Jose Montes works as the Channel Manager for VitalPBX, and has been part of the project since its beginnings.
With over 7 years of experience in computer networking, and working with top connoisseurs of the telephony business and a full Asterisk Development team.
For the past 10 years, Jose has focused on Call Center, Internet Security, and Networking with businesses in various regions of the Americas.
For more information please refer to VitalPBX's Corporate Website at: https://vitalpbx.org/
Jose Antonio Montes, Channel Manager of VitalPBX.
Q: Could you please summarize for our readers your company profile, your target customer and reference market?
VitalPBX is PBX software company based of the US, originated in Delaware with Offices in Miami, Panama, Nicaragua, and Honduras. The company started around 2011-2012 as a need for a new Asterisk Management Platform.
Since around that time, the leading software was going through some changes. Back then, the project was called ‘Astrivox’ by Telesoft S.A. of Nicaragua, and was a very simple software. Then, between 2013-2014 Telesoft S.A. joined forces with Xorcom from Israel to formalize development of the project, and thus the ‘Ombutel' project started.
After years of working together, in 2017, Telesoft S.A. and Xorcom part ways in good terms as the vision of each company was different.
The Ombutel Project is then handed back solely to Telesoft S.A. From that moment, it was decided that the project must be its own company and its own force for it to become successful, so then it was decided to startup VitalPBX LLC as the owners of the project.
From then on we have continued to develop VitalPBX to make it the best PBX we can.
In terms of our target customer, we could say it would be system integrators and the enterprise market, as our team comes from the traditional enterprise telephony field, so we have built-in tools that would target that market specifically.
Q: What kind of benefits do you experience using QueueMetrics in combination with VitalPBX?
We believe that the biggest benefit for using the combination between VitalPBX and QueueMetrics would be the satisfaction that the end-user will have by combing both softwares.
VitalPBX has various tools that were built for a Call Center environment, so combining it with a software as well-known as QueueMetrics users will find themselves in a very comfortable environment.
Q: What are the key factors which make a successful VitalPBX based call-centre?
We would say a good workflow, understanding your tools, and knowing your operations.
Q: How can your customers benefit from QueueMetrics and VitalPBX integration for the call center management?
VitalPBX users will find an option in QueueMetrics to satisfy their business needs. VitalPBX users that are familiarized with the QueueMetrics environment will surely be very pleased to know about this integration.
Q: Mr. Montes, what’s your view on the Asterisk call-center industry future in the next two years?
The Call-Center market is all growing very rapidly as a whole.
Asterisk-based systems have become more imposing on the telephony market, as it is a very economical, reliable, and modern way of having telephony implementations.
As many of the tools and features that this types of systems can have is virtually limitless.
So, we can only expect for this market to get exponentially bigger in the coming two-years and more.
Hector is currently the IT Director at Iterum Connections, a leading BPO in Panama.
As IT Director and Project Management Professional, Hector has been working for the past 20 years with information and communications technologies along multinational and local companies in Latinamerica, including contact centers, banking, airlines, government and other industries.
Hector has a Bachelor’s Degree in Systems Management, a Master’s Degree in Business Administration plus important industry certifications: AWS (Amazon Web Services – Cloud Solutions Architect) – PMP (Project Management Professional) – ITIL - VCP – and Microsoft Certifications.
In his spare time Hector enjoys traveling, reading, swimming and doing meditation.
For more information please refer to Iterum Connections' Corporate Website at: https://iterumconnections.com/
Hector Bravo, IT Director of Iterum Connections.
Q: What is your company profile and reference market?
We are a BPO (business process outsourcing) and Contact Center company with headquarters in Panama City, Panama.
Our clients are located mainly in USA. We serve different industries like: Telco, Finance, Healthcare, Government.
Q: How did you come across QueueMetrics?
I used QueueMetrics in another contact center in the past. After going to the QueueMetrics’ website, we realized you have a cloud version of the software. The cloud solution allowed us to start very quickly.
Q: What was your main challenge and how do you overcome it with QueueMetrics-Live?
Panamanian government contacted us in order to start a 120 agents call center operation.
This service provides help to citizens who lost their jobs due to the pandemia.
The main challenge was not related to technology, it was related to recruiting, hiring and training the people in a short period of time.
