Tuesday, June 10, 2008

What Can Asterisk Do For You?

Asterisk is more than just a phone system, it's the world's leading open source telephony engine and tool kit. Most people know it as just an open source phone system. There are many uses past the obvious of creating a home or small office phone system.

Using Asterisk, you can create virtual hunt groups, implement on hold entertainment/messages, integrate with monitoring systems to generate alerts for service outages, create a calling card system, integrate with SMS to generate specific actions, create your own "phone company", create help desk tiered routing, provide "out of market" DID numbers, manage outbound callerID, provide reminder calls and play current information or pre-recorded messages, transfer calls, provide extended services far away from the server, integrate with CRM to recognize and display caller information, better handle NAT, create dial in conference bridge, create telephone surveys. You get the point, there are a lot of creative ways to integrate Asterisk into your specific business needs while benefiting from its open architecture and price (free).

Combined with the right ideas and Internet Telephony Service Provider (ITSP), Asterisk can and has helped many developers create businesses which previously required large investment in infrastructure and licensed software.

Quick Links
Asterisk Calling Card Gateway
Asterisk/Trixbox with VarPhonex Trunk
Asterisk Backup Set File
101 Things You Can Do with Asterisk

tags: asterisk, calling card system, open source phone system, telephony service provider, trixbox

Monday, June 9, 2008

Buy vs Build: Offering VoIP Service

Internet Telephony is no longer a service offered exclusively by pure play VoIP operators, Cable Companies, ISPs and telecommunications giants. Hosted private label solutions are enabling others to provide white label VoIP service without large investment in infrastructure and staffing. Todays IP phone service providers now range from social networking companies to system integrators who previously had no experience in providing telecommunications services. These new "telcos" are the latest benefactors of telecommunications convergence offering cutting edge communications features to compliment their products and services. From disposable phone numbers to inexpensive calling card services, the next wave of VoIP enablers are finding their way to the already competitive telecommunications marketplace.

Consumers and businesses across the world are being introduced to the enhanced features and cost savings that Internet Telephony has to offer. More often, these introductions are coming from vendors who previously had not been involved in providing communications services. The growth in availability of VoIP Reseller Programs specifically designed to enable these vendors has created a new force in the industry. Choosing the right partner to provide your VoIP service is first and most important decision to make. The first step is to determine exactly which services you want to offer. Some popular services include Video calling, IM, Presence, calling card services, digital phone service and more.

Once you have determined the services you want to offer, you must ask yourself if you need to build them yourself or is there an opportunity to partner with a provider with a hosted solution.

Quick Links
VoIP Reseller Features and Benefits
VoIP Reseller Program
Hosted VoIP Solution

tags:hosted voip solution, internet telephony, private label voip

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