Colorado Springs, CO & Philadelphia, PA – June 25, 2013 - Cetis, Inc., the world's leading manufacturer of hotel guestroom telephones, and EFS Networks, Inc., a full service business process and technology consulting firm, have announced completion of a new Asterisk open-source hotel phone system installation featuring TeleMatrix® brand 9602IP VoIP DECT cordless telephones at The Reeds At Shelter Haven, located in Stone Harbor, NJ.

According to Evan Solomon, President, EFS Networks, Inc., "The Reeds phone system runs Asterisk 1.8 on a CentOS 5.9 server, along with FreePBX to allow hotel staff to administer certain features of the office side of the system. When a call is made to a room, Asterisk is programed to look at the central database and determine if the room is currently occupied. If the room is occupied, Asterisk then queries the database for the SIP addresses of the phones in that room and rings all of the phones simultaneously. If the call is not answered in a timely manner then the caller is sent to the room's voicemail box. Asterisk appends the appropriate headers to the call so that the DuVoice voicemail system is able to process the call and place the caller in the appropriate mailbox," he concludes.

The Reeds open-source phone system creates a custom Asterisk context outside of the default from-internal context used by FreePBX that handles all the calling to and from the rooms. At the backbone of the system is a MySQL table that stores information about each room including the status of the room (occupied/unoccupied), the name of the guest staying in the room, and the SIP address of each phone in the guestroom.

"We are pleased to partner with EFS Networks for The Reeds Asterisk/TeleMatrix 9602IP installation," states John Grubb, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Cetis, Inc. "With nearly 300,000 hospitality VoIP telephone installations and the largest installed base of hotel telephones globally, our goal is to provide hoteliers with the option to choose an open-source, license-free Asterisk phone system compatible with SIP or non-SIP analog telephones. Once analog phone integration is implemented hoteliers may elect to adopt Asterisk without abandoning their existing investment in Cetis analog phones as well", he concludes.

Because the PMS vendor did not offer direct integration with Asterisk, DuVoice software was chosen to integrate room detail status and guest names compatible with the client PMS. DuVoice takes check-in/out information from the PMS and updates its own records and passes the information along to the Asterisk server. Similarly, if a guest calls out, Asterisk checks the database to see if the room is occupied. If the room is unoccupied, then the caller is sent to a recording stating that the room is not authorized to make outgoing calls (with the exception of 911 call). If the room is authorized, the caller ID information is changed to reflect the room number, rather than the specific extension of the phone, and the guests name is appended. Thus at the front desk when John Smith calls, the caller ID reads [Rm 207] Smith, John. Each time a call is made from the Asterisk system that call is logged into a CDR, when this CDR updates, the server sends the call information to the call accounting system, which is integrated with the PMS call accounting system, Metropolis Profitwatch.

"There are a number of ways we intend to expand our Asterisk integration," Max BrownGold, Lead Engineer, EFS Networks, notes. "Currently, message waiting notifications (MWI) are sent directly from the voicemail server to the phones via SIPX, ideally, we would like change this so that the phones can do a normal message waiting subscribe to the Asterisk server and forward MWI notifications between the voicemail server and the phones. We would also like to implement an end-user facing GUI that can be used to set specific permissions for phones for instance to prevent a room from making long distance calls," he emphasizes.

For product and pricing details on the complete line of Asterisk interop-certified Cetis VoIP and analog telephones, call +1.719.638.8821, write [email protected], or visit www.CetisGroup.com.

About EFS Networks EFS Networks, Inc., (www.efsnetworks.com) Philadelphia, PA, is a full service business process and technology consulting firm providing managed and on-premise solutions ranging from status quo operational systems to strategic design and business process consulting. EFS has experienced exponential growth since we were founded in 2005 — solely derived from our customer-to-customer referral network. Such a successful track record speaks to our excellent customer service skills that have consistently delivered outstanding products and services to our clients.

Regardless of the size or scope of your project, our unique approach, methodologies, industry expertise, and due diligence gives our client's peace of mind to rely on EFS.

About DuVoice Located in Kirkland Washington DuVoice (www.duvoice.com) has been developing software and hardware solutions for the telecommunications industry since 1990. Products include a turnkey Windows based hospitality server which provides guest and staff messaging, wake up calls and a property management interface to most any PBX system. In the business market DuVoice has unified messaging system which delivers MP3 or wave voice mail messages and PDF fax messages to email. DuVoice partners with several technology companies to deliver turnkey solutions. These partners include: Avaya, Metropolis, ShoreTel, SDD,Hansen, NEC Sphere, Panasonic, Telematrix, Teledex, Vodavi, Dialogic, Microsoft, and ITOX. DuVoice products are distributed through a network of distributors and dealers throughout the Americas, Europe, APAC and Latin America.

About The Reeds At Shelter Haven The Reeds (www.reedsatshelterhaven.com), located at 9601 Third Avenue, Stone Harbor, NJ, offers 37 distinctively designed guest rooms and suites that encompass fresh seaside breezes and breathtaking sunsets … a natural ambience to rejuvenate and inspire you. Enjoy seaside's best in comfort and serenity. Abundant and refined amenities lend themselves to so much more than rest.Designed to exceed the comforts of home, all accommodations at The Reeds are rich in appointments, elegance and easy style with warm rustic tones and fine furnishings.

Cheryl McGinty