Altitude Launches First Skype for Asterisk in a Contact Center Suite

October 12, 2009
By Brendan B. Read, Senior Contributing Editor

Skype (News - Alert), a software that makes it possible for people around the world to communicate via voice, video, and IM over the Internet, has become a fast-growing interaction channel in its own right, with some 480 million loyal users worldwide. Jon Arnold, Principal, J Arnold & Associates, told TMCnet, “Skype has taken a very simple concept – free voice calls – and built it up into a unique community that continues to grow at a pace that conventional service providers can only dream about
 
To harness the increased use of Skype for customer care, service, and sales, Altitude Software has developed and made available Skype for Asterisk built into its Altitude IP Contact Center solution, an enterprise customer interaction management solution suite. Companies can use the new functionalities to set up single global-toll free numbers, and provide effective support and service to customers making Skype calls to contact centers.
 
This software solution runs on the Altitude vBox communications platform, a supported SIP server that allows SIP and ISDN connectivity in contact centers. The Altitude vBox, in turn, runs on top of Asterisk and Digium (News - Alert) ISDN boards.
 
The Altitude IP Contact Center includes flexible inbound and powerful outbound dialing algorithms, call classification, unified supervising, universal queue, and built-in routing. Altitude IP Contact Center runs on top of all major communications systems, including Altitude vBox. The solution enables customers to operate mixed environments, while using the same desktop, routing and reporting solution across their sites.
 
“Altitude Software (News - Alert) once more pioneers in enabling contact center customers to profit from using Skype as another high potential, effectively managed, interaction channel,” said Miguel Lopes, executive vice president of product management at Altitude Software.
 
“The ease and simplicity of dialing a company center using a Skype ID, from any Skype client will surely attract many users; the ability to route and manage these calls inside the enterprise will appeal to a number of companies.”
 
“Altitude Software offers market proven contact center solutions that are the perfect match for Asterisk,” said Bill Miller (News - Alert), vice president of product management at Digium. “Achieving Skype for Asterisk interoperability enables both companies to grow a portfolio of advanced business applications over Asterisk (News - Alert) and enable customers worldwide to achieve greater performance.”
 

Brendan B. Read is TMCnet’s Senior Contributing Editor. To read more of Brendan’s articles, please visit his columnist page.

Edited by Erik Linask

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