However, the decision to use QueueMetrics-Live was a great choice, since it allowed us to start in about one week once we had the people ready.
The QueueMetrics interface is user-friendly and very intuitive. Agents got used to the software in a few days.
Q: Did you encounter difficulties during testing process and set up?
Setup was really easy. We were able to configure the integration with our PBX very fast.
The cloning capabilities allowed us to create 120 agents quickly.
Loway assigned us a dedicated Pre-sales engineer that did a great job with us, resolving some technical questions and giving the best practices during the implementation.
Q: Would you recommend this solution to call-centres in your business segment? If yes why?
Yes, definitively. Any business using an Asterisk-based PBX can leverage the QueueMetrics capabilities.
This software allows to run the call center operation, monitor and get a lot of useful metrics and reports.
Why? Three main reasons:
- Cost/benefit
- Easy to use
- Metrics and Reports
John is the founder & CEO of Acuity Unified Communications and has over 30 years experience in the telecoms industry.
Prior to setting up Acuity he was MD at AboveNet, turning the company from near bankruptcy into one of today’s leading managed IP/fibre optical service providers in the City of London.
Before that John was the VP for I.P. Solutions at Cable & Wireless UK & Ireland, accountable to the group’s President for all aspects of I.P. sales strategy. He joined C&W through their acquisition of Internet Network Services, one of the UK’s largest Tier 1 ISPs, where he was National Sales Director.
Responsible for the building & running of the UK & European sales operation, he spent two years developing & deploying one of the largest Internet market acquisition strategies in Europe.
Prior to that he was Director, South East Region for Telewest Communications PLC (now Virgin Media), which at the time, was the UK’s largest telecommunications, cable TV & ISP.
For more information please refer to Acuity Unified Communications' Corporate Website at: https://acuityuc.com/
John Dowbiggin, founder & CEO of Acuity Unified Communications.
Q: Could you please summarize for our readers your company profile, your target customer and reference market?
Acuity Unified Communications, based in the UK, is a next-generation, IP-based communications provider supplying a range of products including Unified Communications solutions with full mobile integration, high-speed dedicated leased internet access circuits, MPLS and IPVPN solutions & Hosting Services including Virtual Private Servers within the Acuity cloud.
It provides solutions for VoIP-based inbound and outbound call centres built around QueueMetrics, QueueMetrics-Live and WombatDialer software.
We operate these services on our privately-owned platforms and are not dependent on 3rd parties.
We work with a wide range of customers with call centres from 10 seats up to large operations with over 350 seats.
Our customers include public utilities, emergency services, retail chains, leasing and insurance firms to name but a few.
Q: What kind of benefits do you experience using and selling QueueMetrics and WombatDialer?
Integrating the Queuemetrics product into the Acuity feature rich platform, enables us to offer fully-featured call center solutions. This includes wallboards and reporting of over 180 metrics.
This has provided us with the ability to fulfill any requirement our call centre customers have, including reporting data that ultimately gets submitted to regulatory bodies such as OFWAT.
WombatDialer has further extended our call center offering.
This software enables us to not only offer a dialer solution, but a dialer solution that has been written with Queuemetrics compatibility in mind.
Being able to offer a feature rich platform that has been call center enabled by Queuemetrics and dialer enabled by Wombat Dialer puts us in a position where we are offering the most flexible, easy to use and fully featured solution every time.
Q: Could you give me an example of how you have dealt with a customers critical issue using QueueMetrics or WombatDialer?
Having a 300+ agent call center for a large Public Utility, we had to take advantage of Loway’s Unlimited Agent Licence.
This customer has to regularly search for all call recordings associated with an end user when dealing with complaints.
Queuemetrics enables the customer complaints team to search through hundreds of thousands of call records and retrieve call recordings in a matter of seconds.
Plus, there is supervisor access.
Queuemetrics gives our customer the ability to do this themselves which enables them to meet their strict deadlines for dealing with complaints from members of the public.
Q: What are the key factors which make a successful Asterisk based call-centre?
With Asterisk being Opensource, it provides us with ultimate flexibility when designing our call centers.
There is no code that is locked down and we are able to customise the solution exactly to the customer's requirement through our own, in-house development team.
