Call Accounting Solutions: A Technology that Pays for Itself
December 14, 2012
By Tracey E. Schelmetic
TMCnet Contributor
As the IT industry cautiously leaves behind the dismal revenue of the early recession – 2008 to 2011 – it’s predicted to see some cautious renewal soon. What has become clear, however, is that companies still aren’t willing to spend frivolously. Instead, organizations are likely to spend their newly replenished IT budget pennies on technologies that help them save money by becoming more efficient and cutting out the fat where they can.
One of the areas predicted to continue growing is call accounting solutions, and for good reason: telecom bills are taking a larger and larger bite out of company revenue, particularly as employees tote around and use more wireless devices that allow them to not only call, but spend companies’ pennies on data connectivity.
Call accounting systems are telecommunications solutions and applications designed to capture, record and track costs of telephone usage events. (Sometimes they are referred to as “call logging systems.”) Call accounting systems detect outbound and inbound calls, call ring outs, call routings, abandoned calls, and other activities, and track and analyze that information for companies to use in helping increase efficiencies and cut costs.
The technology also helps curb abuses (we know your employees would NEVER use company property to conduct personal business…right?)
Inadequate telephone reporting and employee phone abuse can significantly affect an organization's bottom line, according to ISI Telemanagement Solutions (News - Alert). Using call accounting, monitoring, telecom expense management, and wireless management services, businesses can reduce the unnecessary expenses and cut costs, making call accounting one of those technologies that essentially pays for itself.
Call accounting solutions can significantly increase productivity by implementing reporting and alerts to detect employee misuse, abuse and fraud; tracking employee telephone usage detail; providing telecom traffic analysis; and even offering training to improve the skills of employees who use the phone heavily during the course of their workdays.
This is particularly important on the wireless side to help companies prevent the dreaded “wireless bill shock,” or discovering that a single employee using wireless roaming has racked up thousands of charges in a single month. To try and address it, many companies have been taking draconian steps: a study released earlier this year by TruPhone found that 40 percent of companies are forbidding or curtailing business usage of wireless devices while abroad to help manage costs.
Cutting out international phone calls, however, may be self-defeating if the calls are needed to conduct business. Many call accounting solutions include wireless expense management, which allows companies to reduce wireless expenditures and control wireless usage and costs on an ongoing basis.
So while there may be no more cuts you can make to your IT budget, it is possible to focus your technology dollars on technologies that will actually save you money in the long run. Call accounting solutions should be on the top of that list.
Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO Miami 2013, Jan 29- Feb. 1 in Miami, Florida. Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO (News - Alert). Follow us on Twitter.
Edited by Brooke Neuman