[VoiceOps] Alternative IVR Platform?

[Alex Balashov]

Scott Berkman wrote:

> Asterisk also makes for a very powerful and scriptable IVR platform if 
> you are willing/able to put the work in.

I was about to say - it makes an excellent feature box.  My only major 
concern relates to its scalability;  not even so much the amount of 
concurrent calls per box that it can handle as how much that amount 
might be reduced by a weighty, complicated dial plan with database 
backing, etc.

On the other hand, the ability to stick it on commodity PC hardware far 
outweighs any of these downsides from a cost perspective;  per-port cost 
with Asterisk is among the lowest for applications, especially if you 
bother to do it right (i.e. centralised logic controller, nothing too 
host-wise).

SEMS (SIP Express Media Server) from IPTel/Tekelec is another viable 
alternative that might scale better.  Obviously, it's a pretty bad 
choice for doing a simple SMB-oriented IVR;  it's at least 100x more 
difficult than doing it with the Asterisk dial plan, and requires using 
some poorly documented C++ and/or Python APIs.  However, if it's 
something really esoteric and requiring the flexibility of integration 
and/or data acquisition paths that Asterisk can't provide, or requires a 
higher degree of real-time call control (i.e. continuous deduction of 
prepaid balances and termination of call if they have expired, for 
example), I think it's a pretty good platform.  Also makes a great 
generic signaling-only B2BUA, using ann_b2bua app for exaple. 
Definitely not the right thing for *basic* IVR, though.

-- Alex

-- 
Alex Balashov
Evariste Systems
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