Q: Mr. Dowbiggin, what’s your view on the Asterisk call-center industry future in the next two years?
Even with more competition, the Asterisk based call center industry still remains strong.
Asterisk based call centers will most certainly be the go-to for the foreseeable future mainly based on the true flexibility allowing unique customisation for clients.
With Loway’s commitment to continue development on its Asterisk based products, we believe we have the ultimate call center product on the market.
Mateen is a Civil Engineer graduate from Cardiff University, UK, with a diploma in international hospitality operations from the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management, EAHM, Dubai, UAE. He became an entrepreneur at the age of 23, in the year 2013, co-founding a successful Telecommunications business, Sawa International, in the United Arab Emirates.
Subsequently Mateen founded Calltronix Contact and Training Centre, a contact centre and business process solutions provider based out of the East and Central African region.
Calltronix has now partnered with Loway to complement his existing business model and provide Queuemetrics and Wombat dialer solutions to customers within the East and Central African region.
For more information please refer to Calltronix's Corporate Website at: www.calltronix.co.ke
Mateen Karim Premji, Managing Director of Calltronix.
Q: Could you please summarize for our readers your company profile, your target customer and reference market?
Calltronix contact and training centre is a business process automation and telephony company based out of East Africa. Our focus has been to target regional corporate's.
Q: What kind of benefits do you experience using and selling QueueMetrics and WombatDialer?
Since we engage with Queuemetrics and WombatDialer at the contact centre, we understand the product well. A very powerful and robust platform that is very easy to use and manage.
Some of the features we use extensively include the real time wallboard and dashboard, reporting, predictive and reverse dialing, Automatic recall scheduling as well as the on screen QA.
The flexibility and support has also been key to our success as a contact centre. After using the systems for two years we are now a reseller. Need I say more?
Q: Could you give me an example of how you have dealt with a customers critical issue using QueueMetrics or WombatDialer?
Our customers consist of varying industries, from manufacturing to automobile, to Actuaries and Insurance to Food Deliveries.
Regardless of the type of industry, and varying operational requirements of our customers, they have all benefited from improved accountability, productivity of their agents and visibility on their pain areas.
A critical issue that resonates among all our clients prior to using Queuemetrics and wombat is the lack of accountability and visibility, for example, knowing whether sales have been dropped or customers called back on time.
Q: What are the key factors which make a successful Asterisk based call-centre?
I believe the stability of the platform.
In the last two years, we have never faced any issues working with Queuemetrics and Wombat Dialer. The flexibility to develop dial plans if required and not having a closed system is key to the success of any Asterisk based call-centre, in my view.
Q: Mr. Premji, what’s your view on the Asterisk call-center industry future in the next two years?
For the region we work in, many corporates still utilise analogue phone systems.
Although telephony is not a large priority, cloud based options will become more popular as companies look to become more efficient and switch away from their conventional phone systems.
Andres J. Maduro Quintini is a Computer Science Engineer professional from Universidad Simón Bolívar since 1998.
Founder of Animaciones, ICONOS, C.A. in 1991 and Equipos Telemo E.T. S.A. in 2004, Andres has been working with OpenSource platforms like Asterisk and Linux since 1994.
Since 2004, Andres has been designing, installing and operating many PBX systems based on Asterisk and FreePBX with dozens of custom built IVR systems and call centers.
Additionally, Andres is currently working with Telemo on mobile App development with more than 4 years of experience in Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality solutions as well as design of hardware PCBs to integrate sensors with small computer systems like the Raspberry Pi.
Having co-developed in the past a propietary callcenter solution under Linux, still live on some customers with a partner company and having tested many solutions trough out the years, he has chosen to work with Queuemetrics as it has proven to be a robust and mature platform.
For more information please refer to Equipos Telemo's Corporate Website at: www.telemo.com.ve
Andres J. Maduro Quintini, Founder of Equipos Telemo.
Q: Could you please summarize for our readers your company profile, your target customer and reference market?
Equipos Telemo, E.T. S.A. is a Venezuelan company founded in 2002 by two parters coming from many years working in technology development in the areas of networking, web development, VoIP and IVR, text to speech, automatic speech recognition, mobile app development and PBX/call center implmementation.
