Asterisk Phone System
Thanks to the Asterisk phone system, small business operators do not need to outlay a four - five or six figure sum to own a state of the art IP communications system. The open source PBX has effectively capped the price that needs to be paid.
Asterisk is a feature rich small business phone system. It can meet the requirements of most SMBs. In fact there are some 2 million users able to confirm that it will do the job.
Versions of Asterisk
1. Asterisk - fully featured PBX software, free, community support.
2. AsteriskNow - as above plus GUI and wizard setup-installation.
3. Asterisk Business Edition - optional Digium installation, support, commercial licensing and certification.
Asterisk Add-ons
Asterisk is a living solution. It is continuously enhanced by the original developer (Digium) and the community behind the project. Add-ons to the original core system include:
IVR
Conference bridge
Automated attendant
Unified messaging
Call center feautures including ACD and remote IP agent
Predictive dialer
Skype for Asterisk
In October 2008 Digium announced a partnership with Skype to integrate Asterisk with the Internet telephony service. Inevitably the outcome will put downward pressure on the pricing of all small business VoIP solutions.
Alternatives
Asterisk is not the only open source PBX solution. Other highly regarded free PBX software solutions include FreeSwitch and CallWeaver.
Asterisk is attracting increased interest from small business operators. The economic situation has forced them to look harder at the alternatives and they are discovering that Asterisk is a credible solution.
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