Easing the Transition to VoIP telephony systems with Proteus VoIP QMS

VoIP solutions can give businesses significant advantages over traditional voice technologies, but maintaining the performance and availability of VoIP applications can be daunting for voice managers because of their complexity and the critical role they play. Monitoring VoIP networks is particularly vital as even the slightest changes in performance can have a dramatic impact on the quality of service end users experience. When caused by network problems, lost or dropped packets can result in highly noticeable performance issues, or jitter with VoIP, and will affect all other network applications to a degree.

It is important to monitor IP telephony networks as it is impossible to determine in advance when problems will occur. Proteus VoIP QMS is a call accounting solution that is available for Cisco Call Management and designed for organizations demanding a better performance from their VoIP network. It is differentiated by its ability to reliably monitor large volumes of VoIP traffic across many sites helping managers to effectively understand the traffic characteristics of their networks so that high quality service levels are ensured.

Proteus VoIP QMS is a call management system that collects and reports on the call records produced by VoIP systems. These records contain information such as call origination, destination, duration and termination status. Usefully it can also display user ID (extension mobility), IP address and MAC address information for users and devices on VoIP networks. Most VoIP systems also provide information about the quality of the calls they process, including metrics such as jitter and latency, as well as the number of packets that were sent, received and lost.

Designed to allow customers to review the call quality on IPT systems, Proteus will report on the QoS data (such as jitter, latency and packet loss) experienced by users. With this information customers can begin troubleshooting and isolating problems.For more information about Proteus VoIP QMS or our integration with Cisco Call Manager, please email us at moreinfo@ctigroup.com.

Provisioning Hosted VoIP Call Recording with Intelligent Routing

While we have had outstanding success integrating SmartRecord IP with our platform partners’ softswitch, we have found a market demand from many service providers that do not want to make the long term commitment inherent in a perpetual license agreement. Therefore, with our SmartRecord Online we came up with a way to provision our VoIP call recording platform to service providers on a white-labeled hosted basis, only requiring customers to pay for what they use, no more.

In our search for the best way to offer white labeled, hosted call recording in the growing VoIP environment, we have found two optimal choices, Intelligent Routing and Forward Registration recording. Here, we would like to discuss the details of Intelligent Routing for switch-based providers.

With Intelligent Routing the service provider sends all SIP messages and RTP traffic to SmartRecord Online for each recorded seat. We hairpin the traffic back to the service provider’s gateway to complete the call for an outbound leg or backwards for an inbound call. Intelligent Routing gives the service provider ultimate control over which numbers they send to the SmartRecord Online recording platform.

With Intelligent Routing service providers can self-provision our hosted VoIP call recording. Once CTI Group sets up the routes, we are done. Via administrative access, the service provider can create their own sub-tenants, add and remove numbers, and make routing changes to their own network.

SmartRecord Online also offers a transition strategy. CTI Group’s SmartRecord IP product is tightly integrated at the switch level. If the service provider decides over time that they need that tight integration, CTI Group has a transitional strategy in place to make that transition seamless.

For more information, please email us at moreinfo@ctigroup.com.

Contact Centers turn to VoIP Call Recording to Support Home-Based Workforce

Due to quality issues, many contact centers are bringing their workforce back to the US. This means they have to be creative to keep the costs down. So, many contact centers are turning to home-based, geographically distributed workforces to support all time zones while keeping overhead down.

Contact centers implementing geographically distributed branches and home-based agents are finding the traditional premise-based PBX far too limiting. SmartRecord IP is a cost-effective VoIP call recording solution that requires no equipment to manage or support on premise, and that requires significantly less up front capital investment to implement than traditional premise-based solutions.

With the VoIP call recorder moved into the network, these innovators no longer have to deal with the geographic restrictions created by hardware located on-sight. Recording "in the cloud" provides them with the flexibility they need to place their agents wherever the business needs them to be. CTI Group's SmartRecord IP, can easily integrate with a virtual PBX to provide real time, blanket and selective call recording for all agents regardless of their geographic location, providing superior quality call monitoring support for all branch and home locations.

CTI Group's VoIP call recording solution delivers an essential tool in monitoring customer interactions, a key factor in taking customer care to its highest level. As a web-based solution, retrieval of recorded calls is achieved anywhere internet access exists and is presented through a user-friendly online interface that simply requires a "point and click."

For more information on CTI Group’s SmartRecord IP, please email us at moreinfo@ctigroup.com.

CTI Group Now Offering Hosted Pay-Per-Use Call Recording

CTI Group’s hosted call recording is offered on a pay-per-use basis. The pay-per-use service is designed to help both end user and service provider customers slowly acclimate to the benefits of call recording without the burden of a high initial capital investment. CTI Group can easily provision call recording service for either a traditional phone system or soft switch. Once provisioned, the call recording is billed per minute of use. The customer buys a block of minutes and all of their usage is covered until they go over those minutes. CTI Group will then bill for additional minutes on a monthly basis. CTI Group’s SmartRecord Online is affordable for customers and gives them a definite strategic advantage.

By providing a hosted call recording service option to service providers, you are now able to offer call recording services that help you build a customer base without any upfront investment.
We have a “build and move” strategy for service providers. First, “build” your customer base and then “move” them to your own SmartRecord IP platform when you can justify the investment.

