AsteriskGuru Archives

bud at receller.com · Guest

Is anyone using Linux Desktops in their call center? What are the pro’s and cons? I’d be using it in a small call center of 10-15 agents where training availability is minimal. Our application is browser based so that would not be an issue.

-- Bud

astmattf at gmail.com · Guest

200+ seats. All Linux desktops(some remote agents use windows though) They are all Redhat/Fedora(our next rollout will be with Ubuntu) and work great. Easier to maintain, manage, setup than windows and the agents don't know how to screw them up as well as Windows :)

I would highly recommend them to anyone running a call center.

MATT---

On 12/9/05, Bud Bach <bud@receller.com (bud@receller.com)> wrote:

lenz-ml at oinko.net · Guest

This is not related to a hands-on call center experience, but in Loway
this week we deployed a couple of machines for a secretary and a junior
programmer based on Ubuntu linux, and they were incredibly easy to install
and they had no problem whatsoever. I was quite skeptical of Linux desktop
systems, but now I am impressed with the degree of acceptance we have had.
Just my $0.02,
l.

In data Fri, 09 Dec 2005 21:06:38 +0100, Bud Bach <bud@receller.com> ha
scritto:

markjohn1 at gmail.com · Guest

Hi Bud, we have successfully used Ubuntu Linux in a call center
environment. We have about 12 agents. We're using Ubuntu hoary i think,
and our agents are accessing our in-house developed web-based CATI
system (PHP/mySQL), using Firefox 1.0.7. We've been having this setup
for over 5 months now, and so far, we've never been happier. :) Of
course, we're using Asterisk + SER for our media gateway. Our entire
environment is in Linux, except perhaps for a few Windows notebooks
owned by Management.

The learning curve is not that high, as Ubuntu is one of the most
user-friendly linux distro out there, and most of it's application have
been integrated properly well. Aside from Firefox, our users are also
using Thunderbird for e-mail, Open-office for word processing and XMMS
for mp3s, during downtimes. :) At first we have our hesitation, as
complex things like Linux might hamper productivity. We're surprised
when all them just picked up what's available and made use of it.
Besides, Ubuntu have already implemented small things that users expect
from Windows, like copy-and-paste, open/save dialog (more or less looks
like common windows dialog) and the start menu bar.

Pros:

* Suprisingly easy to set-up
* Zero license cost (imagine a 200 seat call center, using Windows,
and all they're using is IE, or Firefox? -- that's just a waste of
license money for a browser)
* Runs off cheap and older hardware without any problems

Cons:

* Biased i may be, *none* so far. :)
* Perhaps, integration with MS Word documents? but we try to avoid
that by using Writeboard or a wiki system

Thanks!

Mark

--

Mark John S. Buenconsejo
http://mark.txblogr.com

TxBlogr.com - The favorite web host for serious blog pushers.
SimpleTeQ.com - Software and Web development group

Bud Bach wrote:

donovan.david at gmail.co · Guest

As for the matter of accessing windows applications, it comes up sometimes. The last place I ran used 100+ IBM Netstations running a variant of BSD. We accessed citrix servers for all of our applications. No moving parts in the desktop at all. No chance to comprimise security with a diskette or USB stick. No way for the agents to mess up the PC, just reboot and it gets a new boot image. Very elegant.

In your case, you could build a small Windows Terminal Server with the money you save on desktop OS and use that to deploy the odd Windows app that people require. They're hard to avoid entirely. Maybe it's your carrier's billing software, or some label printing utility that makes life easier; they're out there. Just use the Terminal Server to deploy it.

I'm not sure if using Windows to solve your 'Can I get by without Windows' question gets very high marks but it worked for me.

DD

On 12/9/05, Bud Bach <bud@receller.com (bud@receller.com)> wrote:

augustynr at yahoo.com · Guest

What client did you use to connect to the windows terminal server from your BSD clients?
Thanks,
robert

[quote] From: astcallcenters@yahoogroups.com [mailto:astcallcenters@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Dave Donovan
Sent: Saturday, December 10, 2005 1:24 AM
To: astcallcenters@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [astcallcenters] Linux Desktops

As for the matter of accessing windows applications, it comes up sometimes. The last place I ran used 100+ IBM Netstations running a variant of BSD. We accessed citrix servers for all of our applications. No moving parts in the desktop at all. No chance to comprimise security with a diskette or USB stick. No way for the agents to mess up the PC, just reboot and it gets a new boot image. Very elegant.

In your case, you could build a small Windows Terminal Server with the money you save on desktop OS and use that to deploy the odd Windows app that people require. They're hard to avoid entirely. Maybe it's your carrier's billing software, or some label printing utility that makes life easier; they're out there. Just use the Terminal Server to deploy it.

I'm not sure if using Windows to solve your 'Can I get by without Windows' question gets very high marks but it worked for me.

DD

On 12/9/05, Bud Bach <bud@receller.com (bud@receller.com)> wrote:

pchammer at dynx.net · Guest

i've been playing with kioskcd (.com) he just released v2.8. (please
donate, he's done a great job)

i've been testing with it since v2.6 and really like it. at one point
he was thinking of doing 'payfor' copies with mozphone (now moziax)
included/configured.

but when you use chanbanks for phones, a kiosk like product is all you
need.

Matt Florell wrote:

bud at receller.com · Guest

Thanks for the great feedback. I was looking at using CentOS, but sounds like I need to check out Ubuntu. -- Bud

donovan.david at gmail.co · Guest

We were actually running Citrix on the terminal servers so we used the Citrix client for linux, it was bundled with the distribution from IBM.

On 12/10/05, Robert Augustyn <augustynr@yahoo.com (augustynr@yahoo.com)> wrote:

mike at infoanywhere.com · Guest

Dave Donovan wrote:

lenz-ml at loway.it · Guest

I come from a Slackware and RedHat/CentOS experience, and was really
surprised at the level of acceptance we have had on end users with Ubuntu.
l.

On Mon, 12 Dec 2005 17:25:12 +0100, Bud Bach <bud@receller.com> wrote: