| Case Study:
Accounts Recovery Corporation Gains Competitive Advantage From VOIP Call
Recording And Monitoring Technology
By Robert Kapela, Telrex
Accounts Recovery Corporation (ARC) is a fast-growing accounts
receivable management company based in Victoria, British Columbia, with
branch offices in Vancouver, Burnaby, Winnipeg, Burlington, Montreal,
Laval, Moncton and Seattle, Washington. ARC provides retail, commercial
and government customers with a range of accounts receivable management
services, including collections services, customized customer care
programs and call center services.
In the accounts receivable industry, accurate record keeping is paramount,
and ARC has continually sought out technologies to maintain and improve
accuracy as well as improve overall customer service. One choice ARC has
made in support of this objective is to implement Telrex’s CallRex VoIP
call recording and monitoring software to record and monitor telephone
calls at ARC’s headquarters and all of its remote branch locations in
Canada.
Call Recording Has Become Affordable
In implementing the new call recording technology, ARC has taken advantage
of an opportunity made possible by the widespread adoption of IP-based
telephone systems. VoIP-based call recording and monitoring systems are
significantly less expensive to deploy — typically 50 percent less —
than legacy systems, allowing small and medium-sized businesses to benefit
from sophisticated recording features that were previously available only
to large corporations and call centers. In VoIP-based systems, voice
traffic is packetized and travels across the corporate data network,
requiring no additional hardware to record calls; whereas in analog or
digital systems, voice traffic travels over the voice network, requiring
trunk taps or expensive third-party telephony cards to record calls.
The Benefits Of “Packet Sniffing”
CallRex works by monitoring the corporate data switch, actively looking
for voice packets as they travel across the corporate LAN/WAN to and from
ARC’s IP phone system, a 3Com NBX. This “packet sniffing” technology
identifies and extracts only voice packets for recording or monitoring and
does not interfere in any way with the phone system. The benefits of using
packet sniffing technology to record calls became apparent to ARC during
their product evaluation process when they compared a multitude of
products, including a system that uses TAPI/WAV technology to record
calls.
The TAPI/WAV product requires two WAV licenses to record a call and
another to monitor it, therefore generating a license cost that multiplies
for every call recorded and monitored. With VoIP call recording, an
unlimited number of calls can be recorded and monitored with only one
moderate upfront license fee for the IP phone system. In addition to this
reduced licensing cost, VoIP call recording with packet sniffing
technology delivers a number of additional benefits over the
TAPI/WAV-based solution.
Simple Installation Process
To install the new software, ARC’s network administrator, Travis
Davies, worked with Telrex’s technicians remotely. Using Webex, the
Telrex technicians accessed ARC’s computer to install the new software
and to train Davies on how to set up users.
“It was a very simple process from start to finish,” said Davies.
“The installation process was straightforward, requiring only one server
and a couple of data collectors, none of which were proprietary, and all
the software ran on standard computers. It was an intuitive process and
now that we are set up, there is very little management necessary on my
part. Today, we are recording 150 agents
at our multiple locations and we haven’t even begun to use up the
capacity of the server.”
ARC’s Mutlisite Implementation
ARC’s implementation at its main headquarters location in Victoria, BC
is comprised of a 3Com NBX SS3 Call Processor and a 3Com SS3 Chassis,
which are connected to a 3Com 12-port 4900 GB data switch. The 3Com 4900
switch is uplinked to a 3Com 4400 switch. The 4900 switch is connected to
the “observe port” on the 4400 switch, and the call recording
system’s server is connected to the “analysis port” on the 4400
switch. The switch is configured so that every packet going to/from the
observe port (3Com NBX) is copied to the analysis port (CallRex Server).
ARC’s remote sites are connected to the headquarters site via
high-speed data connections. The remote site receives a dial tone either
locally or from headquarters, depending on least-cost routing. At the
remote sites, the NBX is connected to the data switch’s observe port, on
which port mirroring is enabled. The CallRex Data Collector is connected
to the analysis port on the data switch. The switch is configured so that
every packet going to/from the observe port (3Com NBX) is copied to the
analysis port (CallRex Data Collector). The data collector is configured
to record, compress and send calls back — in real-time — to the
CallRex Server, where calls are stored for later retrieval.
Bandwidth Savings
The CallRex VoIP call recording system has efficient compression
techniques that provide ARC with an unexpected benefit. In addition to
being able to store an entire month’s recorded calls (approximately
600,000 calls) on one DVD, it was not necessary for ARC to purchase more
bandwidth to accommodate the higher volume of traffic created when the
call recording system sends recorded calls from remote locations back to
headquarters.
VoIP Call Recording Capabilities
The VoIP call recording system is full-featured. It saves detailed
information about every recorded phone call. Calls can be recorded and
monitored on an ad-hoc basis or via automatic triggers and can be flagged
with additional information. Specific recordings can then be located via
multiple search criteria such as date/time, user name, inbound number,
caller I.D., recording group or flagged name or value. Multiple playback
options allow users to listen to recorded phone calls through the phone or
through computer speakers. Recorded calls can be viewed by day, week,
month or custom date range. Managers can assign monitoring, recording and
playback rights on a per-user basis and can also track calls from multiple
remote locations through one interface.
Verbal Business Transactions Now Secure
ARC uses CallRex to record and monitor the telephone interactions of their
agents and their clients’ customers. Since a majority of business
transactions take place over the phone and ARC acts on behalf of its
clients in transacting business, clients have expressed a strong desire to
have reviewable records of conversations in which business is being
transacted. Now that ARC has recording/monitoring capability, the company
can assure its clients that their customers are being treated well, and
furthermore, can provide documentation of phone conversations between
agents and customers, helping ensure that recorded calls can be retrieved
at a later date in order to recover important information or to arbitrate
disputes that may arise.
Today, more than three-quarters of major U.S. firms record and monitor
workplace communications, and this number is growing as affordable
technologies are becoming available. Businesses are finding that
maintaining records of telephone conversations is just as important as
maintaining records of any workplace interaction in which business is
transacted. Businesses can use call recording and monitoring to improve
customer service, ensure compliance with legal or contractual requirements
and improve productivity.
Telrex is a developer and provider
of workplace recording and monitoring solutions.
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