The service offers a transitional strategy to service providers and enterprise customers reluctant or unable to invest in call recording technology. Pay-per-use allows service providers to see immediate increases in ARPU while requiring no commitments or porting of numbers on the part of the service provider. With the recent downturn in the economy, many companies are searching for immediate revenue opportunities that require no upfront capital investment. With CTI Group’s new pay-per-use call recording, service providers can offer a complete VoIP package easily and cost effectively.

CTI Group’s hosted call recording service helps organizations drive efficiency, automation and distributed workforce management. Not only affordable, the service works with your existing phone service, no additional equipment or porting of numbers is needed. Our service is a securely hosted software-based recording system. The platform and architecture of our hosted call recording solution allows for flexibility in scaling and security.

For more information about CTI Group’s VoIP Call Recording solutions or about SmartRecord Online specifically, please contact us at moreinfo@ctigroup.com.

Proteus Trader Returns $660,000 in less than 6 months

With today’s volatile stock market, no one understands more than stock brokers that now is the time to find as many cost saving opportunities as possible. A larger trader organization contacted CTI Group with a need to centralize communications operations, allocations, and payment processing. They wanted to simultaneously collect data from dealerboards and PABX, centralize data from multiple geographic locations, and easily report, analyze, and allocate expenses.

Proteus Trader is a BT call management system that gives financial institutions total visibility of their phone costs and usage. It is the only solution available that integrates dealer board data and fixed line, mobile, Internet, email and voice recording usage under a single organizational database and a secure web-browser user interface. Proteus Trader can collect data from either a single site, or a global network of hundreds of remote branches.

The customer was able to realize many benefits from integrating Proteus Trader as their call accounting solution. They were able to realize immediate cost savings of $300,000 from eliminating under-used private wires. They found $60,000 in cost savings from PABX leakage (assumed at 1%). They realized $180,000 in annual cost savings from carrier bill verification. And, finally, they accomplished $120,000 in annual cost savings from minimized abuse of telecom systems. All of these cost savings were realized within their first six months of implementing Proteus Trader.

As a trader or trader organization, could you use a $660,000 cost savings?
For more information about Proteus Trader or any of CTI Group’s call management systems, email us at moreinfo@ctigroup.com.

Cut Costs with Proven Call Management Solution

In this time of economic uncertainty, one thing is certain – cutting costs is the only way to stay afloat. Since increasing revenue is an unlikely goal in this penny-pinching economy, most companies are focusing in on ways to cut their costs or “trim the fat.” Call management solutions are one sure way to identify unnecessary costs and opportunities for streamlining telecommunications systems and cracking down on policy enforcement.

As an example of how call accounting solutions can help companies increase efficiencies and lower costs, we have a specific customer testimonial. Our customer, a second party facilitator for insurance companies, needed to find a way to manage and properly allocate the costs for their long distance service. They could no longer expend the resources necessary to manually track all in and outbound calls for a large multi-national company.

This customer was able to use Proteus to bill back both internally and externally for long distance service and maintenance. With 16,000 employees in 300 offices worldwide, they needed to not only track the calls, but to easily summarize the usage for proper allocation. The regularly scheduled reports offered by Proteus provided our customer with an efficient way to summarize the usage associated with each affiliate and therefore allocate their expenses.

The most exciting surprise our customer experienced by integrating Proteus was in actual, realized cost savings. In 1991, when they first began using Proteus, they were able to realign and regroup their long distance lines and cut 2 to 3 T1s in the process. From this, they incurred an annual savings of $12,000 per location by eliminating unneeded bandwidth. Given that cost savings are hard to come by these days, this was quite a welcomed surprise.

As an industry-proven call accounting solution, Proteus provides opportunities to improve efficiencies as well as cut costs. And in this volatile economy, most companies can use all the help they can get.

CTI Group Offers VoIP Call Accounting Solution that Integrates Directly with Your Web Portal

If your company already uses a branded web portal for day to day activities, how can you easily and seamlessly integrate a VoIP call accounting system into your existing web portal?

CTI Group’s VoIP call accounting solution, emPulse, can be branded to represent the look and feel of your corporate Web portal. emPulse can incorporate your specific logo’s, fonts, colors, etc. to present a seamless integration to your Web portal. emPulse can also integrate with your current Web portal security mechanism to offer SSO (Single Sign-On). This means that users that are authenticated with your existing Web portal can be granted access to emPulse without having to re-authenticate. emPulse allows you to integrate a VoIP call accounting system into your existing web portal easily and seamlessly.

emPulse is available both with and without ACD reporting.

For more information about CTI Group’s Call Management System options or about emPulse specifically, please contact us at moreinfo@ctigroup.com

Go Green with Electronic Billing

As global climate change becomes one of the leading topics of our national government and the world, it is up to each company to decide where they will stand on this issue. Will they join the masses in supporting greener ways of living and conducting business or will they continue as they always have? This is a legitimate question.

I contend that it is imperative, as baby boomers grow older and the younger generations start to make more of an impact on the global economy, that companies stay in tuned to what drives the younger generations. Baby boomers are starting to retire and their positions and decisions are being passed down to the younger generations, bringing standard practices into question by a new, more technologically savvy generation of business people and consumers.

At this point, customers or corporate decision makers under the age of 35 are already innately accustomed to handling most of their business and personal affairs online. By adding electronic bill presentment, many service providers and carriers have found that they are attracting this younger generation of consumers and business people. CTI Group has developed an electronic bill payment solution that includes a variety of bill presentment and payment options. Get your bill online or delivered to your email account; pay your bill online through a secure user interface; and track trending through reports and dashboards.

For more information, please visit www.ctigroup.com or contact us at moreinfo@ctigroup.com.