[February 12, 2002]

Mercom Upgrades Audiolog Recording Server To Version 3.0

Mercom Systems, Inc. announced version 3.0 of its Audiolog recording server, offering potentially infinite database capacity, VoIP recording, increased redundancy, more file compressions, and hardware integration features to enhance its usefulness in CRM applications.

A PC-based open-architecture system for call recording, cataloging and archiving, Mercom's Audiolog 3.0 recording server is now based on the Microsoft Windows 2000 operating system, for maximum operational reliability as well as enhanced capability with leading-edge enterprises.

"Version 3.0 is the most comprehensive update of the Audiolog Recording Server that we have had since the product was originally introduced," noted Bob Jagendorf, Mercom's director of marketing. "For those in the financial, insurance, telemarketing or public safety fields, Audiolog will be in an ever better position to help manage the most important aspect of CRM -- telephone contact."

With version 3.0, the system's catalog of recorded calls is based on the Microsoft SQL database language. With this upgrade, users interested in storing hundreds of millions of calls on-line can do so without regard to any limitations of Audiolog's cataloging capacity -- that capacity is now effectively infinite. (Previous versions, based on the Microsoft Jet database language, were limited to several million calls.)

This new unlimited capacity also extends to any files on Network Attached Storage (NAS), RAID, SAN, or similar network-accessed storage systems. New options for long-term record support let users search for calls years into the past without the need to utilize insert archived media.

Voice Over IP (VoIP) recording is another enhancement in version 3.0 that will immediately prove valuable to leading-edge users. In cases where, for instance, employees are working from their homes and their calls are being routed to them by the corporate PBX over the Internet in VoIP format, version 3.0 can record those calls just like any other calls that go through the PBX. To avoid the expense of additional hardware, VoIP recording is achieved via software, using "packet sniffing."

Audiolog receives data from a PBX through the PBX's CTI server. In the past, if the CTI server failed, Audiolog was affected. With version 3.0, the Audiolog can receive input from redundant CTI severs, so that the failure of an individual CTI server is not catastrophic, enhancing the maintainability and manageability of large installations.

An example of the many integration features added to version 3.0 is the ability to use the D-channel in digital PBX systems. This channel is used to display status messages on the displays of individual phones, announcing, for instance, OFF-HOOK or DIALING. Using that data (which is more reliable than voice detection) to start and stop recording allows version 3.0 to achieve more consistent performance. The leading digital PBXes are supported.

Version 3.0 can also now record two separate DNs (extension numbers) on an ACD agent's telephone when using a Nortel Meridian PBX. If, for instance, the agent puts the caller on the first number on hold to talk to a caller on the second number, Audiolog 3.0 can record both calls, allowing for more effective management oversight.

Version 3.0 is also now compatible with Davox Ensemble predictive dialing systems, allowing it to automatically record calls in outbound call centers.

Audiolog 3.0 also offers software-based compression, to minimize storage and network bandwidth requirements. Compression is performed after recording but before archiving or uploading, using any of several compression algorithms selected by the user based on trade-offs between file size and recording quality.

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