Through hosted PBX.   What are the benefits of hosted PBX?  According to Brian Solomon of TMCNet:

This new service, hosted, can give your small company the professional image, improved efficiency, and business intelligence normally available only to the largest firms. And depending on the type of hosted PBX you choose, you don’t have to do any equipment installation, maintenance, or upgrade – the hosted PBX provider does it all.

One of the most important assets of a small business is its image. You can invest in a pretty web site and buy nice stationary, but when clients call you do they hear professionalism or “small time”? Many small businesses simply route all calls to one phone and tell callers to call a different number if the person they want isn’t close by. With a hosted PBX service, your callers can hear a professionally recorded greeting to get menu options for connection to individuals or departments – just like a Fortune 500 corporation. Even a company of just one person can still let callers dial for sales, support or customer service. You look bigger to your clients and when the call is connected you know what the caller wants to talk about.

Once your caller selects a menu option, a hosted PBX can route the call to any employee, just like a hardware PBX system. But with a hosted PBX, your employees don’t have to be at an office phone. In fact, you don’t even need to have an office. Hosted PBX systems are one of the single most important enablers of virtual companies. Employees can take calls on cell phones or home lines. The caller gets to the right employee and you can save money on office rent and utilities.

Now that’s what I call bang for your buck.

VoIP: Uniting East and West

Posted on by
Reply

If there is one industry that is currently booming in Asia nowadays, it’s the Business Process Outsourcing/Call Center Industry. Because people in the western world can’t seem to stay long in a call center or telemarketing job, business owners have decided to migrate the operations elsewhere.

And guess what fuels this large enterprise.

Yep, it’s VoIP. Continue reading →

SwitchVox Free Edition

Posted on by
Reply

In any technology solution, the upfront cost, or the initial cost needed even when just want to initially test if the solution will work for your needs is one factor that many business clients consider in their evaluation and purchases. This is true for most solution stack, including PBX/VOIP Solutions.With the advantages and savings that open source solutions such as Asterisk offers, more and more companies feel the need to integrate Internet telephony in their infrastructure. Now, with the latest “offspring” of Digium’s purchase of Switchvox, small businesses can “test the waters” before spending the money on their PBX systems. Thanks to  Switchvox’s Free Edition. It lets potential customers to use the PBX software with zero upfront cost.

Switchvox’s Free Edition is the company’s latest offering, announced a month after it was acquired by Digium, the company behind Asterisk: the open-source Internet telephony platform / PBX on which Switchvox’s product is based. The Free edition joins the other two offerings of Digium / Switchvox: Switchvox SOHO and Switchvox SMB. This feature matrix showcases the differences betweent these three Switchvox offerings.

Switchvox Free Edition is aimed for businesses who want to try and get started with a full-featured phone system that’s easy to administer and use. This can include both existing users of other PBX software and those who haven’t made the jump to IP yet.

With this free edition, 15 virtual, IP or analog phone extensions can be created, and it can handle up to 8 cuncurrent phone calls. This is perfect for small-sized organizations who don’t have a demmand for large extensions.

Switchvox free edition will work with existing hardware, but the Switchvox FAQ suggests that if you want to eventually migrate to the more fully-featured offerings, potential customers can take a look at their Certified Hardware List

Althought Asterisk, one of the core components of Switchvox Free Edition (as well as in other editions) is open source, the whole solution stack is not. Switchvox has closed, proprietary components.

When you have decided to upgrade to SOHO or SMB versions of Switchvox, the company provides a seamless migration path that only requires you to make a payment to the Switchvox store, then you can finish the upgrade using Switchvox’s web console. Switchvox Free Edition is another grate additoin to Asterisk’s growing arsenal of Internet Telephony solutions.

Installing Asterisk with a GUI on Linux

Posted on by
Reply

I don’t know how I missed this, but I just came across an excellent Asterisk How-to guide on howtoforge.com, the excellent site that houses an increasing amount of guides of doing many things on Linux. The article is entitled “Installing the Asterisk PBX and The Asterisk Web-Based Provisioning GUI on Linux” and it provides a good step-by-step guide on getting started with Asterisk PBX on your favorite Linux distribution.

