Call Accounting solutions have been available for a long time - well over 30 years now. Over the years these solutions have been marketed under a variety of other names, like call tracking, expense / productivity management, call analytics, etc..., but mostly have provided some level of "Call Accounting" functionality, regardless of the name.
Taking a look around the marketplace today, I see a lot of old, outdated technology still being marketed as leading-edge stuff. Some of it just doesn't make sense: how can a product be current when it's "new" features that have been industry-standard for 10+ years? Why do the reports look like they were designed in the 80's?
I see companies advertising some product / feature releases that just make me scratch my head, like:
- Now web-based (it hasn't been for the last 10 years!?)
- Multi-PBX / location reporting (the largest group of users are multi-PBX!)
- 911 Alerting
- Now available as: hosted / cloud / virtual (take your pick)
If these are the new features in a solution you are looking at, it is simply "old technology".
You won't find the most important differences on the company's website either - like third party software and licensing dependencies which add significant cost to the solution, missing support for current data collection methods, excessive PC/server hardware requirements, etc. Unfortunately, many times you aren't aware of these limitations until you're already committed, and then locked into using outdated methods or purchasing additional licenses.
It's not all bad though! Feel free to reach out to us if you have questions about or are just looking for some more clarity on Call Accounting and which solutions best fit your needs. We love Call Accounting! The uses for are seemingly endless; over 30 years in, and we're still discovering new problems we can help customers solve with Call Accounting. It's truly a universal solution, with a compelling use case for nearly any business with telephones.
