|
Call Accounting: All About ROI By Ellen Muraskin
Call accounting and telemanagement can recover up to 35% of business telecom expenses - by catching billing errors, toll fraud and policy abuse, and provisioning problems; by helping you optimize service and calling plans, modify infrastructure in response to changing traffic, and prepare for (more) convergence. That's sexy (but not enough to really make this our swimsuit issue - we were just joking). Call accounting is about data collection and analysis: who's making calls (which departments, extensions, projects?), where are they going (extensions, trunk groups, destinations?), and what are they costing? Reports generated by a call accounting system serve numerous purposes: to allocate telecom costs to budgets; to bill them back to customers; as a back-check on telco billing; to monitor for unauthorized, policy-contravening, or excessive phone use; and as a technical tool - to monitor long-distance and interoffice call-traffic, trunk and TIE-line usage, wireless account activity, and other details. Call traffic analysis can be important for optimizing the provisioning of PBXs, ACDs, and call-handling applications such as IVR and conference bridging. Increasingly, call-traffic analysis plays a role in engineering converged solutions and estimating ROI from IP telephony and its companion applications, as well. Traffic analysis can also illuminate business process and help identify problems with "corporate phone discipline" (e.g., you can get a good idea whether calling customers are happy by counting the number of times they're transferred, internally). WHERE THE DATA COMES FROM Raw call data records (uncosted, timed accurately in one-second increments) come from the phone system: direct from a PBX or other premise solution as a serial data-stream, or (in the case of more modern IP- and PC-based PBXs) recorded in logfiles on the PBX's internal hard drive, and accessed various ways: by modem or across the network, via FTP. A CDR data stream can be captured by a "buffer box" (see sidebar) and downloaded at intervals (again, by modem or across the network, via FTP) to a central PC for further processing. Some buffer boxes, e.g., Omnitronix', can also interrogate an IP PBX directly, accessing and storing copies of its internal logfiles for later collection. Multi-location-capable PBXs, themselves, are increasingly capable of performing this 'logging and polling' function - nodes at each site record local CDR data; this is then collected at a central point and made available for call accounting and other telemanagement functions. In some cases (see below) call accounting and telemanagement are presented "in-skin," as part of the PBX's basic suite of management software; or are available from the PBX maker as readily-integrated options. CDR data is also available from Centrex, wireless, "hosted IP PBX," and application service providers (e.g., conferencing bureaus) in various formats - useful as a primary data source, and/or for comparison against "raw" call records generated by premise equipment. Centrex subscribers have long had the ability to receive CDR data in realtime, via a serial connection to the CO. Data is now also commonly available in the 30-days-deferred form of "bills on CD"; and increasingly, in realtime, via the web or other direct IP connection. Today, call accounting is being asked to coordinate data from multiple sources: PBXs at one or more sites (perhaps one or more brands), wireless accounts, calling cards, etc. - combining both "raw" CDR and "cooked" billing records. It's becoming a vital tool for consolidation, as mergers, acquisitions, and right-sizing create ever more heterogeous networks, and place more and more data-sources under IT and telecom management's purview. WHERE THE DATA GOES The call accounting industry used to split pretty neatly into two camps: providers of premise-based PC software (you buy the software, do your own data-collection, conversion, archiving, and generate and distribute your own reports), and "service bureau" schemes, which installed data-capture buffers next to your PBXs, collected CDR records from those and other sources (e.g., carrier "bill on disk" CDs), generated reports, and performed various analytic and "watchdog" functions - from monitoring for toll fraud to notifying you about hardware or service troubles. Most service-bureau schemes charged by the call. The approaches were distinguished by footprint, cost, complexity - but most substantially by the fact that premise-based call accounting supported flexible ad-hoc reporting, whereas getting a service bureau to generate a custom report entailed a whole bureaucratic process, with added costs. Premise-based call accounting thus became favored by companies using call accounting to do clever and interesting things, like use it to tot up phone charges associated with particular jobs or projects, or for specialized workflow analysis. As Internet technology came into play in the late 90s, the big providers started flexing their paradigms. The service-bureau folks harnessed the web to make call data available to customers in realtime for ad-hoc searches and reporting. The premise-based software people rewrote their products for centralized hosting and data-archiving, web-based management, and web- and email-based report distribution. Nowadays, most high-end players offer call accounting three ways: software license (the "do-it-yourself" approach); hosted, client-managed (centralized data collection and archiving, but managed by you - often via the web); to completely outsourced (with optional, ad-hoc reporting via the web). In all cases, ad-hoc reporting can be done far more easily and cost-effectively than before, encouraging imaginative use. Today's call accounting is easier to configure, too. In the past, programming a call accounting system to accurately compute telco charges in advance of billing involved reviewing tarrifs and contracts, and developing a complex table of algorithms that interoperated with V&H (vertical and horizontal coordinate) and other data tables. Today, it's typically more a matter of pointing and clicking your carrier plan, and specifying any special contracted discounts. Carrier plans themselves, of course, now tend to be simpler. And call accounting systems now refer to third-party data suppliers like CCMI (www.ccmi.com) for up-to-date info on carrier plans. Access to carrier plan information also lets the call accounting system (or service) highlight opportunities for consolidation and discounting. Automated analysis of carrier plan policy can have immediate practical benefits, too - saving on late-payment charges, and preventing disconnects. Information Strategy Group's John Cross, director of client services, says that retail chain store clients are particularly vulnerable here, when store managers can forget to pay local bills. ADDING MORE VALUE Faced with price wars, the software vendors in this space have had to add more value. "We've tried to make it more useful not just to telecom managers, but to upper managers, in sales, purchasing, legal, HR - all departments with heavy phone activity, but with different needs," says David Schmidt, CEO of SAI (El Dorado Hills, CA - 800-775-0025, www.sierragold.com), which makes the Sierra Gold call accounting system. The "gold" these managers are panning for isn't primarily in toll misuse, he points out; it's in time misuse. Companies are really less concerned about toll abuse nowadays than they are with human resources, agrees Bob Matthews, president of Matsch Systems (Grand Rapids, MI - 800-776-2367, www.matsch.com). So call detail summed up by extension may serve as a good gauge of employee productivity, or lack thereof. Embedded links to reverse-directory lookup makes it easy to see if frequently called numbers are for business or personal use. Even the most basic, single-site call accounting package can uncover money-saving intelligence if one knows how to interpret the data. Is one trunk experiencing too many calls under one minute? Maybe the line is full of static; maybe a new line card is needed or the carrier is at fault. Is one extension running calls over three hours a day? Maybe there's a rogue modem attached there, spending the day online and exposing the LAN to hackers. This, and other "security" features - the simplest being the ability to identify suspicious calling patterns, or let you search the database for calls to or from a specific number - are getting more attention, these days. Small contact centers, too, are using call accounting in various ways, to track the impact of campaigns (by reporting on DNIS numbers published in advertisements), or see average talk times per extension - a help in judging agent productivity and center call-handling capacity. ENGINEERING CONVERGENCE Call accounting can show you where a VoIP, distributed PBX architecture might pay for itself. Michael Crory, president of system integrator Celtic Communications, (Pompano Beach, FL - 954-968-4028, www.CelticCommunications.com) says that a good look at calling patterns will reveal at least three levels of cost-trimming opportunity. At the first level, he tallies up the LD costs of a client's headquarters and disparate satellite offices. He then compares that with the cost of one dedicated T1 at home base and dedicated data links - in his practice, often frame relay - that hub to the core from each satellite. Often the economy of that larger scale drives down LD agreements to two and a half cents a minute or less. Second, it eliminates the intra-office LD expense. Next, "we look at PSTN local access at each location, and where we can consolidate to a centrally located or a local PRI circuit. We can generate station-level caller ID at each switch, so that in-house callers can show their own identities, while hopping off the converged network and exploiting the local presence of a sister branch to further save on LD. "In some cases, we can shave 40% off the cost of LD, right off the bat," says Crory. Celtic Communications uses Call Analyst, from Trivium Systems (Hillsboro, OR - 877-439-9338, www.triviumsys.com), to analyze his client's call data for these potential economies. Most important, the graphs it can draw are what it takes to convince CFOs of tangible, convergent-upgrade ROI. "We populate part of the data base with pricing relevant to the area codes they dial. We can use that to give us a dollar figure for that volume of traffic. It's a very useful tool for us and the client. So many people tasked with managing communications networks don't necessarily know the facts. They have some hint of the traffic levels in the organization, but this can generate not only a detailed report, but more importantly, a graphical trend report, which can make a better impact on upper management." For example: "We also use the software to look at port and circuit contention. When I see my circuit