articles

Call Accounting: Vital Cost-control Application

By MAE KOWALKE TMCnet Associate Editor for Channels

Call accounting is an important aspect of any telecom cost management system. Today, most call accounting solutions are software-based. Call accounting is used to keep expenses under control by appropriately allocating costs. When used correctly, call accounting not only saves money but increases productivity.

Controlling costs with call accounting involves recording call activity and generating reports based on that data. Fortunately, modern call accounting solutions automate much of this process. Without automation, call accounting could be an unrealistic burden on companies.

A variety of vertical industries use call accounting solutions. Professional firms, for example, use call accounting to manage account codes and bill clients. Call accounting may be used indirectly by hospitals, hotels and other hospitality/service companies to resell phone calls to clients.

Other uses for call accounting include traffic analysis, cost allocation, invoice reconciliation, cost comparisons, and monitoring misuse/abuse of communications assets. These and other functions for call accounting are made possible by a storage buffer that collects call data or call detail records (CDR), attaching cost and location information to each call. Some of the common meta-data collected by a call accounting solution for each call are calling party, destination party, authorization/account code, date, time and duration.

Call accounting is, at the core, about costs and controlling them. Using a call accounting solution, a company can take control of its voice and data network costs. Call Accounting software makes it possible to allocate 100 percent of communications expenses. This means that one, central call accounting solution is used to process all call detail.

Corporations are also using call accounting to get control over communications asset misuse and abuse. With call accounting in place, a new layer of personal accountability is introduced by providing awareness of call patterns and call data, helping the company avoid unnecessary expenses.

Allocating calling costs among departments and divisions using call accounting not only saves money, it also increases efficiency. Functions like traffic reporting, exception reporting, and real-time toll fraud tracking make call accounting a real value.

Any company looking to institute a sound telecom expense management strategy (TEM) should consider call accounting a vital application integral to TEM. Call accounting is a powerful, highly automated technology that can makes companies more competitive now and in the future.

-----

Mae Kowalke previously wrote for Cleveland Magazine in Ohio and The Burlington Free Press in Vermont. To see more of her articles, please visit Mae Kowalke's columnist page.