Integrate SugarCRM with IP telephony system.

[paolodina]

Hi all.

Recently I have posted a thread about integration between SugarCRM and accounting software. Now I'm curious to know if someone of you have some thought or experiences about SugarCRM/IP telephony system integration. (I have heard about Asterisk.. even if actually I don't know anything about it).

Wouldn't it so nice that when the secretary takes a call from a customer, customer's profile can pop up on the screen with account history and other information? Or maybe, clicking on customer's telephone number automatically starts the number composition..?

Let's brainstorming begins

TIA,
Paolo.

[dtobia]

I am working in a new component (ActiveX) for Sugar to integrate to Genesys CTI. If anybody is interested send me a email to dario.tobia@informationsys.com
Regards

[PrimalBlue]

Vonage or Skype are pretty easy to setup auto dialing from SugarCRM.

You can create a new field or modify the existing phone fields to include callto:// in front of the phone number. This should create a link for the phone number and depending on what service you have setup it will open Vonage or Skype and place the call.

Edit: one note, you do have to properly format your numbers (including country code).

[dbdrotomotioncom]

We just installed Asterisk PBX (www.asterisk.org) at our office. It is very nice and includes a simple application interface called AGI that supports most languages (any unix scripts, etc. like CGI). It also has a "manager interface" for more intimate coupling with the Astrisk PBX system.

Here's an example of a telephony interface using AGI for an IT trouble ticket program called perldesk. This is written in perl:

http://www.jimradford.com/asterisk/perldesk.agi

It provides an interactive telephone menu system for quering the status of a trouble ticket. This type of inquiry could be used in the SugarCRM bugs and issues database.

Although the call-in popup is very interesting. Here is an AGI script for popping up caller id. This is written in TK:

http://digium-cvs.netmonks.ca/viewcv...lerid_display/

the .agi file runs on the same computer as the phone system and the .tk file runs on the client. It is easy to see how this type of program could be extended to allow SugarCRM to do popups.

For SugarCRM, it seems that the client side would use an HTML compatible interface. The server side could easily be any UNIX scripting language, as all Asterisk instances run on a UNIX OS. It seems a suitable HTML compatible language would be a java applet or flash, etc. something that could popup HTML pages within the SugarCRM system in call context.

It would be nice to have a "REMEMBER NUMBER" button on a SugarCRM view that will associate the data being viewed with your current call (or last call, etc.).

Another useful feature would be an additional voicemail menu item for forwarding a voicemail to a SugarCRM record. The voicemail meta data does contain the caller*ID and could help in associating the voicemail with the SugarCRM record (either autonomously when messages are left or manually for un-autoassigned voicemail).

Further, you could attach voice notes to SugarCRM records. This way, when the lead calls in next time, he receives the voicenote.

I have seen a script for Asterisk that allowed a caller to automotically connect to the last person they called at the organization (all based on caller*ID, if reliable). No reason a specific caller couldn't hear a custom greating and special menu depending on their SugarCRM status, etc (similar to the voicenote) - SugarCRM would know about all the SugarCRM users the caller talked to.

[roger]

Between 1996-2003, I used Maximizer, and the feature that I miss the most is the automatic dialing capability when you click on a number. So far, I haven't seen that in any web-based product. I would gladly pay to have that feature because it makes outbound calling SO much easier (which means that people who use it can make so many more calls, meaning so much more revenue!)

[gvjensen]

I have used several customer database tools..... this looks pretty solid (after a day of review).

Call management is critical, and Goldmine (and other tools) allow for a quick dial (with macro keys as well) and concurrently bring up note window(s) to capture call detail.

This functionality would add tremendous utility to Sugar..... I'll be happy to beta test code for you!

Regards,



Glenn

[MSchroettle]

Try this for outbound calls:

Dialing phone numbers is a breeze, if you have TAPI installed.
just add "phone:" as a url handler to the respective view.html files...
With Skype or other IP telephony the URL handler might be "callto://" instead of "phone:"
Note the two slashes are NOT needed with "phone:"...

i.e. listview.html in module contacts:
<td valign=TOP class="{ROW_COLOR}S1" bgcolor="{BG_COLOR}" nowrap><slot><a href="{URL_PREFIX}phone:{CONTACT.PHONE_WORK}" class="listViewTdLinkS1">{CONTACT.PHONE_WORK}</slot></td>

You can do this in every ...view.html you like to activate your phone numbers for immediate dialing...

For the other features (locating a contact on an incoming call, etc.)
I'd be curious to learn, if anyone else has a solution already...

Thanks - have fun :-)
Michael

[chucknb87122]

Hi,

I am curious, of the open source hybrid PBX's which do you find to be the easiest to work with SugarCRM.

Thanks

[Marc4CRM]

Hi,

does anyone has SugarCRM integrated with the Microsoft Standard windows TAPI configuration? My boss currently used ACT! and his very old IBM Laptop because it simply has a serialport which is connected to his telephone which makes dialing a lot easier and also popsup with the details of the caller.

As I am a programmer, I would try to develop something with an interface to the SugarCRM database If there is a need.

Regards,
Marc

[josef53]

Hi,

does anyone has SugarCRM integrated with the Microsoft Standard windows TAPI configuration? My boss currently used ACT! and his very old IBM Laptop because it simply has a serialport which is connected to his telephone which makes dialing a lot easier and also popsup with the details of the caller.

As I am a programmer, I would try to develop something with an interface to the SugarCRM database If there is a need.

Regards,
Marc

HI,
look at http://www.phoner.de/
Very nice phone stuff.
Regards
Josef53