graph start to go flat on a T-1, that's where inbound calls are hunting for one of the 24 T-1 channels from first to last, and outbound calls are hunting from last to first, and they're bumping into each other in the middle, with no trunks available. If there's no contention, there's a dip in the middle of the graph, representing the middle channels where trunks are free. If it goes flat, then we know we're in trouble. These are the kinds of things that catch management's attention much more effectively than me sitting down and trying to explain to them that callers may get a busy signal." KEY FEATURES These are common to many of the packages detailed in this article. Ask each vendor for specifics. Does the company help you set up databases of employees and circuits, lines, phones and existing contracts? If not, how complex is this process? If the system verifies bills against tariffs or recommends plan-jumps for better rates, how and how often are tariffs updated? Most packages are browser-based, and come with configurable hierarchies of access privileges. Most let administrators make changes to extension assignments for new hires and fires, and perform ad hoc reports. Most all export filtered data to spreadsheets, pdfs, HTML, text and reporting programs; some imbed some chart and graphics abilities. All packages produce ad-hoc and scheduled reports by dept, extension, charge codes, sites, persons, times of day, types of call. Some integrate with company general ledger and accounts payable to prepare payment checks. Some take imports from LDAP or HR directories to keep extensions and employee locations current. With a bit more effort, this creates an E-911 database as a (usually add-on) byproduct. Some systems automatically forward this to local public safety response centers in fulfillment of governmental regulations. Some services not only recommend plan changes, they execute the change after client's approval and confirm the change was made. Some reconcile bills against CPE polled data, and resolve disputes on behalf of clients. While some systems take batched CDRs from buffer boxes at one or multiple sites, others can also tap PC-based data collectors using FTP over HTTP or pure HTTP-based access. HTTP links can be frequent enough to detect PBX disconnects or interruptions, and alert managers via pager; they also eliminate dial-up costs. CDR-Data CDR-Data (Pasadena, CA - 626-791-9700, www.cdrdata.com) operates mostly as a service, although it will sell its platform to big enterprises on a Unix server. They collect CDRs using the usual WTI Pollcat and Omnitronix buffer boxes, usually polling data once a day. They also FTP call data from a PC (and IP PBXes, especially Cisco Call Manager), and can import billing CDs from carriers. They can also receive files like parts inventories from clients' SAP systems. They deliver itemized monthly reports and allow ad-hoc reporting via web, and let clients manually enter additional charges like calling cards and MACs. In addition to voice calls, they can track pager, wireless, email and web access. In addition to the usual charge-back levels, they have canned reports of most active extensions, trunk usage, calls/hour/day, broken down by different types of service. Their "Night Vision" report turns up after-hours calling; the "Inactive Extension" report saves on new extensions, lines, racks, and expander kits by turning up those available. CDR-Data now does some bill verification and auditing to keep customers happy, but is launching a new division of "telecom temps" to review bills and do MACs. They've helped one customer save by noticing that only 80 out of its 100 extensions had switched over to a new plan; the remaining 20 were being billed at a stratospheric non-plan rate. Kevin Young, president, says that his business appeals a lot to companies just large enough to have 100 extensions and multiple carriers, but too small for its own telecom manager. Also: shared-tenant scenarios. The cost of the service typically runs 60 to 70 cents per station per month. Info Group Info Group (Framingham, MA - 508-628-4500, www.infogrp.com) produces a comprehensive call accounting package, InfoCall, on-site or outsourced (now 25 to 30% of clients and growing). In addition to all forms of voice cost allocation, here's voice and data asset inventory and service order management, directory, invoice reconciliation against multi-site polled data, and shared-tenant markup. There's web-based access to real-time and scheduled reports (it's customizable to match the look and feel of the corporate intranet). What's presented via web can be output to email, text or pdf. Call costing uses vendor rates supplied by them or the customer. InfoCall is at version 4.2, built on Microsoft SQL Server. A new Invoice Management module validates and compares current with previous invoices, and together with the data inventory module, tracks by circuit and identifies duplicate charges and other anomalies. Approved invoices generate a payment voucher. Information Strategies Information Strategies Group (Parsippany, NJ - 973-257-0300, www.infrostrategiesgroup.com) is a very comprehensive telemanagement consultancy with a menu of services ranging from call accounting to multi-service bill verification and payment, audit, carrier contract negotiation, and follow-through to refund recovery, recommending, and executing and confirming carrier plan changes. Their frame-relayed EDI integration with all