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CAAB Enterprise - Enterprise Telecom Expense Management

 

CAAB Enterprise is Australasia's leading platform for Telecom Expense Management.

End users demand the use of the IT&T infrastructure to efficiently collaborate in real time through the use of telephone and video calls, high speed wired and wireless Internet access and even provide mobile and remote connectivity through external carrier networks. These demands are commonplace and they are often fulfilled without the consideration of making these users and departments aware and accountable of how much they use of each of these resources.

 

CAAB Enterprise is a Windows application and stores data in a Microsoft SQL Server Database.

 

 

CAAB Enterprise has five core billing modules aimed at resolving these issues:
 

  • The traditional Call Accounting module is where we collect data from the telephone system, process it through our driver to normalise the information, rate the call, perform the appropriate allocations, enforce any quotas and make the resulting charges available for analysis and reporting. CAAB performs this function across large networks with support for multiple telephone system types and complex network designs.
     

  • The Carrier Accounting module allows you to import the electronic bills received from one or more carriers into the system to perform several functions. This includes processing and validating the services and charges that appear on the bill against the negotiated carrier rates across all sites. Reconciling the summary data from the bill against the actual usage from the telephone system and data network. Then of course the automated allocation of the usage and service charges, including mobile and data services, to the various departments and users in both a historical reporting and real time web portal capacity.
     

  • The Internet Accounting module facilitates the collection of TCP/IP data from the external interface that incurs the usage costs, this is typically the Internet gateway. CAAB then processes that data through the same sophisticated billing engine performing the Rating, Allocation, Analysis, Reporting and Quota Management. This not only allows you to allocate the costs of the users’ usage, though importantly make them aware of the traffic conditions and types that are traversing the Internet gateway.
     

  • The Inventory Accounting module tracks the inventory items associated with the telecommunications infrastructure. Including but not limited to switches, routers, handsets, servers, licenses and professional services charges etc.
     

  • The final module is used for generic charges that need to be entered into the system. This can include virtually any item that needs to be billed and presented on the reports. Items such as photocopying, parking, electricity, rent, pay TV etc can be catered for easily.
     

The end user and department heads, related entities and the IT&T department can finally understand what users use, how they use it and what it costs them and the Business.

CAAB Enterprise Billing is a Windows/SQL Server based call accounting and billing application designed to interface with a client’s telephone system, computer network and electronic carrier billing data to enable allocation, analysis and reporting of costs and usage of Fixed Line, Mobile Phone and Data traffic.

 

  • CAAB Enterprise’s scalability allows it to effectively handle “millions of records” per day and hundreds of thousands of inventory items.
     

  • Solutions can be provided either as a Managed Service or as a Self Managed installation in the Enterprise, University and Government sectors.
     

  • The software is designed to collect call data from multiple sites and multiple telephony systems. It supports the latest distributed Telecommunications hardware platforms as well as VOIP networks
     

  • CAAB Enterprise is designed to run on Microsoft SQL. This non-proprietary database means that your directory and call data can be freely shared between any applications you may require, allowing tight integration with LDAP and other Directory, Human Resources and Financial systems.
     

  • TSA Software Solutions incorporate an “Active Firewall” into its Voice and Data collection devices with the capabilities of full content and virus scanning updated automatically on a per minute basis.
     

  • CAAB Enterprise Billing provides complete Traffic/Utilisation Analysis.
     

  • A complete set of standard carrier rate plans is updated on a regular basis to ensure correct cost allocation for all call types
     

  • The inventory data structure enables not only billing for inventory items, but inventory allocation to staff members as well as tracking of inventory items.
     

  • CAAB Enterprise’s Centralised database can be accessed from anywhere on the WAN either via a workstation instance of CAAB installed on a networked PC, or by running the application from a virtual machine. The software license is not limited by the number of instances of CAAB running on the network. Enterprise has been designed to be “band-width friendly” maximizing access speed while minimising network load.
     

  • CAAB Enterprise also has WEB based application modules such as WEB Reporting and WEB directory which enable secure access to the CAAB Database without the need for software being installed on every workstation
     

 

Combined Billing - Voice, Data, Mobile

CAAB Enterprise has the ability to combine billing information for Voice, Data and Mobile Calls into a “per employee” or other organisational perspective. 

 

Combining Extension level billing with the Data Billing Module and the Mobiles Billing Module allows the combination of a user’s voice, data and mobiles bill to present a “true” telecommunications cost, independent of carriers, to key stakeholders within an organisation.

 

Access to our development team means that other utilities charges can be incorporated into the already extensive range of billing, should this be required. Development of additional functionality would be negotiated on an hourly rate or agreed value basis.

 

 

Date effective call and inventory allocation

The directory and inventory data structure includes a complete record of past allocations (business units, charge codes and invoice points) and movements which enables historically correct reporting and retrospective entry of moves and changes for the life of the database.

 

 

Unified Reporting

CAAB Enterprise allows users to access their call charges data via a web browser visual interface, so that staff can have access to call statistics without the need for software installation on each workstation. Enhanced security ensures that each user only has access to sites and business units to which they are entitled.  The web browser also includes a set of reports that be used to export PDF reports for distribution

 

 

Batch Reporting

CAAB Enterprise includes a specialised Batch Reporting engine tailored to the needs of enterprise and government environments. This engine is highly customisable allowing single configuration to generate multiple and complex report outputs. The batching environment includes the capability to automatically generate additional reports in response to changes in configuration data without the need to update report specifications.

