IP telephony provider BizCall, a member of the AltX-listed DataPro Group, has partnered with Canadian company Aheeva to offer an open source-based enterprise call centre solution for the South African market.
The Aheeva Contact Centre Suite is based on the open source Asterisk PBX and telephony application, says BizCall's Michael Toop, but has additional functionality that makes it more suitable for large call centres.
"Asterisk is perfect for the entry-level to mid-level call centre, but larger call centres need additional features like detailed reporting and power dialling. So far these have only been available with expensive proprietary solutions; Aheeva is the first to offer an open source contender that can hold its own against the big players."
As well as open source pricing, says Toop, the Aheeva Contact Centre Suite offers outstanding simplicity and ease of use.
"It enables clients to establish a superior full-service contact centre for a fraction of the investment required to operate a traditional telephony switch-based call centre. It's completely Web-enabled so it supports remote monitoring, management and analysis from anywhere there is an Internet connection."
Toop says the Contact Centre Suite offers skills-based routing for inbound calls and a range of dialling modes for outbound calls, including predictive, preview, progressive and broadcast dialling. Quality monitoring tools and real-time statistics are built in and the suite also supports SugarCRM, the open source customer relationship management solution.
"There's huge global interest in open source telephony solutions and Aheeva is leading the pack," says Toop. "They won a Best of Show award at last year's International Customer Management Institute Annual Call Centre Exhibition in Seattle, one of the world's largest trade shows for the industry. More recently they were also named Best of Show at the Technology Marketing Corporation's Internet Telephony Conference and Expo at Fort Lauderdale. We're delighted to be able to offer this exciting new technology in South Africa."
Aheeva Channel Manager Mario Kreslin says he is "confident the BizCall team, with its history in telephony and highly skilled personnel, will lead the South African market to the benefits of this evolving global market trend".
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BizCall is a VOIP telephony engineering and consulting company providing call centres, PABXs, VOIP gateways and associated VOIP products. BizCall is a subsidiary of the AltX-listed DataPro Group, an integrated data and voice communications company, and is closely aligned with VoxTelecom, DataPro's telecommunications carrier company. www.bizcall.co.za
Aheeva
Aheeva Technology Inc develops turnkey contact centre solutions that enhance customer interaction and optimise agent productivity. The tailored solutions are IP-based and provide businesses and contact centres with tools to improve customer satisfaction, reduce costs and increase revenues.
Leveraging the strengths of Asterisk and Linux, and an IP infrastructure, the Aheeva Contact Centre Suite enables clients to establish a superior full-service contact centre for a fraction of the investment required to operate a traditional telephony switch-based call centre. www.aheeva.com
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