We have been working with Asterisk since 2003 when it was on version 0.99.
Q: What kind of benefits do you experience using and selling QueueMetrics and WombatDialer?
Queuemetrics is a robust and mature platform for call and contact center needs. The interface is simple, easy to use and flexible. Third party integration is available through it’s API.
Documentation is really good with many tutorials and support is excellent and fast. Pricing and plans are flexible for customers.
Q: Could you give me an example of how you have dealt with a customers critical issue using QueueMetrics or WombatDialer?
Through support, we have been able to solve any critical issue we have found on our customers really fast.
Q: What are the key factors which make a successful Asterisk based call-centre?
Ease of use, ease of installation, good level and speed of support, fair pricing and feature rich functionality.
Q: Mr. , what’s your view on the Asterisk call-center industry future in the next two years?
We’ll see a continouos growth of Asterisk-based callcenters as many companies realize that they need a robust direct communication solution with their customers that is rich in features as well as affordable when compared to traditional systems.
Also, we’ll see a growth in remote agents deployment as cloud based solutions continue to grow.
Xin Ye is the Managing Director of OCO InfoComm, he has been working with Asterisk phone system for about 10 years, also he has 15 years working experience in IT infrastructure. For the past two years, he has been working closely with one of the largest call center in Singapore which has more than 200 agents, one of their campaign is running on QueueMetrics, OCO InfoComm is supporting their entire IT infrastructure and phone systems. OCO InfoComm has gained so much valuable experiences in call center operations working with them, which becomes a key differentiator from other PBX vendors.
For more information please refer to OCO InfoComm's Corporate Website at: https://www.oco.com.sg
Xin Ye, Managing Director of OCO InfoComm.
Q: Could you please summarize for our readers your company profile, your target customer and reference market?
A: OCO InfoComm is a Singapore based company that specialized in providing IP PBX and Call Center solutions to our clients.
Our team of engineers has over 10 years of experience in developing complex IP PBX for both MNC, Contact Centers and Government Agencies.
Q: What kind of benefits do you experience using and selling QueueMetrics and WombatDialer?
A: With QueueMetrics and its extensive API, we are able to provide fully customized reports, dash board, wallboard and much more to our customers to suite their unique requirements.
Licensing and Installation for QueueMetrics is simple, the application is simple to use and provide complete insights to call center operations.
Q: Could you give me an example of how you have dealt with a customers critical issue using QueueMetrics or WombatDialer?
A: A client of ours who has one of the largest membership database in Singapore wanted us to provide their organization with reports that capture specific identification data from the IVR, with QueueMetrics IVR tracking feature, we are able to provide not only the identification data, but also able to track the time spent in IVR and the path callers took in the IVR.
This give our customer detailed insights to constantly monitor and optimize their IVR design.
Q: What are the key factors which make a successful Asterisk based call-centre?
A: In the beginning, people were skeptical about the reliability of Asterisk based system.
However, over years of improvement, the Asterisk system has evolved and combined with systems like QueueMetrics, it can now provide accurate reports just like other legacy system.
In my opinion, in terms of system, the key factors are Stability, Scalability and Flexibility. In terms of reporting, the key factors are accuracy, customizable and comprehensive API.
Q: Mr. Xin, what's your view on the Asterisk call-center industry future in the next two years?
A: Distributed Asterisk System Architecture would be the key focus for the next two years, as more and more large enterprises are adopting the open source platform, the ability to scale up and scale out on demand is still lacking for asterisk based system.
For call center businesses, many people predict that they will slowly be replaced by mobile APPs and other technologies, but that is simply not the case based on my observation for the past two years.
I believe the human touch is still the most preferred way when dealing with customers, as more and more enterprises and government agencies are actually expanding their call center operation.
David Puckett has moved to the "East" to join a thriving Voice over IP company in Xiamen, China as a new member of the Business Development and Product Management Team at Yeastar Information Technology Co. Previously, as a Global Director of Technical Services and then Technical Product Line Manager, he has gained vast experience remaining with the same US telecommunications company for the last 15 years. In addition to launching his brand new technology company last December, David is excited to join Yeastar and work with a team that that has a fresh outlook on the market and ample company resources to establish itself as a major world competitor in delivering a fully supported business class voice solution built on top of the open source Asterisk core.
