CDR-SMDR (Call Detail Recording)

CDR (or SMDR) is a concept that incorporates software, hardware, and business operations.

CDR processes telephone call information (date, time, calling/called numbers or extensions, duration, etc.) stored within most telephone systems in conjunction with other software and hardware to perform management reporting, cost allocation, and fraud prevention procedures.

The most expensive aspect of employee telephone abuse never shows up on your telephone bill. CDR identifies it, tracks it, and proves it.

Teleconvergence determines your needs and then selects the most cost-effective solution for your purposes.

Among CDR's’s other capabilities and benefits are:

• It detects and compiles usage data from phone systems, users, and sometimes carriers to:
  • Identify calling patterns and call volumes
  • Identify parties making calls, both outgoing and incoming (where possible)
  • Identify parties receiving specific calls or groups of calls
  • Identify calls to porn numbers or undesirable destinations by the calling extension
  • Identify and pattern unauthorized calls to competitors and/or key suppliers
  • Eliminate any need to manually key in long distance carrier project codes
• For time (re)billing of professional services, it captures incoming and outgoing calls, including client or project codes
  • With some phone systems, CDR captures and automatically (re)bills for time spent on internal calls and even voice mail messages.
• CDR allows Teleconvergence to employ traffic engineering to determine the correct number of trunks and/or the correct amount of bandwidth required rather than relying on invalid oversubscription rules of thumb
• CDR helps detect unusual calling patterns that characteristically represent hacked systems, calls to drug traffic-related locations, calls to pay services, etc.
• CDR allows management to document and substantiate cases of telephone abuse and excessive nonproductive work time.

Not all firms have excessive usage costs or suffer from telephone abuse or fraud.  But without the right tools and knowledgeable interpretation, how do you know yours isn't one of them?