Security Analyst – Jeff Soehner CISSP, GXPN,GPYC,GMOB,GCIH

Some of my readers may already be familiar with Marc Spencer and his creation of Asterisk (for instance anyone who has called some of the Canadian Government services) and may know about Alison and her beautiful voice but for the rest of you, I want to talk about phone systems today.

I have been working with Digium and Asterisk products for more than a decade now and I am hear to tell you that you can run a small business with just one phone line and have all the benefits of voicemail, IVR and faxing for free* (this assumes that you know how to program and maintain your system).

AsteriskNOW is a CentOS Distribution that is already configured with a web based front end that allows you to create a phone system using any PC based hardware. (We even run it in a virtual environment on a Windows HYPER-V Cluster using a Linksys SPA3102 – see our article here).

It can act as a host for so many applications;

One of the best reasons I found to run it at my home office was to force Telemarketers to press a digit to speak to me. I haven’t been interrupted at dinner in more than a decade thanks to one of these servers.

If you need to press a button when someone calls you to receive a fax then you can use of these machines. It can be setup to email you a fax instead of wasting paper when you receive those fax advertisements. No more waiting for someone to send a fax to you. You can use the same number you use for your phone calls. The system can recognize that a fax is coming in and automatically send it to you. You can even set your system send your received faxes and voicemails to your inbox as attachments.

Hardware is available to have multiple phone lines and multiple telephones connected so you can create a call center complete with screen pops for inbound and outbound calling.

Setup an outbound dialer to make telemarketing calls to your potential clients and play them a message informing them about your specials.

Maybe you need to record all of your calls for quality purposes or just to ensure accuracy while you or your employees are doing business.

The system can be programmed to work with almost any Contact manager or database you currently have. Imagine creating a phone system for your clients that call often for information. They can use your new Interactive Voice Response system to make inquiries, place orders or even make payments.

All of these features can be setup on just one one phone line today and your system can grow with you. Comes complete with updates and add-on modules to enable all of this functionality so what are you waiting for?

With more than 15 years in the communications industry working with IVR/Fax/Data I can tell you that this phone system can be setup to do almost anything. More information is available by sending an email to sales@the-techy.com to arrange for a free consultation. We can speak on the phone or visit you at your office and discuss how this phone system can help you.