For more information please refer to Yeastar’s Corporate Website at: www.yeastar.com
David Puckett, Product Management Team of Yeastar.
Q: Could you summarize for the readers your company profile and target market?
Yeastar has over 10 years in the open-source Asterisk VoIP world; partner presence in over 100 countries around the world and is now experiencing unprecedented growth in the SMB marketplace.
The S-Series IP PBX is Yeastar's newest and most highly optimized Customer Premise Device for Business Class Voice Solutions.
The entire S-Series product line supports anywhere from 1 to 500 users and is designed to be completely modular, so you can customize the system according to your business needs.
Q: Mr. Puckett, what’s your view on the call-center industry future in the next two years?
I feel very strongly that CCAAS is the right play for the immediate future, even in parts of the world where connectivity isn't always a given, the QueueMetrics -Live cloud based solution has proven it's reliability to our partners and their end-users over and over again.
Until recently, delivering a Professional Call-Center Solution for our resellers has been a long and difficult challenge. Now, with the roll-out of the integration between the Yeastar S-Series and QueueMetrics Live, it is simple to demonstrate easy deployment and scalability for our call-center professionals.
Q: What kind of benefits Yeastar S-Series PBX integration with QueueMetrics-Live bring to call-center professionals?
With our recent modifications to the S-Series IP PBX, we are now able to offer a 30-day test drive of QueueMetrics-Live through our on-board App Center.
The Yeastar Application Center has been designed with our resellers in mind, and it's the perfect vehicle to gain a valuable edge when selling our business class voice solutions into an extremely competitive market.
The QueueMetrics App allows a quick and easy connection between the customers S-Series IP PBX and QueueMetrics Live Cloud Service. Our resellers are now in the position to offer their end-users enhanced value by offering a complete turn-key Call Center Solution without any delay.
We are happy to let QueueMetrics be the Call Center experts; it's the perfect partnership.
Q: What are the key factors which make a successful Yeastar Voip PBX based call-centre?
At Yeastar we have learned that the more we dedicate ourselves to our partner and reseller relationships, the more successful we become. Therefore, the first key factor for success is the "try it and buy it" business model built into our QueueMetrics -Live application.
This allows our resellers to demonstrate the power of QueueMetrics to the end-users with just a few clicks of the mouse. The second key factor is reliability.
We know reputations are at stake and we are proud of the proven track-record we have with QueueMetrics. The third key factor is call-center solution details. This core value makes room for the ability to assimilate the reality of everyday effort into tangible or measurable performance goals.
If a thing can't be measured or tracked, then it can't be managed. After our call-center managers take advantage of the free 30 day trail, they immediately see benefits in the possibility of deep analysis. These are just a few key factors that come to my mind, of course there are more.
Q: What are your thoughts about strategic role of call-center analysis softwares in your market?
We have examined the market very thoroughly and it is evident to us that we need a strong partner with experience and a proven track record.
We have experienced great success with our previous product offerings with QueueMetrics and were extremely pleased to offer an even more automated solution for the S-Series IPPBX.
A solid technology partnership is exactly what Yeastar has in QueueMetrics and we are looking for new ways to incorporate more of their services into our S-Series IP PBX.
Mark Barry is the Founder of Exabar Telecom and has served as President since the company’s inception 14 years ago. Mark has deep experience in Project Management, Product Design, Development and Launch. Mark has a proven executive management track record and a laser focus on providing an exemplary customer experience.
For more information please refer to Exabar’s Corporate Website at: www.exabar.com/
Mark Barry Founder of Exabar Telecom.
Could you please summarize for our readers your company profile, target customers and market?
For over 14 years, Austin Texas based Exabar Telecom has enjoyed great success in being a reliable provider of Cloud Based VoIP, Unified Communication as a service (UCAAS), Call Center as a service (CCAAS) solutions for small to medium sized businesses (SMB’s) as well as contact/call centers.
Exabar Telecom’s cloud based VoIP solutions provide the highest quality service at the lowest prices. Exabar’s “VoxECall” Hosted VoIP Service provides all the features one would expect from a Fortune 500 class company phone system at a fraction of the cost.