major carriers makes them one of very few companies who can immediately deliver network details like conferencing, destination/originating city and other data, and give clients more advance time to meet payment due dates. (Other systems check PBX CDRs only against telcos' batched bills on CDs.) EDI also allows them to perform more accurate and timely chargebacks. ISG remits payment on behalf of their clients or transmit the payments to clients' A/P and G/L systems. ISG's is the most user-friendly system we've recently reviewed - in terms of info display, graphical representation, and ease of manipulation. BillIT is their browsable view of aggregated communications costs, normalizing charges from wired, wireless, pager, service order, equipment, and Internet bills. It takes in data for corporations with scores and even hundreds of sites, each with their own switches. ISG typically stores 13 months of data, and translates graphs into trending bar charts and pie charts. Flash demos give on-the-spot tutorials. ISI Management Solutions ISI (Schaumburg, IL - 847-706-5024, www.isimanagementsolutions.com) is another player in the more consultative end of full-service telemanagement. They have the call accounting and ad-hoc reporting pieces. They also review bills for errors and contract compliance, analyze and optimize inventory. They will also help negotiate contracts and recommend best plans for wired and wireless. They do not do invoice reconciliation, although they can partner with those who do. In their search to reduce costs by 15% or more, they find niche areas, like faxing or conferencing, where it's easy to trim vendor margins. Their main call accounting product is called InforSelect, which produces all the expected reports (45 built-in), both ad-hoc and scheduled. To further streamline that data, however, and customize it for particular telecom managers, they've just announced InforAnalyst, which will alert the client to whatever she's been asked to be alerted to - maybe all calls from a specific number? All calls over 30 minutes to Mexico? InforSelect can drill down to employee, consolidating all telecom costs, including calling card, wireless, pager. Also: break out by cost center, data source, call type. Reverse-directory lookup is on the screen. Output reports to html, pdf, or email. Select and Analyst come in in-house, ASP, and outsourcing models, all with the same GUI in different color schemes. Infortel Wireless (see more below) is provided solely on an outsourced basis, but CDs of wireless bills can also be imported into the Infortel product. Most of their market consolidates 15 sites and more. They can add further layers of analysis and recommendation atop the call accounting packages of Nortel (OTM) and Avaya (Unimax), and import organization hierarchies and extensions off LDAP directories. They have one vertically-tailored version so far - for hospitality - in addition to marked-up chargeback per extension and all other reporting, it analyses telecom costs and revenue per property. Their ad-hoc report generator is a friendly form-based GUI, with built-in toll-fraud and other alarms. Rate tables are updated quarterly. Price overrides can be applied to people, trunks, Operator assistance, and by times of day - to reflect special deals an enterprise may have negotiated with the carrier, or to mark up bills for tenant/hospitality scenarios. ISI's Infortel IP Traffic Assessment is a favorite tool with Cisco system integrators, who use it with prospective clients to find and draw ROI particulars for the Call Manager IP PBX. CDR collection is just part of the assessment process, which also includes customer interviews to better understand the toll-bypass objectives. The resulting report lays out recommended PSTN gateway requirements, WAN and toll-bypass bandwidth requirements under various codec and compression scenarios, and calculated savings. Like Information Strategies' and Traq-Wireless' offerings, ISI's Infortel Wireless compares usage to available, same-carrier plans, and comes up with a strongly recommended or "for consideration" plan-switching recommendation - and an explanation of and confidence score in that recommendation. Just check off those you want to accept and they do the rest, including follow-up to make sure change is made and bills properly adjusted. They track ten data points on each wireless call, like roaming, and they say they're ready for wireless data tracking as well. So far, YTD trending is the only part of Infortel that draws bar charts for you. More graphical output is coming. They're also looking to add web-based inventory, work order, and trouble ticket reporting next year. Metropolis Technology Metropolis Technology' (La Jolla, CA - 858-488-4600, www.metropolis-tech.com) Office Watch is call accounting software that runs on a Windows PC and is geared primarily for single sites. One distinguishing feature; it literally maps international outbound calls to a clickable world map. Configuration wizards guide non-technicians through setup of departments, rates, commports and extensions. A speaking alarm can tell administrators that the PBX has gone offline, or that a 911 call was made from extension 123. Traffic analysis produces bar charts of trunk usage. Profitwatch is Metropolis' hotel version, with markup and property-management system interfaces. MicroCall MicroCall (Atlanta - 770-447-5408, www.microcall.com) sells call accounting and IT accounting software. They