 

 

Invoicing

CAAB Enterprise allows the user to create Invoice Points, Charge Codes and multi-level Business Units for inventory allocation across their company structure or other business requirements. This structure then enables the generation of ‘invoicing’ records and reports at any of these ‘allocation points’. These invoices can include Voice, Data and Mobile usage charges with or without a markup along with one-time or recurring equipment or service charges.

 

 

Security

CAAB Enterprise security is based on the Microsoft SQL security model. Multiple user groups can be defined and users are assigned to a group and given a username and password. Alternatively users can be defined using the Microsoft integrated security model.

 Access to the system for individual users and groups can be restricted based on:

  • Functions to perform (including read vs update rights)

  • Business Units accessibility/visibility

  • Site accessibility/visibility

 

 

Data Auditing

CAAB Enterprise maintains an audit history for all changes to configuration data. The audit history includes details of what was changed, when the change was made and who made the change. The audit history for any record can be readily displayed from within the data management application.

 

 

Internet Expense Management

The Internet Expense Management Module allows packet based billing on all data traffic on your internet connection including such categories as email, web browsing and FTP. All other protocols are monitored and can be reported if necessary.

 

The Internet Expense Management Module allows data usage to be monitored and reported at the point at which the enterprise incurs data costs, which is traditionally at the boundary of a LAN or WAN. Data traffic across the boundary interface (or interfaces) is monitored and aggregated on the basis of internal IP address, external IP address or hostname, protocol and port. A separate mapping function can be used to dynamically allocate IP addresses to specific devices or users if required.

 

TSA will review network topology on a case-by-case basis to confirm suitability of this solution.

 

 

Mobile Billing

The Mobiles Billing Module provides the ability to import mobile bills from one or more carriers or bill formats. The mobile bill transactions are allocated to the mobile phone inventory for subsequent analysis, reporting and distribution to organisational and financial structures.

 

Along with cost allocation and reporting, the Mobiles Billing Module can be used to validate that the charges match the current plan for each mobile phone.

 

 

Carrier Invoice Processing

The Carrier Invoice Processing Module provides the ability to import the invoices for fixed line carrier services from one or more carriers or bill formats. The carrier charges are allocated to the carrier service inventory which contains details about each registered service including the type of service, the indial ranges attached to the service and the accounts on which the service is billed.

 

When a carrier invoice is imported, the charges are subject to a number of validation processes including:

  • Confirmation of carrier rental charges and frequencies against the carrier service inventory

  • Validation of carrier call rates via a re-rating engine

  • Checks to ensure that services are not invoiced on more than one account (for the same carrier).

  • Checks for missing or duplicated invoices against an account

 

Charges that fail any of the validation checks are flagged as exceptions. The exceptions can be resolved by updating any incorrect inventory data or the charges and can be followed up as a dispute with the carrier.

 

 

Carrier Reconciliation

The Carrier Reconciliation Module facilitates the comparison of call usage records imported using the Carrier Invoice Processing Module with the customers own call traffic data collected via the CAAB Enterprise Call Accounting functions.

 

Comparisons are performed on the basis of:

  • Call class (Local, National, International, Mobile, Other)

  • call count

  • total call duration

  • total call cost

 

In order to enable the comparisons to be performed, each carrier service is mapped to the corresponding Device/Route/Trunk in the customer telephony system.

 

The Carrier Comparison Module will also facilitate the distribution of actual carrier charges from one or more carriers to individual extensions or users by combining charges from the carrier bill with records from the call accounting and extension inventory systems.

 

 

Operator Directory

CAAB Operator Directory is an additional module that facilitates sub second look up of detailed staff information for Operators and other staff who handle significant volumes of incoming calls through a centralised telephone number. This enables higher quality customer service through improved and faster call handling whilst increasing the productivity of the operator.

 

CAAB Operator Directory interfaces directly with the CAAB staff database, allowing the operator to maintain accurate real time data. The application is fully networked, which caters for multiple operator access. The Directory Screen is fully configurable to suit each operator’s needs. Messages can be taken by the operator and emailed or printed for staff directly from within the software. In the event of Network outage, a cached local database enables business continuity for operators.

 

 

Directory Synchronisation

CAAB Directory Synchronisation is an additional Module that is designed to synchronise directory information between the CAAB database and multiple vendor operator consoles/directories. This ensures a single point of entry for the directory data used in both applications. Synchronisation of the directories can be conducted in “real time” or at desired frequencies.

Customisation for Synchronisation to or from other business databases such as Human Resources and Financial applications can be provided after further consultation.

 

 

Web Directory

CAAB Enterprise allows data retrieval from the Directory database tables across the clients WAN, so that staff can have desk-top access to Web Directory without the need for software installation on each workstation. Enhanced security ensures that each user has read-only access only to the information they are permitted to view.

 

 

Web Based Site Monitoring

TSA Software Solutions can provide a WEB based monitoring page which will let you know at a glance how call collection is going for each of your sites. The easy to read colour coded grid makes it clear when a site has successfully processed, failed to process or processed fewer than the expected average number of calls for each day over a predetermined period. The example below is for 7 days and shows weekends in blue failed days in red and below average number of calls in yellow.

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