Project of the Month - February 2010

Asterisk SugarDirector

Description of project

The Asterisk SugarDirector will take a CallerID value from a Front-End Notifier and open up the associated Contact or Account for the caller. If the Caller is not known, it will take the user to a 'new contact' page within Sugar.

Trove Info

What other projects have you been involved with on SugarForge.org?

This is my first project on SugarForge, but won't be my last.

I thought my idea was simple, yet I was unable to find a working implementation of my idea available when I was looking. Rather than spending the time trying to track down a similar script, I found it easier--and more rewarding--to just write my own.

What business pain points were you solving specifically?

I wanted to make it easier and quicker for our customer service representatives to pull up the contact record of the person calling in. Additionally, if the caller didn't already have a contact in Sugar, make it easier for a customer service representative to add them in.

What would you say to encourage additional community participation?

When I wrote this script, I originally intended it for internal use only. The script was very basic and I wasn't sure it had a purpose along some of these bigger applications; however, given the positive feedback from the community, I'm glad I published it. My advice to those with people with scripts/applications running on 'internal' systems is to--corporate policy permitting--release them into the community. No matter how small or insignificant it may be, if you find it useful, perhaps others will too.

What do you want to build next for Sugar Suite?

I'm a big Asterisk fan and am considering writing some scripts to bring Accounts & Contacts contact information directly to the phone directory functions on the Polycom Series of IP Phones.