AsteriskGuru Archives

bud at receller.com · Guest

What are people using for phones/headsets for agents in call canters with *? Is anyone using softphones? If so, what hardware platform (i.e. p4 2.0ghz), software platform (os, softphone, applications) and headsets? Looking for a reasonable cost/value solution for a small 6-12 agent center with plans for growth. Thanks.

-- Bud

lenz-ml at loway.it · Guest

I have seen a number of people using SJPhone with decent headphones
reporting no particular problems.
l.

On Mon, 05 Dec 2005 16:55:21 +0100, Bud Bach <bud@receller.com> wrote:

zoachien at securax.org · Guest

Our callcenter customers are using a special version of the idefisk
softphone. (plug : we wrote that softphone).

desktop PC's are 800mhz low power via c3's, and the headsets are the
quite expensive gn netcom. (best quality money can buy).

Zoa.
www.asteriskguru.com

Bud Bach wrote:

bud at receller.com · Guest

What is a decent headset? Is there a reason to use a USB headset over a
soundcard headset with a softphone? I'm sure this can get religious, but
what the heck...

scripthead at gmail.com · Guest

Our agents have Grandstream GXP-2000 phones coupled with cheap RadioShack headsets. So far this has been the winning combination.GXP-2000's have very nice backlit displays that have proven to be fantastic in the dimmed environment.

In the very beginning we have experimented with soft phones such as Firefly, X-lite and SJphone and while the quality was quite nice, we have found out that crashing computers that take down active phone calls isn't something we want to deal with.

On 12/5/05, Zoa <zoachien@securax.org (zoachien@securax.org)> wrote:[quote] Our callcenter customers are using a special version of the idefisk
softphone. (plug : we wrote that softphone).

desktop PC's are 800mhz low power via c3's, and the headsets are the
quite expensive gn netcom. (best quality money can buy).

Zoa.
www.asteriskguru.com

Bud Bach wrote:

lenz-ml at loway.it · Guest

A "decent" headset is usually the most expensive you can find in stores -
you don't want to wear $5 apiece headphones all day. :-) Sennheiser stuff
for instance proved to be excellent.
l.

On Mon, 05 Dec 2005 17:36:16 +0100, Bud Bach <bud@receller.com> wrote:

astmattf at gmail.com · Guest

We use cheap Radio Shack headsets(also a Panasonic headset that is
much cheaper when bought wholesale). As for the phones, we used
Firefly in a test envorinment until we had other issues with
softphones(machine crash killing the call sinched it for us).

Then we switched to Sipura ATA adapters for about a year until they
started burning up(They were not really created for call centers where
they are on calls all the time).

Now we mostly use channelbanks hooked up to cheapo Walmart phones with
the nice Panasonic headsets. Sound quality is great and the
replacement costs per seat are very low. For remote or at-home agents
we still use Firefly which works wonderfully in those situations.

As for hardware requirements of Firefly, we run it regularly on 700MHz
PIII machines and 1.2GHz Durons with 256MB RAM and there are usually
no issues running that and our agent GUI through Firefox.

MATT---

On 12/5/05, Lenz <lenz-ml@loway.it> wrote:

bud at receller.com · Guest

Matt, What do you use for a channelbank? -- Bud

bud at receller.com · Guest

Matt, Does Panasonic make a headset with a handset jack that you use with
the analog phone? The quick search I did only turned up headsets with 2.5mm
jacks. -- Bud

astmattf at gmail.com · Guest

We just buy the refurbished Zhone Zplex 24-S channelbanks. They are
$100-$200 through corpsys or ebay:
http://www.corpsys.com/store/prodinfo.asp?number=CB-FXS&variation=&aitem=4&mitem=49

They are not fully featured, but they are very cheap, reliable and
very small for a channelbank. Since we use a full-featured agent
web-client we don't really need things like agent phone callerid. We
have about 12 of them now and they all work great.

MATT---

On 12/5/05, Bud Bach <bud@receller.com> wrote:

astmattf at gmail.com · Guest

Hello,

The cheap phone we use are about $10 at Walmart or online and they
have a 3.5mm stereo miniplug for the headset connector. We use little
2.5mm to 3.5mm stereo miniplug adapters. They cost about $5-$2 a piece
and so far they don't really wear out very fast.

We use the 2.5mm Panasonic headsets, we get them for about $10 each
ordering through a distributor usually ordering 50 at a time.

MATT---

On 12/5/05, Bud Bach <bud@receller.com> wrote:

bud at receller.com · Guest

Matt, This is really good info -- Thanks! As for the channel bank, do you
connect to it with something like the Digium Wildcard? -- Bud

astmattf at gmail.com · Guest

You can use a Digium T1 card (single, dual or quad) or a Sangoma T1
card(single, dual or quad) and a T1 crossover cable to connect from
your Asterisk box to the Channelbank

MATT---

On 12/5/05, Bud Bach <bud@receller.com> wrote:

bud at receller.com · Guest

Matt, I'm having trouble finding phones with 3.5mm jacks. I even went to
wallmart (which never is enjoyable :). Do you have a link or name brand
that I can look for? Thanks again. -- Bud

bud at receller.com · Guest

Thanks!