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solo@astercc.org

December 14, 2008
1

dialer, queue and popup for asterisk callcenter(freepbx,trixbox,elastix,pbxinflash) with asterCRM

By | asterCRM | 16 Comments

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 https://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:

https://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

freepbx-add-extension

then add a queue

freepbx-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

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

https://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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December 14, 2008
4

Why I cant see some records in CDR page in my asterBilling?

By | asterBilling | 3 Comments

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 sc1 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. click Clear to checkout 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. sc3

December 13, 2008
0

Survey features in asterCRM for outbound call center usage

By | asterCRM | No Comments

In asterCRM, it provides a survey features, so you can set survey for your customers, here will give you a simple introducation for this:

first you need to add a survey, login as admin/group admin go manager interface and click survey icon, click “Add” button for a new survey, you can add several options for one survey, and each survey it provides three kinds: radio, checkbox and text

survey-1

survey-2

Click the “item” link next to the option to enter items for this option

survey-3

keep putting options and items until u finish this survey.

Then you can  put a survey from the agent page

survey-4

survey-5

*when there’s a customer or contact in your record form, if u click the “Add” link of a survey, the result will be linked with the customer

Click the “Detail” link of a survey, u can get a statistic of this survey

survey-6

November 26, 2008
3

asterisk channels

By | asterisk | 6 Comments

astercc daemons are licensed by asterisk simultaneous channels, so how could we know the channel’s number of the asterisk server? outbount: 1 call, 1 channel callback: 1 call, 2 channels queue: 1 call, 2 channels but if you select the ring strategy as “Ring All”, then u may get tons of channels when a call come in. also when you goes to voicemail or login as dynamic agent, it will take one channel.

November 22, 2008
2

adjust astercc parameters to get better performance for asterisk billing

By | asterBilling, asterCRM | No Comments

There’re some parameters in file astercc.conf for astercc daemons. We can change them to get a beter performance for asterisk billing. please note that u need to restart asterrc daemon to reload configration. refreshrate = 60 refreshrate is the seconds asterrc daemon reload data from database, when u change asterBilling setting a lot, like rate, clid … , u need this parameter, but once your system is stable, u can set it to -1, so that after asterrc load the data when it start, it would not read from database again and again. refreshlock = 30 The seconds we refresh data for astercclock to lock booth, or lock group, reseller. calculateallcdr = no when set to yes, asterrc will re-calculate all records with groupid =-1 or resellerid = -1 in mycdr table, this could be used when u want to calculate the CDRs with no billing . calculateoldcdr = no when set to yes, asterrc will re-calculate all records in mycdr table, this could be used when u want to calculate the history CDR. This could be used when your rate changed and you want to reset all credits. callbackbill = src ; src: bill src only ; dst: bill dst only ; both: both src and dst removeNonSysCDR = 0 ; if we need use asterrc to remove CDR with resellerid = -1 or groupid = -1 removeNoAnswerCDR = 0 ; if we need use asterrc to remove no answer CDR

November 20, 2008
2

asterbilling and asterisk2billing (a2billing) for asterisk billing

By | asterBilling | One Comment

a2billing is a widly used billing system, so what’s the difference between a2billing and asterbilling?

system theory:

a2billing work with asterisk through AGI, each call would be handled by a2billing.agi, so you need change your astierks context so that when your phone make calls it will go to a2billing.agi, of course you need to copy a2billing scripts to your asterisk server.

asterbilling runs as linux daemons, connect to asterisk via AMI over tcp,  no need change anything on your asterisk, asterbilling can bill it. Even asterbilling could work with a2billing.

license & free:

a2billing: 100% open source and free to use.

asterbilling: only web scripts are open source, and provides 5 free simultaneous channels, have to purchase when need more channels.

performance:

a2billing: like 100 simultaneous calls on single server? i didnt test, 🙁

asterbilling: passed 240 simultaneous calls testing, but didnt test more.

best usage:

a2billing: calling card, callback or wholesale solutions

asterbilling: billing for embedded astiersk, pbx (like all freepbx based system), callshop, hosted callshop soltution

other keywords:

a2billing: openser

asterbilling: realtime billing, reseller

November 20, 2008
2

The difference between customer mode and note mode in portal page

By | asterCRM | No Comments

In asterCRM config file: astercrm.conf.php, it provides a option, with the option, you can set the information displayed in the agent work page.

