<div>Hi,</div><div><br></div>My question in short: what is the best practise for a small company (30-50 users) with one operator that answers each call?<div><br><br></div><div><br></div><div>I am a developer and now working on the implementation of Asterisk in our company. With the definitive guide next to me, the scripting of extensions and configuring trunks isn't that hard from what I have read until now. What worries me is what the best way would be to get our operator to work nicely / efficiently. On one location we have a receptionist who takes the calls to our main number. She would transfer when needed. We also have about 7 other locations (retail stores) which we are going to connect to the same Asterisk box.</div>
<div><br></div><div>We will switch to voip completely using a voip provider, so everything will be SIP.</div><div><br></div><div>First of all: to have seperate "lines", would one usually use seperate SIP accounts? I have seen enterprise SIP phones who say they support 6 lines, and then also support 6 SIP accounts. Does this mean a line equals a SIP account?</div>
<div><br></div><div>Are there people here who have Asterisk running in their company already with an operator? What software or phone do you use? What is the setup (extension config) in Asterisk? I have read about the Shared Line stuff (SLA right?), but this would only be needed if several people need to see a light when a line is busy, and able to exchange this line. Why would one do that if you have the ability to transfer calls, use queues, and park calls?</div>
<div><br></div><div>Would the best setup be to create a "receptionist" queue, with only one member/agent in it? Or could I better use several lines on one SIP account (although I still haven't figured out how to do that). Or maybe six SIP accounts on the enterprise device and connect them so an extension using Dial(sip1&sip2&sip3&etc...)?</div>
<div><br></div><div>Any recommendations are more than welcome! I am interested in how other companies solved this.</div><div><br></div><div>I have checked out FOP2 (by installing it), but by the looks of it now I'd have to change the buttons config each time extensions and/or users change. Would be better if this came straight out of Asterisk. Any other software operator/switch boards that really work. Maybe there's only a few that really stand out?</div>
<div><br></div><div>I have also checked Voice Operator Panel on the website. Any reviews on that?</div><div><br></div><div>I hope somebody would like to share their setup.</div><div><br></div><div>Thanks in advance!</div>
<div><br></div><div>Kind regards,</div><div>Roland.</div>