With the right info, your IP phone expenses could be cut in half

  

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Is your VoIP phone system a fixed expense?

For most organizations, the answer to this question is a resounding “No!” It’s not a fixed expense. It’s an ever-increasing one!

But that response is not simply based on more or less mobile usage over the month. The costs associated with a phone system or unified communications system can vary greatly. But how can you gain the insights needed to uncover these costs and minimize them?

The answer is a new business intelligence reporting system by @Comm that integrates with ShoreTel. Dubbed CommView, this web-based solution reveals exactly how your company’s voice network is being used, so that you can:

• Increase productivity
• Reduce operating costs
• Generate revenue, in some cases
• Eliminate security threats

A web-based reporting system, CommView is compatible with far more than just ShoreTel IP phone systems. It can provide a single, fully integrated report for all PBXs in service across a network, whether these are legacy systems or IP-PBXs from other major manufacturers such as Avaya, Cisco, Mitel, NEC, Nortel and others. It can support networks with 10 to 100,000 extensions or more.

Once installed, CommView is highly automated. It produces and delivers reports to managers either on-demand or via email on a pre-scheduled basis. Or, if they prefer, managers can go online to generate, schedule or retrieve additional reports. The web interface offers an interactive drill-down, which allows users to pinpoint trends or event details on the fly.

So what does CommView tell you? It can display:

• How the PBX system is being used and how it is performing, regardless of brand or technology
• What the system is costing, by department and individual
• Who is using, who is producing, and who is abusing
• Where you can reduce expenses
• Where you have traffic bottlenecks, and what you can do to unclog them

The details go much deeper, however, and can impact your business in several concrete ways. First, business can expect to pare down their expenses with CommView:

• Companies typically reduce their telecom usage between 10 percent and 40 percent. Since telecommunications expenses are one of the top-three expenses most companies face, this can mean substantial savings.
• CommView helps curb abuse and misuse of the telephone. Employees become aware that they can be held accountable for telephone usage, as well as how they use their time during work hours. Simple reports can uncover expensive calls to directory assistance, dial-a-joke lines and similar numbers
• The tool’s reports provide evidence needed in disputes with carriers, ensuring accurate billing.
• By providing analysis on call traffic, CommView can help optimize your voice network. The solution pinpoints defective and underutilized trunk members and trunk groups. It also isolates overflow problems.

In some cases, CommView can actually increase company revenues, either through reselling telephone usage or recovering phone expenses by billing back services. This can be particularly useful for businesses that include advertising agencies, construction firms, convention centers, hospitals, hotels, law firms, nursing homes, public relations agencies, shared tenants and universities.

Next, CommView can increase security and reduce expenses associated with fraudulent calling activities. The solution enables users to:

• Highlight suspicious calling activity
• Review unrecognizable call data
• Provide near real-time notification of exception calls
• Track after-hours calling activity
• Stop harassment calls

Finally, CommView actually helps companies increase their overall productivity. For some employees, productivity can be measured by how effectively they use the telephone. Once managers are monitoring phone activity, some sales departments see their teams double the number of calls made. In support departments, managers can identify which representatives handle the most trouble calls. Plus, they can uncover which representatives may need additional training. Across the entire company, by curbing internal misuse of the telephone, employees will devote more time to their jobs.

Don’t let your telecom system remain a black hole, sucking away profits each and every month. Get the insights you need to dramatically change your telephone expenses – with a few simple reports.

Contact our expert Account Executives for a demonstration of how the reporting system works.