Elastix is an open source Unified Communications Server software that brings together IP PBX, email, IM, faxing and collaboration functionality. It has Web interface and includes capabilities such as a Call Center software with predictive dialing.
The Elastix functionality is based on open source projects as Asterisk, HylaFAX, Openfire and Postfix. Those packages offer the PBX, fax, instant messaging and email functions, respectively.
Support for telephony hardware
Elastix has a good support for telephony hardware. It includes drivers for the major manufacturers like OpenVox, Digium, Sangoma, Rhino Equipment, Xorcom, and Yeastar. The most of these drivers are supported through the zaptel project or modified versions of it. Other drivers are supported by the mIDSN project and other projects.
Elastix also support other phone brands thanks to the SIP and IAX protocols that Asterisk implement. These protocols are based on public available standards. For this reason any manufacturer can build a product that supports them. Some supported manufacturer are Polycom, Atcom, Aastra, Linksys, Snom, Cisco.
An Elastix hardware compatibility list, maintained by the community can be found here
Call center module
Elastix was the first distro that included a call center module with a predictive dialer, released entirely as free software. This module can be installed from the same web-based Elastix interface through a module loader. The call center module can handle incoming and outgoing campaigns. As of June 2008 this functionality is in early stages of development, and is not yet entirely functional.
History of the project
Elastix was created and maintained by PaloSanto Solutions, a Open Source support company based in Ecuador. Elastix was released public for first time in March 2006. It was not a distro but a Web interface to report CDRs (Call Detail Records). It was only until late December, 2006 when the Elastix distro was released as a Linux distribution with asterisk, zaptel and a lot of packages administrables via a user friendly Web interface that caught the community attention.
From then until now the Elastix distro has grown in popularity. The project was nominated for two straight years (2007 and 2008) as finalist in the SourceForge Community Choice Awards.
External links
- Elastix Official Web Site (elastix.org)
- Book "Elastix Without Tears" (recommnded reading)
- Elastixconnection.com, an independent Elastix related Web site offering forums, news, etc
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Monday September 15, 2008 at 22:12:47 PDT (GMT -0700)
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