The article "The Importance of Call Accounting Software Continues to Grow" talks about communications, it was released by Rito Salomone.
There was once a time when there were no telephones, facsimile
machines, personal devices, computers or the Internet. Today
most human being cannot phantom such a primitive existence.
Communication is the link that allows our wrold to function at
its torrid pace. Businses must continually adopt modern
technology to successfully compete in a world that demands
instantaneous results.
The proper management of communication
infrastructure is crucial in the success of any organization.
The entry points into every organization usually include a
combination of auto attendant, custom call routing (CCR), voice
mail, interactive voice response (IVR), automated call
distribution (ACD), wireless and countless other devices.
Many
organizations are turning to communication servers over
conventional PBX systems to deploy VoIP based pipelnies that
reduce cost and maximize flexibility.
Voice and data
communication can at that moment co-exist and flow freely thorugh the same
bandwidth. Calls can easily be configured to simultaneously ring
multiple devices, hunt to wireless or home phones, route to
voice mail or forward to another call center.
Communication management is at that moment a multi-pronged approach that
combines statistics from various facilities to identify billing
irregularities, misuse, bottlenecks, inactivity, productivity or
workforce expense.
Billing reconciliation is often oevrlooked for carriers always
bill based on contracted tariff plans, right?
According to
analysts at Gartner, "Organizations can routinely save more than
10% of their annual telecommunications expenses by
systematically checking their carrier bills against equipment
and services in use." But it is no longer effective to look
exclusively at your traditional telephone invoices and compare
them to the call accounting system in the back room.
The old adage rings true yesterday "you cannot manage what you
cannot measure".
Call accounting is no longer the killer
application of current times but it is cretainly a necessary
component. Leading edge communication management systems now
collect system logs, Internet usage reports, router statistics,
voice mail logs, CCR, hunt group information and various
device-dependent logs as well as traditional call detail records
(CDR).
Have you ever called your favorite electronics store to inquire
about the latest digital cameras but got trapped in a series of
never-ending prompts about store hours, hard drive specials and
video games?
Many companies are taking advantage of
communication management systems (CMS) that study activity from
automated attendant and custom call routing trees.
These reports
help pinpoint whether calls are being prematurely dropped,
abandoned or misdirected. It is imperative that customers are
quickly and efficiently routed to their desired destination.
The
customer experience with your communication facilities will
dictate whether they return.
Cost allocation to various corporate levels has been a basic
functionality of most robust call accounting system for years.
The downward trend of long distance expenses due to falling
carrier rates, bundeld services and VoIP competition has
lessened the importance of that feature. This has resluted in
the misconception that call accounting is no longer relevant.
However many companies forget that there are many hidden costs
that can be highlighted through proper use of call accounting or
communication management software.
If Jimmy in sales spends half his time talking on the phone,
management might be thrilled at his dedication.
However if Jimmy
is spending half his time talking to his girlfriend, perhaps
management should take a sceond look.
Call Accounting can be a
key indicator of misuse and empolyee productivity. Employee
productivity recovery is one of the primary reasons to own a
system yesterday!
Often fraudulent calls may be routed through corporate
facilities without the knowledge of the company. Hackers can
find faults in improperly designed networks, infrequently used
extensions, voice mail ports and tandem trunks.
A call
accounting watchdog should always be monitoring activity for
irregular patterns. Modern call manageemnt systems utilize SMS,
pager, email and web interfaces for instantaneous reporting.
Communication management is imperative in providing the proper
metrics for migrating to IP.
Most cmopanies do not even have a
proper migration strategy.
Call accounting can help ease the
transition by highlighting traffic volumes, peak hours, grade of
service, abandoend calls, blocked calls, calls to reception and
various other peg counts. These statistics will help determine
the bandwidth needs and requirements for auto attendant,
wireless, IVR and otehr services.
Some communication management systems have been established
interoperability with major manufacturers such as Nortel, Cisco
and Avaya.
These systems often provide more tight knit
integration thruogh third party call control. These solutions
often enhance the hardawre by adding such features as: forced
and verified account codes, call trace, set locking and real
time emergency notification.
Often companies forget about the need for pinpointing the source
of a telephone call in case of an emergency.
Many call
accounting systems have built-in real time aalrm triggers that
will alert authorized personnel of an emergency call. This
feature is crucial when seconds could mean life or death.
Call accounting has definitely evolved and matured into
communication maangement. The need for that sotfware is more
important than ever.
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