subject: What You Wished You Understood About The Emerging Trends In Call Accounting [print this page] Call Accounting as an industry can be split into two broad categories of business, Software Services to retrieve call record data and produce reports, and gurus who use the information created by the Services to actively manage a position.
Call Accounting suppliers are again segmented into 2 camps, International suppliers and Local players. Local suppliers, are those who's operational area is restricted to within their home country, they tend to offer lower cost services, but lacking the financial backing of their internationally based rivals are at a definite disadvantage. As a result most local companies sell their services only through local small firms.
Firms acquire business either through resellers like PBX companies and other industry consultants or by forming relationships directly with end users, but there aren't very many international or local firms who choose the later route, preferring to leave their intermediaries with the responsibility of servicing the end user. There are some examples of local players surviving and thriving by direct marketing, however this is not the norm. Players frequently have long running agreements with their marketing partners, and as such can sometimes be rigid for the sake of standardization.
Call Accounting is a specialized industry. More often than not PBX firms acknowledge that, while they are experts in their own sphere, they are not experts in call accounting. To meet this realization there is a developing trend for PBX firms, large and small, to outsource Call Accounting functions to those with appropriate resources, or for end users to work directly with a specialist company.
With telecommunications environments becoming increasingly complex a new type of specialist is developing. These are specialists who have broad skills in the technology and use top of the range software to enable their professional services.
There are three main variations of solution:
Stand alone program, handed to you on a DVD for upload into a PC.
Bureau services, you enter into a contract with a company who delivers complete reports, an end to end service.
Web hosted applications, a new offering that marries the best features of bureau services and stand alone products.
However, most call accounting professionals are now migrating to Internet hosted Call Accounting services because of their ultra low cost, high availability and full feature list. These applications give an end user access to call record data reports from any location and provide a high degree of service at a low cost. They also empower a consultant to review a client's reports without actually attending the site. This unlocks huge efficiencies previously unattainable, having the effect of minimizing the consultants charges, making their professional services more enticing and accessible to a larger audience.
