Call Accounting Resellers Suffer From Enormous Challenges

The business of servicing call accounting products is generally recognized as difficult and time intensive, as a result a large proportion of resellers are either suffering from avoidable service problems or are ignoring them altogether and their reputation is suffering. But with some quite straight forward alterations to normal practices it can become very profitable and the irritations can be avoided.

Generally, Call Accounting is a low cost item with high ongoing service costs. This is so because of the environment in which it operates. Good results from traditional stand alone software are dependent on:

a. the PBX working reliably

b. the PC and operating system used by the software is of good quality

c. the security of mains power, (the cleaning staff unplugging the data collection equipment to plug in a vacuum cleaner).

Is the clients Local Area network stable?

e. Call tariff tables, maintaining them to closely mimic the telephone service providers costs.

The customer needs call accounting reports at the end of the month, if for one day of the month just one of the items listed is inoperable or inaccurate then the reports will be incorrect. Incorrect reports lead to investigations to find the root cause, these are expensive and the customer does not want to pay. The reseller compromises on the cost of the investigation to avoid having an unhappy customer. For the reseller, an unprofitable encounter.

What is the answer?. To have more control over the operational environment, thereby reducing points of failure and reducing the impact of failures outside of your influence.

To press the point, I ask the reseller; What percentage of your installed base is working effectively right now, today?, then the following question, "when will you find out which installations are faulty?" The reseller's answer is ; "when the customer tells me." - This can't be described as adequate service.

Now consider the issue of updating your call cost tables. Lets surmise you have a customer base of 600 clients, a technician can update four per day, so will take 150 working days to update them all. Clearly this not a practical solution to the problem.

All these problems lead to insurmountable challenges, there has to be a better way to do this.

The answer is a fully managed service, Software as a Service, a sophisticated web application that tells you when a site is not collecting data and allows you to update tariff tables from your desk. You know when there is a problem at a customers premises before the customer has any idea, 80% of the time a phone call asking the customer to check some basics like "Is it plugged in" will fix the problem and avoid difficulties at Report Time.

There is no doubt, resellers are enthusiastic when it comes to improving service levels. An Internet based call accounting service makes this possible and because of the very low cost associated with running the service, the reseller can expect very high profit margins as a bonus.


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Mike Guile was a hugely successful corporate account manager spanning more than 20 years. As the operator of the globes leading call accounting solution offered as a web service, he makes his knowledge available to wider audience of Resellers. He offers all new customers a free service for any size site. Try it and benefit. Meet us
here