point out that with the increased use of IP to poll CDR data from PCs, one Microcall server installed at the enterprise hub can inexpensively accept multiple streams of call data from remote sites - including even home-based workers. One customer, Atlanta based ASFM publishing, did just that, keeping tabs on their home-based sales reps, whose IP phones' call activity was routed through the main headquarters switch. Microcall was able to report the number of cold calls these remote workers made, their most frequently dialed numbers, calls made outside their sales area, hourly call totals, incoming call detail (with caller ID), and automatically email these reports to managers. It comes with rate assignment, for shared-tenant environments, and client/matter numbers for bill-forwarding to clients. Microcall's "drag & drop" feature allows you to easily move Bob Thompson (extension 4213) from one department to another and assign his equipment. Microcall allows you to easily import Directory information, Rates (major carriers' rates are included), Account Code information, Calling Cards, Cellular Phone data, Calls, and more. As a side benefit, you get a real-time employee phone directory. Microcall has also tackled the network issues of bandwidth charge-back and browser-brain-drain. Internet Access Manager monitors at the data router to let you drill down by employee, showing the number of Internet sessions, duration, no of KB downloaded/uploaded, sites visited. See who spends the most time shopping, sharing music on peer-to-peer networks, checking the weather, his stock portfolio - or porn. See who's clogging the LAN with Internet radio. You can allocate costs by duration or bandwidth; you can see what your top ten most-visited sites are. You can even clock IM usage. An "unassigned computer report" tells you which PCs are accessing your network that haven't been assigned. Sniff out Wifi squatters. Pinnacle/Paetec Pinnacle Software (Fairport, NY - 585.340.2811, www.paetec.com, a subsidiary of Paetec Communications) also offers its Communications Management Solution in CPE, ASP and outsourced modes, tracking voice, video, and data charges down to individual desktop level. Also: asset management, and corporate-wide directory services, including E911 support. It outputs formatted G/L transactions to a variety of systems, including PeopleSoft, Oracle Financials, SCT, SAP, and others. A comprehensive customer care module, work order, trouble ticketing, and outside cable management shows this product's emphasis on Operations. But it also includes the usage tracking for voice and data. Cable management tracks all circuits down to the component level (IDF, closet, hub, router, splice tray, manhole, etc.) and to the pair level, to allow users to troubleshoot problems and to effectively manage their cable plant. SAI SAI's (El Dorado Hills, CA - 800-775-0025, www.sierragold.com) Sierra Gold Virtual Telemanagement System (VTS) was one of the first to get on the web. It remains a comprehensive telemanagement solution available on-site or outsourced in two modes: managed (client purchases system, SAI maintains it on its site) and outsourced. In all cases, SAI provides software and tariff updates. Consolidates PBX, calling card, cell phone, pager bills, outputting ad-hoc and built-in reports, to intranet or Internet. They have their own call buffer for the Cisco Call Manger IP PBX, called DataSafe. Their database administration simplifies report selection, printing, and distribution requests. MSS*Group, (www.mssgroup.com), a telecom bill processing and expense management company, recently announced a partnership with SAI to incorporate VTS into a complete package of management tools for all voice and data services. StoneHouse StoneHouse Technology (Plano, TX - 972-543-2100, www.stonehouse.com), in software suite, ASP, and managed service options, spans the range of call accounting and telemanagement services, all the way to invoice verification and reconciliation against inventory and CDRs. They output the reconciled bill to their clients' A/P and general ledger, in Oracle, OneWorld, SAP or other major accounting systems. They update their CCMI rate database monthly. Gayle Wix, VP Client Relations, says their average client has been with them over 10 years, and they still serve some of them from their CPE, mainframe-based MONIES (Management of Network Income, Expense, Services), while presenting billing data via web. One of them manages 60 million CDRs/month; on the data side, banking customers may have over 20,000 locations, counting ATMs. Stonehouse's new modular MONIESWeb system, written in Java, runs off the Weblogic application server, Unix or NT. The system has a particular emphasis on order and asset management. In consultation with clients, Stonehouse sets up a detailed catalog of possible assets, approved vendors, plans, options, features, contracted rates and work orders. They also set up a web-served workflow, to approve and process all requests for new assets and services. Their asset tracking holds both physical and logical circuit configuration; this view of circuit interdependencies prevents someone from disconnecting a service that supports a WAN downstream; if all parts can be disconnected, it sees to it that all parts that have been rendered useless are dropped from the bill as well. "Physical configuration connects an asset to its parent parts; it keeps track of the channels in a T1, the T1s in a T3, the