[asterisk-users] Directory too difficult?

Mon Jan 15 15:30:52 MST 2007

Just as a followup, I'll intimate to the list what went down: (paraphrased)

I'm in Edmonton, the users are in Calgary, so I conferenced in to a Calgary
conference with all of the suits in the big boardroom. I basically let them
argue themselves in circles about how the Directory app should work in order
that they may exhaust themselves, then I politely informed them that the
Directory app operated basically the same as on the old Meridian, and that
ran for years without comment, so why was it an issue now? And, as it turned
out, the one manager who was raising a stink about the directory app
actually had never *used* the directory, he had just heard "from a friend"
that Asterisk was crap and we were fools for using it, so he was looking for
any excuse to go back to Meridian. I asked for metrics to back up that
assertion, he had none, I said: "I have some metrics as to how effective
Asterisk is" and ran phpMyAdmin queries in real time to show total number of
calls (a lot), how many buggered up (very, very few), how many minutes we
had saved in long distance (a lot), how fast we could provision a new user
with a handset and a DID (really really fast), how much the handsets cost
(cheaper than Meridian, 1/3 the price of a Mitel) and overall what the
platform had cost us (not a lot). He then countered with how the directory
was useless because "almost no one he knew had letters on his mobile phone"
and I asked how many people in the boardroom had their mobiles with them,
all of them said "we all have them", I said "Pull them out, and if even one
of you has a keypad with no letters on it, I will pull Asterisk out tomorrow
and replace it with Meridian. They all did, and predictably all of them had
letters on the keypads.

A long silence ensued. Then, they thanked me, and apologized for wasting my
time. 

So in the end, the guy who made this stink wound up looking really really
stupid in front of his peers, and the suits in Calgary have a new
appreciation for how cool Asterisk is. To throw them a bone, I did propose a
higher level directory on top of the Directory application so they can press
1 for sales, 2 for accounting etc and told them that they would have to work
out amongst themselves  what would happen i.e. who would pick up the phone
if someone pressed 1 or 2. I haven't heard back from them yet, presumably
they are still arguing about it.

Lessons learned:

1. If your install is good, compile stats that you can yank up at a moments
notice and wave under the nose of any nay-sayer. Stats speak for themselves.

2. Be diplomatic. If I had flippantly told the suits that this was an
ID-10-T error, I'd be in Calgary right now installing a Meridian. 

-----Original Message-----
From: Dovid B [mailto:asteriskusers at dovid.net]
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2007 2:36 PM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Directory too difficult?

This is being forwarded to my "People who should be banned from using
technology" folder.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Colin Anderson <mailto:ColinA at landmarkmasterbuilder.com>  
To: 'Asterisk Users Mailing List -  <mailto:asterisk-users at lists.digium.com>
Non-Commercial Discussion' 
Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2007 12:10 AM
Subject: RE: [asterisk-users] Directory too difficult?

I got a requirement list just now, with my comments inline: (showing it just
for a giggle)

User requirement: 1) Directory set up by name - If person calling does not
know employee's name, how will they access? 

    -Why, using app_telepathy.so of course!

User requirement: 2) Directory set by first &/or last name?? 

    -Yes. Now decide which one.

User requirement: 3) Not all mobile phones have the albphabet on their
dialpads, how do they access our directory? 

    -Shout really loud. Telus should have a class action against it for
selling Razrs with no DTMF.

-----Original Message-----
From: Bryan M. Johns [mailto:bryan at sheltonjohns.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 1:19 PM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Directory too difficult?

Exactly. 

ESU = Equipment Superior to Users

;-)

Bryan M. Johns
Partner
Shelton | Johns Technology Group
office: 678:248:2637 x:1500
direct: 678:229:1809
mobile: 404.259.9216
iaxtel: 700:248:2637 x:1500
 <http://www.sheltonjohns.com/> http://www.sheltonjohns.com

On Jan 10, 2007, at 12:47 PM, Alexander Lopez wrote:

More like a ID-10-T error…..

  _____  

From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com [
mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com
<mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com> ] On Behalf Of Bryan M.
Johns
Sent: Wednesday, January 10, 2007 11:57 AM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] Directory too difficult?

I wish had some pearl of wisdom here, but I don't.  I will simply share my
sympathy.

Sounds like an ESU situation to me.

Bryan M. Johns

Partner

Shelton | Johns Technology Group

office: 678:248:2637 x:1500

direct: 678:229:1809

mobile: 404.259.9216

iaxtel: 700:248:2637 x:1500

 <http://www.sheltonjohns.com/> http://www.sheltonjohns.com

On Jan 10, 2007, at 11:10 AM, Colin Anderson wrote:

I have a group of users whos complaint about Asterisk is that the directory

application is too hard too use. (yeah, yeah, I know. For the record,

they're Calgarians) Now I'm in a pickle: I don't want to have to create a

custom directory for these guys. Anyone have any tips for making the

directory easier, maybe re-record the prompts so they are more verbose? We

go by first name. 

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