[Asterisk-Users] Asterisk vs. Websphere Voice Response?

[Steven Critchfield]

On Thu, 2004-01-22 at 21:32, Ted.Thomas wrote:
> 
> 
> (Embedded image moved to file: pic18467.gif)
> 
> I am a collaboration consultant doing some research for a major client who
> has a problem.  They have an existing IBM Direct Talk 2 IVR which they were
> going to upgrade to the current Websphere product, but choked on the price.
> My task is to find out the following:
> 
> 1. The spec calls for a 24 analog line system with a fairly sophisticated
> response matrix using SQL into Oracle & text-to-speech (among other
> things).  Is Asterisk in the same class of product as Websphere, or is it
> for a more straightforward "voicemail" office environment?

I don't know what all websphere does, so I can't comment on it
directly.  24 lines, no problem, but don't do it analog. SQL/oracle also
no problem. Text to speach.... This is where an acceptable quality is
the problem. Festival is freely available, but requires a long time and
a lot of work to make it sound good. So the answer is not out of the
box, but it can be made into soo much more.

> 2. I assume Asterisk runs on PC class servers using PCI cards for incoming
> lines.  Can the hardware side of a 24 line system be put together for less
> than $10K, or is it typically a lot more than that?

T1 card 1 port(24 lines) $500, T1 card 4 ports(96 lines) $1500. So yes.

> 3. Can Asterisk be administered and/or programmed remotely?

Do you understand how to work on a linux machine? SSH, X tunneling, VNC,
whatever, of course it can.

> 4. Is Asterisk being used by any Fortune 500 companies in mission critical
> settings that you know of?

Are you a sheep? If so, go back to choking on the cost of the IBM
product. If you are ready to do your own work, come on in. Just be aware
that while you will definately save in hardware costs, you may incur a
fair amount of cost in hours learning and building or else you hire
someone to do it for you.

> Sorry for the general nature of the questions; although I use and promote
> open source products such as Linux, I am not that familiar with IVR
> servers.  Thanks for any help you can give me...

Question 3 makes me wonder about how much you know.
-- 
Steven Critchfield <critch at basesys.com>