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<TITLE>RE: [Asterisk-Users] Some questions about a potential usage scenario for asterisk</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Dave:</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Of course I know nothing about your project so you can politely ignore this message if it does not apply. However having worked in call centers all my life and used CTI extensively for "screen pop", "data pass", what ever you call it, I want to give you a quick heads up about using CID to identify callers. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>If you are in a line of business where callers will be calling from home or their cell this works great. If you are in a line of business where most callers will be calling from a company, as our business model does, you might run in to problems. All callers originating from a single company might send the same CID which always tosses a wrench in the works trying to identify a particular caller.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Having said that Asterisk without a doubt is an excellent PBX platform for the development of a system such as you have described. It runs on Linux and the Digium hardware is priced far below the other voice hardware out there. I would highly recommend it. There has also been recent development in the ACD feature set of Asterisk as well which you might find interesting too, queues and such.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>-Matt</FONT>
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<BR>
<BR>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>-----Original Message-----</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>From: Dave Wilson [<A HREF="mailto:dave@autosdirect2u.com">mailto:dave@autosdirect2u.com</A>]</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Sent: Monday, August 04, 2003 10:21</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>To: asterisk-users@lists.digium.com</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Some questions about a potential usage</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>scenario for asterisk</FONT>
</P>
<BR>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Hi all,</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>I'm new to the list and also new to the field of CTI. I'm looking for a</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>solution to my problem (detailed in a mo) and after some extensive googling,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>came across asterisk but I'm not 100% sure if it will fulfill my needs -</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>simply as I know nothing about CTI at this point.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Ok my problem and desired solution goes like this.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>I have an intranet http-based application (developed in-house) which stores</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>data in an RDBMS of choice (MS SQL, Oracle, MYSQL, PostGresQL), including</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>customer data.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>My aim is simply to have incoming calls identified (using CID) and logged,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>then initiating a request - from the relevant client pc - to the webserver</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>for a specific page (the customer history/details page).</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Now my current line of thinking is this:</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Install asterisk;</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Connect to telephone line - can I use a simple PCI modem on a standard POTS</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>line for testing purposes?;</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Configure for routing incoming calls to the client machines using VOIP -</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>this means the client machines (on a lan) need a headset with mic and can be</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>used instead of a telephone?;</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Configure for CID value to cross-reference customer database, then (somehow)</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>instruct the client machine to request the relevant customer details page.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>As I'm unable to implement http-push due to client machines running mainly</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>MSIE, I was thinking, even a basic messenger pop-up displaying customer name</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>and number might suffice;</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>I'd also like the ability to perform http-get and post operations directly</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>from the asterisk box as the web server is in a remote location (via VPN);</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>I realise I could simply use a smaller module to pull out the CID but,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>frankly I'm interested in the PBX functionality too for future development.</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>Is asterisk the right tool for me and am I thinking along the right lines</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>with the above?</FONT>
</P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>TIA,</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>Dave</FONT>
</P>
<BR>
<BR>
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