The guide is neatly organized into chronological sessions that you can follow step by step if you want to implement your own Asterisk PBX or if you would just like to try it out.

The guide assumes a Linux Red Hat ES4 distribution though if you know your way well enough around Linux, you can easily adopt it to suit your own Linux distribution of choice.

The first part of the guide is about installing and configuring the core Asterisk package, and the guide provides clear and concise instructions you can follow. The steps looks easy enough that most Linux users familiar with fiddling with their system can easily follow it. Just in case something doesn’t work though, you’re kind of left with your own “googling” skills. At the end of the 7-step part of the installation howto, you will have a working Asterisk installation on Linux. The guide provides basic test instructions that you can use to verify if your installation of Asterisk was succesful.

Next, the how-to discusses the necessary steps needed for you to install and configure the Asterisk manager: the component of Asterisk that lets you manage your Asterisk PBX. The guide also discusses AJAM, a new feature found in Asterisk 1.4 that allows a web browser or any http-enabled application to access the Asterisk Management Interface

The second page (and the last part) of the guide is about installing the Asterisk Web-Based Provisioning GUI. Although Asterisk can be used through the command line without this component, installing the Web-based GUI will simplify and make things a lot easier if you’re maintaining an Asterisk deployment. Again, the guide provides an extensive and yet easy to follow set of instructions to guide any user trying to install the web-based Asterisk GUI.

Overall, the guide is a good starting point if you want to get your hands dirty with Asterisk PBX.

3Com Expands Portfolio with 3Com Asterisk

Posted on by
1

3Com is actively expanding its product offerings by launching new products to cater to all businesses from small businesses to businesses with about 200 users. The three new voice products the company has added to its product listing includes two new VCX Connect models plus the 3Com Asterisk Appliance.

The 3Com Asterisk Appliance is a self-contained unit that is based on Digium’s Asterisk Appliance. It is, of course, an open source system an is designed for small businesses with only 5 to 30 phone users. Being a self-contained unit the ease of setting it up is remarkable allowing users to simply plug-and-play. 3Com Asterisk works on all of 3Com’s phone handsets. Support and service is no problem since 3Com offers full service, warranty and support for it. The list price of the 3Com Asterisk is $1,595 at present.

The release of 3Com Asterisk Appliance is a strategic decision for 3Com as they emerge from their relative non-activity in the voice space. Right now it is the company’s aim to focus on “delivering products and solutions for converged secure networks, in which voice is an application that can be readily integrated with many others.” This makes the decision to use Asterisk a sound one since, as 3Com’s senior vice president and general manager, Bob Dechant, said they chose to work with Digium because of its “position as the Asterisk leader [and] its commitment to open standards and the ease-of-use of the appliance.”

Digium, on the other hand, is still assertively marketing their product and despite all the big news surrounding it lately (Read: The awards and the acquisition of Switchvox) the Digium team continues to be enthusiastic about each new appliance that makes use of Asterisk. As Bill Miller, Digium’s vice president of product management and marketing, said, “Digium pioneered Asterisk and is now working to bring the software’s power and rich feature set to a broader array of customers. 3Com’s selection of our new appliance to offer to its own customers validates our strategy of opening new markets to Asterisk by making it user-friendly, and is also testament to the fact that Digium’s products are the gold standard in the Asterisk ecosystem today.”

Digium Acquires Switchvox

Posted on by
Reply

Digium Inc., the company behind the popular open source VOIP platform Asterisk, has announced that it has acquired Switchvox, a leading provider of IP PBX phone systems for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). This acquisition strengthens Digium’s presence in the SMB market and provides even more avenue for the deployment and improvement of its Asterisk-based solutions.

Switchvox is the world’s largest supplier of open source IP-PBX products for businesses, with an estimated 65000 end points in operation. The company offers CPE-based solutions powered by Asterisk (with Swithcvox’s own custom code added).