From hosted VoIP phone service to Cloud Based contact/call center reporting/monitoring software, Exabar’s advanced telephony services are easy to deploy/use, incredibly advanced and less expensive than traditional/legacy solutions.
What kind of benefits do you experience selling Loway's products?
The addition of Loway’s products to Exabar’s portfolio has allowed us to broaden our service offering and market coverage.
Specifically, QueueMetrics and Wombat Dialer both integrate seamlessly with Exabar’s Asterisk Based “VoxECall” Hosted VoIP Service.
QueueMetrics allows Exabar to offer Call Center Prospects real time monitoring capability. At a glance, Call Center Management is aware of who is on a call and who is not, who is on break and who is available. How many active calls are in progress and what Queues are in play. Once Call Center Management experiences the real-time information that QueueMetrics affords them, they wonder how they ever managed without it.
Wombat Dialer also dovetails nicely with Exabar’s VoxECall Call Center Hosted Service. Customers who may have struggled trying to deploy a Dialer in the past are pleasantly surprised at the relative ease with which Wombat can be implemented and how quickly Agents warm up to using the tool.
Wombat’s different dialing modes (Automated, Reverse, and Preview) coupled with its real time monitoring capabilities make it a perfect fit for Exabar’s Contact/Call Center Prospects.
Could you give me an example of how you have dealt with a customers issue using QueueMetrics or WombatDialer?
One particular Exabar Call Center Prospect had been challenged for years on effectively tracking their Advertising expenditures. The Prospect spent more than a million dollars annually that they spread across various media buys including Newspaper, Direct Mail, Radio, Television Etc.
Implementing Exabar’s Cloud Based VoxECall Call Center Service coupled w/ QueueMetrics monitoring and reporting software provided immediate clarity for the customer. Marketing was now able to effectively/easily set up and track phone numbers associated w/ specific advertising campaigns routed into selected queues. The sophisticated built in reporting capability QueueMetrics brought to the table allowed the Marketing Department to easily pinpoint where the Advertising funds were having the most impact.
The addition of QueueMetrics was a powerful tool for the customer that took the guesswork out of strategic market media buys and budgeting.
What are the key factors which make a successful Asterisk call-centre?
Simply put, Asterisk based products like Exabar’s VoxECall Call Center product has made the implementation of Contact/Call Centers for small and medium sized businesses (SMB’s) a reality.
Exabar’s VoxECall Call Center and Loway’s QueueMetrics gives SMB’s the ability to affordably and easily leverage features such as Queues, Skill Based Call Routing, Agent Monitoring and activity reports.
Exabar has a great depth of experience in helping customers navigate and prepare for the ultimate Call Center experience.
What’s your view on the Asterisk call-center industry future in the next two years?
Exabar is very excited about the anticipated growth we expect to see over the next couple of years in the SMB Contact Center space.
SMB Contact/Call Centers could simply not afford the expensive feature rich Legacy Call Center equipment/software products and services that were reserved for very large company’s w/ deep pockets.
SMB Contact Centers were often relegated to working with outdated inefficient Key System type solutions. Well that has all changed w/ the advent of Asterisk being coupled with powerful hosted solutions like Exabar’s VoxECall Call Center Hosted Service and Loway’s QueueMetrics Call Center Monitoring and reporting product.
The Playing field is finally being leveled and the Paradigm shift is in progress. Many SMB’s will now be able to find value and ROI utilizing these tools that was unavailable to them in the past.
Juan Luis Picazo is Micropyme's co-founder, leading the sales-marketing department and responsible for suppliers and strategic partners relationships. He has a Master in Marketing-Sales, MBA and more than 20 years of experience in IT and Communication industry.
More information at corporate websites: www.micropyme.com
Juan Luis Picazo Micropyme co-founder.
Could you please summarize for our readers your company profile, target customers and market?
We have more than 20 years of experience as consultants in the world of computing and communications. During this time, we have been at the side of our clients implementing solutions and services of maximum reliability and quality.
We support Open Source softwares and solutions because they are excellent alternatives to a great majority of business challenges.
Our solutions are stable, robust, scalable and respond to different areas of a company' organization, in a safe and effective way, while guaranteeing an adequate future evolution.
Our services and IT solutions cover the following areas: