How to choose the right call accounting software for your corporate environment

Business Week Magazine Online recently addressed how to choose the best call accounting software for your business. "A number of call-tracking software packages (some are available online) are now on the market or you can use a standard database program and have someone customize it to suit your business needs. Customizing is a good solution for those who have very simple or very complex needs. A standard product may have more features than you want to pay for (or master), in which case adapting a basic database program may be sufficient," the article suggests.

Also recommended - get references. "Be sure to ask other business owners you trust for references before you engage anyone," the article cites. "Creating your own system can run little as $1,000 -- or more than $10,000, depending on how many staffers use the system, the call volume, and analytical features."

The Business Week article mentions that commercial software packages are typically priced "per staff seat." Costs can also rise with the number of users and features.

Karen Ritz, VP of business development for MTS-TelSoft, suggests choosing the right call accounting software for a corporate environment may involve looking at why a business is considering a call accounting package.

"There are many reasons to implement a quality call accounting system," she says. "Many businesses think of a call accounting system when their interest is for tracking telecom expenses, and that is perhaps the most popular reason for choosing a call accounting software, however many executives many not realize that a quality call accounting package should include features to track and control telephone abuse and misuse, allocate calling costs among departments and divisions, bill clients and projects for telephone charges incurred, monitor shared tenant and resale of long distance and local phone calls, motivate sales forces, optimize networks and vendors, diagnose phone system bugs, verify long distance bills, monitor effectiveness of marketing campaigns, keep tabs on seasonal trends in inbound and outbound calling, and trace calls."

A good call accounting system should also be compatible with legacy PBX systems that can be implemented immediately, and that will easily migrate to future VoIP upgrades at a later date. Additionally, it is convenient if it also offers a browser-based monitoring feature for flexibility and be easy to use., Karen Ritz, VP Business Development for TelSoft Solutions, writes on the business benefits of call accounting and call detail record technology. More information can be found at http://www.telsoft-solutions.com. text link to render and work properly.