To some extent, specifically in the area of making Asterisk easy to use and providing a GUI for the powerful asterisk platform that is easy to use for its customers, Switchvox embodies what Asterisk is striving to become. Switchvox has succesfully marketed to the SMB market their VOIP and hybrid solutions, building both on the power of Asterisk and their expertise on creating a user-interface that is both intuitive and user-empowering.

Switchvox also features integration with leading leading CRM applications SugarCRM and SalesForce.com, as well as with Google Maps. With its new Switchvox SMB V3.0, detailed information from SugarCRM and Salesforce.com automatically pop-up on incoming calls via the Switchboard.The integration of Google Maps makes it possible to locate where inbound calls are coming from, empowering the users more to adopt to potential leads.

Digium and Switchvox are undergoing heavy integration of the two company’s products and solutions, and plans to unveil a new product strategy and roadmap later this year focusing on asterisk-based unified communication solutions for their SMB and enterprise customers.

But until Digium rebrands and relaunches Switchvox products under the Digium brand, Switchvox products will retain their branding for the forseeable months.

With regards to proprietary components of Switchvox’s offerings, Mark Spencer of Digium expressed interest in making them open source (Digium is a big proponent of open source) to add to the current open source Asterisk.

The acquisition looks like an excellent marriage of two companies with complementary strengths in the IP PBX space, with both parties expressing interest and and excitement on the acquisition. Josh Stephen, President and CEO of Switchvox, has this to say:

“The entire Switchvox team is excited to become part of the Digium family and to be entering this new phase of the company’s life. We look forward to extending the reach of Asterisk and other Digium products, making them more accessible to more people. We have been working on a road map that we feel will change the IP PBX landscape, and with the knowledge and help of Digium we will to be able to work faster than ever to bring those features to market.”

And on their blog, Bill Miller said:

“Danny and Josh, the two respective CEOs will publish their thoughts here shortly, I am prefacing their post by telling you, “Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!” Get ready to Rock and Roll with Digium and Switchvox. When “best of breeds” get together, the results are “best of the best” so join us for the ride!”

Use of Asterisk’s IP Telephony Platform Boosted by Genesys’ Support

Posted on by
2

Asterisk’s userbase has gotten even bigger now that Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, an Alcatel-Lucent company (PARIS: ALU) and (NYSE: ALU), has announced its decision to support the Asterisk® open source IP PBX platform. According to the president and SEO of Genesys, Wes Hayden, they decided to formally support Asterisk to be able to meet customer demands. Furthermore he stated that, “The increased importance of SIP and standards-based technology has paved the way for using open source for contact centres. We have reached a point where Asterisk and SIP are mature, reliable and proven technologies.”

The response of Genesys customers was very positive with companies like Groupama Rhône Alpes Auvergne in France, E.Novation Contact Centers in the Netherlands, and Global Speech Networks in Australia all announcing their own deployment of their use of Genesys on Asterisk. It is expected that more companies will soon follow suit as the use of of open source is highly beneficial to them cost-wise. In addition to these using an open platform gives them much flexibility, which is very important to be able to develop the highly customised environments that is required of contact centre service providers.

The move by Genesys is clearly advantageous not only to Digium and Genesys’s clients but to the VoIP technology as a whole. Since Genesys is the leading provider of software for major contact centres then their use of Asterisk is sure to help hasten the acceptance VoIP technology in the contact centre industry. Currently Genesys is the only company worldwide focusing its entire resources on software meant to manage customer services through the phone, web and email. The customer-base Genesys’ 4,000 clients interact with each day is approximately about 100 million (individual) people. The impact of even just a percentage of the 4,000 Genesys clients shifting to IP technology or at least incorporating it with the existing technology they use will be an unbelievable boost to IP. At the moment though only a few, as mentioned earlier, have actively embraced the new platform. Although contact centres are enthusiastic about adopting this new standard being pushed by Genesys it will of course take some time to transition from their old systems. Transitioning to IP technology is expected by most contact centres to start in about 2 years.