T3s of a DS3 and OC3, and so on. It assigns logical circuits to an order, so you know what customers are impacted if one goes down." Says Wix. MONIESWeb also automatically emails service requests to vendors. While MONIESWeb doesn't draw histograms and pie charts for you, you can import its reports to Excel and draw your own. It's GUI is good, and puts as much information as possible on one screen through the use of tabs. Tabs are of course service-specific, so 14 tabs might come up to fully characterize a Frame T1 order; far fewer for something less complicated. Strategic Data and Telecom Strategic Data and Telecom (Naperville, IL, - 630-355-7331, www.sdtinc.com) makes Apogee call accounting software in Desktop and Enterprise versions. Desktop comes with a royalty-free version of MS SQL Server, supports up to 2 million call records, and includes 5 concurrent network licenses. Apogee Enterprise(r) utilizes the full version of SQL Server and supports an unlimited number of call records and concurrent network users. Here's real-time monitoring and alarming via pager, email. Monitor; 30 canned reports in 20 export formats, including HTML, Crystal, Excel, Word, Lotus. Scheduled reports with automated email delivery; browser-based, or Windows client-based anytime views. Traffic analysis and simulation prescribes trunk requirements. Shared-tenant billing. Apogee's Directory supports up to five organizational levels, shared extensions, floating authorization codes, and line item charges. Telecost Telecost, from Resource Software International (Oshawa, Ontario - 905-576-4575, www.telecost.com) collects CDRS from any commercial hardware buffers (e.g., Omnitronix, DataLink) or their own PC buffer (with Winlink IP and Serial Data Storage Software, they have special versions for Cisco Call Manager, Nortel BCM and 3Com NBX). They claim to work with an unlimited number of sites. Pool all these inputs to compare carriers, calling plans, least-cost routing rules. Analyze actual telephone data or hypothetical calling patterns. Canned reports include: Carrier Comparison, Corporate Summary (Multi-Carrier), Profit Summary (for resale) and Multi-Site Summary Report. RSI also offers Revolution software for SMB, one-site call accounting, running on an on-site PC with SMDR port interface or on an outsourced, web-accessible basis. RSI also sells a hospitality version of its call accounting products. Matsch Systems Matsch Systems (Grand Rapids, MI - 800-776-2367, www.matsch.com) is a long-standing player in call accounting that's recently put its straightforward canned and ad-hoc reporting system into an ASP offering. NET-PHACS does all the extension, department, date, route, call type, and cost center drill-downs, the trunk utilization reports, for one or multiple polling "Matschboxes." Trunk utilization reports use Erlang algorithms to statistically extrapolate blocked incoming calls, and to estimate how many additional trunks or lines would keep blocking percentages within specified limits. It's not fancy - looks like a simple Visual Basic app - but does a nice job of answering telecom managers' commonest queries, and offers extensive and self-evident ad-hoc searches. Reverse-directory lookup is linked in, as is email in a choice of pdf or html or text views. NET-PHACs is geared towards SMBs as small as 50 extensions, and is priced at a very competitive $600 for setup, including polling device. Call accounting for those 50 stations runs $50 per month; 500 phones is $200. NET-PHACS-Plus puts the tool within the hands of all end-users, each seeing only the data that falls within his or her assigned privileges. Traq-Wireless Traq-Wireless (Austin, TX - 866-292-6732, www.traq.com) has carved out its cost-savings niche in the mobile realm; they take as input carrier CDs presented to clients or data from web-based client bills; they output a web-presented report of all mobile usage, including voice, calling card, data, SMS, RAS, and pager. Lots of drill-downs and drill-across. Set the pain threshold at which you want to jump plans; savings of 20 percent? 30 percent? Traq-Wireless' "optimize" feature suggests the better plan within the same carrier (to avoid contract penalties and handset-switching) and lets you switch with one click; their customer service takes care of the actual transfer. James Offerdahl, president, says that an average 15 percent of employees are recommended plan switches per month. Traq-Wireless also asks you to set a "variability hurdle," which determines how much of a spike to allow in usage while still recommending a rate plan switch. Traq-Wireless does not offer an auditing service, except on a limited, case-by-case professional services basis. But it does pick out such billing anomalies as double-charging, and does keep track of 14,000 constantly changing mobile rate plans, scraping carrier screens biweekly to extract the fine print. Their GUI is excellent. They keep 12 months of data viewable. Traq-Wireless' smallest customer might have 500 cell phone accounts; their average is more like 1100, and one of their biggest is Fedex Freight. The service costs about $5 to $7 per cellular line per month, less if bundled with other wireless services. Their online reports can be exported to Excel spreadsheets or to Adobe PDF, they've also inserted the mailto click to immediately email employees the facts and perhaps recommended behavior changes. ("Memo to Charlie: Stop using your cell phone to call our 800 number!")
