Sunday, August 7, 2011

ouvid.us - Twilio Experiment

Last Monday I had an idea for an useful web based service that could be built using Twilio. A purely web based call center service, with queue management, alerts, easy to install on a website.
On my spare time at night this week, I manage to build an early version of the product hacking some PHP and jQuery. It turns out to be very productive and straight forward. (I hit some bumps, but Twilio Support and Documentation was very helpful)


ouvid.us
is already live and although limited amount of features, it is fully functional!
You can create an account for free, create queues, add other users to attend to your queues, add a Call link to your website/blog etc...

The problem this project solves is: Small and Medium business would have high costs on maintaining a Call Center system. ouvid.us solves the problem, by enabling a pure web based Call Center Service.
Please try it out and let me know what do you think.

Twilio Evaluation:
  • Pros:
    • I'm a fan of simplicity, and Twilio got it right
    • Easy to setup, debug and release
    • Great Documentation and Examples
    • Good Support
  • Cons:
    • Lack of support for SIP, XMPP and Jingle
    • Sometimes the FlashPlugin Crashes and needs to be killed manually
    • No Paypal support