The parameter is “portal_display_type”, there’re two valid values, “customer” and “note”

When it’s “customer” mode, it would display all customers agent putted

customer mode

customer mode

When it’s “note” mode, it would display customers with “note” and priority is greater than zero

note mode

note mode

November 19, 2008
2

Rates setting in asterbilling for asterisk billing

By | asterBilling | 3 Comments

There are three rates in asterBilling, reseller rate, callshop rate and customer rate.

  • reseller rate: the rate admin sell to reseller
  • callshop rate (group rate): the rate reseller sell to callshop (group)
  • customer rate: the rate callshop sell to customers

Rates in asterBilling could be inherited, for example, here’s two records in resellerrate

dialpreifx = 0086
number length = 0
connect charge = 0.2
init block = 60
rate = 0.2
billing block = 60
resellerid = 0

dialpreifx = 0049
number length = 0
connect charge = 0.4
init block = 60
rate = 0.4
billing block = 60
resellerid = 0

Because we dont specify which reseller is this rate for (resellerid = 0), this rate could be used for all resellers.  So what if some resellers want to change this rate rather than use this “default” rate? quite simple, just add another rate for the reseller:

dialpreifx = 0086
number length = 0
connect charge = 0.2
init block = 60
rate = 0.2
billing block = 60
resellerid = 1

so for this reseller (resellerid=1), when customer dial a number begin with 0086, it will use this new rate, we  can call it “overwrite”, but for other resellers who dont set their rate, it would use the one admin setted.

Just like reseller rate, group rate could also be inherited.

A:
dialpreifx = 0086
number length = 0
connect charge = 0.2
init block = 60
rate = 0.2
billing block = 60
resellerid = 1
grouprid = 1

B:


dialpreifx = 0086
number length = 0
connect charge = 0.4
init block = 60
rate = 0.4
billing block = 60
resellerid = 1
grouprid = 0

C:

dialpreifx = 0086
number length = 0
connect charge = 0.4
init block = 60
rate = 0.4
billing block = 60
resellerid = 0
groupid = 0

so rate C is a rate for all reseller and all group,  rate B is for all groups in reseller 1, rate A is only for group 1.

Through inherit rate, admin could be much easier to control the rates, like just set one rate for all resellers, and adjust some when they require some difference, also reseller could just set one rate for his callshops, and only do minor change to provide different rate plan.

November 19, 2008
3

asterbilling hosted callshop solution for asterisk

By | asterBilling | 22 Comments

asterBilling is a realtime billing software for asterisk. Through asterBilling, it’s very easy to build a hosted callshop solution for asterisk. benefits of asterBilling hosted callshop solution:

  • reseller, callshop, customer three level billing
  • all web based
  • high performance
  • all asterisk system compatible

here, i’ll introduce u how to build a hosted callshop solution using asterisk and asterbilling. 1. step1, install asterisk 2. step2, set trunk and dialplan in asterisk edit /etc/asterisk/sip.conf and add your trunk there then set dialplan, go to /etc/asterisk/extensions.conf and add a context there 3. step3, install asterBilling 4. step4, check asterbilling.conf.php We need to modify asterbilling config file to meet our system, so check the “asterbilling.conf.php” in asterbilling folder, find section “sipbuddy” change context to be “context = from-booth”, so the sip peer generated by asterbilling will use context “from-booth” for outbound calls. * if you are using freepbx, you can use “context=from-internal” here, then it you can set outbound in your freepbx and all booth will use that. By default, asterbilling will generate all sip peers to the file “/etc/asterisk/sip_astercc”, you can change to other name if you want, or leave it blank if u dont want asterbilling generate the sip peers also we need to include the conf file in sip.conf so that asterisk could load peers asterbilling generated modify /etc/asterisk/sip.conf and add #include sip_astercc.conf 5. step5, set resellers and groups 6. step6, add clid as reseller reseller 7. step7, set rates asterbilling provides three level billing: rate to reseller: the rate you sell to resellers rate to callshop: the rate resellers sell to callshops rate to customer: the rate callshops sell to customers 8. step8, login as groupadmin/operate check callshop interface callshop 9. step9, check reports

November 19, 2008
0

asterCRM, DID information and virtual office

By | asterCRM | No Comments

In asterCRM, we can set some description for a trunk or a DID, so that when customer dial in, we could know which number he dialed or which trunk he dialed from. it’s very simple to set this, login as admin and go to management interface, select Trunkinfo, and then add the trunk or didnumber or both. this feature could be very useful for a virtual office, say you have some agent in the office, they answer phones for kinds of company, need to say different hello words for different company

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