In-skin Call Accounting Many convergent business phone systems from big to surprisingly small scale now come with basic (or not-so-basic) call accounting software built-in or available as a software option from the manufacturer, often in tandem with other telemanagement functions. We know of Alcatel's OmniVista 4760, a web-based application which runs with the OmniPCX. Call accounting is just one of its functions, which also include QoS monitoring and alarming, LDAP directory, and configuration. According to Lyhn Haller, Avaya Diamond Dealer Unified TelData in San Francisco, Veramark's eCAS system is the one most closely associated with Definity installs. A version of eCAS for Avaya IP Office software has been packaged and priced to suit its small-business customer. Nortel has Optivity Telephony Manager, which comes with Call Tracking, Costing, Trending features and LDAP synchronization. 3COM's NBX has fairly robust call accounting built-in, as well. Toshiba's Strata CS has a Call Center Reporter option that tracks extension and trunk usage. And NEC has AimWorks - a multisite telemanagement and provisioning package for NEAX PBXs (and now Elite key systems, too) with comprehensive call accounting, bill reconciliation and other functions built in.
Omnitronix Buffers IP Logfiles Omnitronix (Seattle, WA - 206-624-4985, www.omnitronix.com), maker of the popular CDR data buffer box, has come out with a counterpart for IP PBXes, the Data-Link DL150 Pollable Remote Access Unit. The DL150 is programmed to log into and communicate in the proprietary protocols of specific IP-based PBX models, so it can query the PBX for CDR data over an IP connection. An optional internal 33.6 modem lets a network manager dial in to collect CDR even if the network goes down. The new buffer box can collect CDR data via traditional RS-232 port as well, so it serves TDM PBXes, too. And it captures SNMP traps and coverts them into text messages, which can be forwarded out over a modem to out-of-band management systems.
Telemanagement Case Study: Vertiflex Products and ISI With network telecom contracts due for renewal and business restructuring plans on the horizon, Vertiflex, a maker of office workstations, was looking to trim costs substantially without draining staff time. An opportunity assessment from ISI, together with defined deliverables and deadlines, convinced Vertiflex to engage them for consulting and outsourced telemanagement services. A four-month Telecom Profit Optimizer project, using data collected from two WTI Pollcat devices attached at two PBX sites, achieved savings of:
A year of ongoing ISI Select Advantage Telemanagement services, which involved CDR collection and processing, monthly and ad-hoc reporting, management and user training, and value-added consultation and support, saved an additional:
WIRELESS TELEMANAGEMENT Wireless telemanagement is included in most accounting packages as another third-party billing input, and some service companies make it their business to keep their clients on the best plan. "Branches often contract separately for wireless. We throw expert resources and looking at the whole enterprise and find 15- 20% reductions," says Charles Ruykhaver, VP sales and marketing, of ISI (Schaumburg, IL - 847-706-5024, www.isimanagementsolutions.com). Traq-Wireless' (Austin, TX - 866-292-6732, www.traq.com) Zero-Use Report, like many others, "picks the lowest-hanging fruit," in VP Clay Rayborn's words, by singling out handsets that have lain in desk drawers for months but still accrue charges. Extensions no longer used, perhaps because of layoffs, will also turn up on such reports, showing opportunities for reassignment. |