asterCC, asterisk callcenter and billing solution

1.upgrade database

unzip the package u could see folder “sql”

files in asterCC 0.12 should be:

astercc0.1b-0.1.sql
astercc0.1-0.11.sql
astercc0.11-0.12b.sql
astercc0.12b.-0.12sql
astercc.sql

say you are using 0.1b now, so you have to execute  astercc0.1b-0.1.sql, astercc0.1-0.11.sql, astercc0.11-0.12b.sql, astercc0.12b.-0.12sql one by one, then u get database of v0.12

2. stop astercc daemons

/opt/asterisk/scripts/astercc/asterccd stop

3. cp the new html & daemon files

4.  set conf files

files include astercc.conf, asterbilling.conf.php, astercrm.conf.php

5. start astercc daemons

/opt/asterisk/scripts/astercc/asterccd start

6. login and check

asterCC 0.12 (173) - 11.61 MB

asterCRM 0.059:

• impoved send request by javascript in portal interface
• fixed can not order in customer,diallist and dialedlist page
• fixed can not export in note ,diallist, dialedlist, campaign,contact
• fixed can’t find astercc license file when is not running  in ‘/opt’
• fixed the start check of predictive doesn’t work in IE7
• fixed can not record wher predictive

asterBilling 0.099:

• fixed can’t display report of today
• fixed bug in flash report
• add check credit reseller and callshop realtime when booth calling
• impoved send request by javascript in callshop interface
• fixed don’t update blance when cannel limit in booth
• add delete files what have uploaded
• fixed can’t find astercc license file when don’t run in ‘/opt’
• fixed ASR and ACD both are ‘0′ in report grid

In a virtual office, you will have few receiption but they can answer calls for hundred company, in such case, they should know which number customer dialed so that they dont mess up the calls, now we introduce u how to build a virtual call center using astercrm & asterisk.

1. add extension for receiption

open your browser and go to freepbx, click extension on left menu and add extensions for your receiption, here we have three extensions: 8000, 8001 and 8888

2.  add a queue for your receiptions which would be used to answer incoming calls, we only add 8000 and 8001 in this queue

and u can set some options for this reciption queue

3. add a trunk which could be used for incoming calls

and the most important, set registry for this trunk so that u can get calls in

4. add a inbound route so that the receiption queue could answer your incoming calls

now make a call to your DID number, if everything is allright, phones of receiption should ring

5. go to astercrm and add account for your receiptions

6. add trunkinfo so your receiption could get some information about the number customer dialed

here Trunk Channel should be the username of your trunk, not trunk name in freepbx

7. login as a receiption accound and try make a call

when ringing

when talking

this tutorial could be used on trixbox, elastix or any other system using freepbx, also u can config receiption account and dialplan by your self.

we provide a new feature in asterbilling, you can read your buy rate when add a sell rate manually.

say admin set three rates for reseller:
default     0.2        for all resellers
0086        0.25     for reseller1
00852     0.3        for all resellers

then reseller1 logged in and want to add sell rate for his callshop

1. we add rate for North Americe, which prefix is 001, it will give the buy rate for 001 after input box (we didnt set prefix 001 in rate to reseller, so it will use default rate)

2. we add rate for China, which prefix is 0086, it will give the buy rate for 0086 after input box

3. we add rate for HK, which prefix is 00852, it will give the buy rate for 00852after input box

also, when groupadmin add customer sell rate, he can also see his buy rate from reseller

If you have a a2billing working already, you may want to add some more features, like make it work as a hosted callshop, here we’ll introduce how to add callshop feature using asterbilling.

1. add a new conf in your a2billing

add a new conf like [agi-conf2] in a2billing.conf, make sure you have the changed the following options:

; Manage the answer on the call

answer_call = NO
play_audio = NO
use_dnid = YES
number_try = 1
say_balance_after_auth = NO
say_balance_after_call = NO
say_rateinitial = NO
say_timetocall = NO
cid_enable = NO
cid_auto_assign_card_to_cid = NO

anyway, disable all prompt & announcement

2. add new dialplan in asterisk extensions

by default, sip peer generated by a2billing will use context a2billing, so we add

[a2billing]
; for asterbilling booth
exten => _X.,1,DeadAGI,a2billing.php|2

3. add costomer in a2billing

then we add a customer in a2billing, make sure you enabled sip or iax account, then click the “generate” button and click “reload” link

also u may want to set this customer as “postpay” and a big number for the limit coz you would not charge customer in a2billing, just make sure this customer could make calls with no problem

4. set your ip phone

go to “List Sip-friend” or “List iax-friend” get the username/secret for your phone, then try make a call, if everything goes well, u should make a call successfully

5. add clid in asterbilling

go to asterbilling and create clid using the username(if there’s callerid defined for this customers, use callerid instead) in sip-friends

6 login as groupadmin/operator and enjoy

some customers find that they get a problem when import, it just gives a XML error, that’s because there’s too much data and no enough memory for php.

find the php.ini for your apache line: memory_limit

it could be like 16M or 20M, try change it bigger, say 64M

so it looks like

memory_limit = 64M

save and exit, remember restart your apache before give the try.

The latest asterCRM has a great improvement in dialer, and with asterCRM, it’s quite easy to build a call center. Here’s a how-to for a outbound call center with Freepbx and astercrm. Following by this how-to, you can creat such a solution:

asterCRM dialer will call the numbers in your diallist, and when the call is connected, it would be redirect to a queue, where your agent will answer the call and talk the customers,  they can do survey , sales or whatever you want.

* freepbx is a web gui for asterisk which is widely used in asterisk applications, like trixbox, elastix, pbx in flash …

• install freepbx

For freepbx installation, you can read the installation document from freepbx website http://www.freepbx.org. If you are using trixbox, elastix or pbx in flash, then u can skip this, it have freepbx build in already.

• install asterCRM, make sure asterCRM daemons (astercc and astercctools) are running

for asterCRM installation, go and check asterCRM wiki:

http://wiki.astercrm.org/index.php/AsterCRM_Installation#Using_the_install_script

• add extensions for your agents and set a queue to receive calls from asterCRM dialer

login into freepbx, start add extensions for your agent

then add a queue

• set group/user in asterCRM

next login asterCRM as admin, create group “outbound sales” and add extensions for agents you created above, go wiki for more detail

http://wiki.astercrm.org/index.php/Create_Group

http://wiki.astercrm.org/index.php/Create_Extension

make sure “Extension” matched “Outbound CID”  or “Extension”(if outbound cid is blank) in freepbx

so now all your agents should get a username/password for asterCRM.

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sometimes when you go CDR page to check CDRs for resellers, groups or some clid in your system, but nothing there or some records missed, and then u go database and checked, find there’s data in cdr table “mycdr”, so why it’s missed in asterBilling interface?

Reason 1: historyCdr issue

check your asterbilling.conf.php in asterbilling web scripts folder

by default the option is “useHistoryCdr = 1″, and asterbilling CDR page will go table “historycdr” to fetch data, but astercc daemon only put data to table “mycdr” untill someone “checkout” the records, the data will be moved to table “historycdr”, so if u cant find all data in web interface, change this option to “0″ or “checkout” the records.

Reason 2: clid issue

Even though the astercc daemon will put all CDR it get to database, but not all records will be billed, only after you set the “clid” in asterbilling. So if u see the value of fields “resellerid” and “groupid” in “mycdr” is -1, please check if u set the “clid” correctly, the “src” field should be matched with clid.