Commsoft RMS - real world applications from a real world business

At Commsoft RMS, we develop market leading management information software to enable analysis of telephone system usage, staff productivity and communications costs in a business.

Our products are all designed and produced by our in house development team and we offer worldwide product support from our offices in the UK, USA and Australia. Commsoft RMS products are available from regional distributors in Europe, in the Middle and Far East and the Americas.

Commsoft RMS have been developing software for over fifteen years. Our first product was innovative call management software that went on to sell globally. Since then, we have grown our portfolio to include call recording solutions and other communications management software products and billing platforms. Our products are re branded by leading manufacturers including Panasonic.

Always innovative, Commsoft RMS were the first in the UK channel to integrate call management and call recording into one package, as far back as 2004. We realised that it can be hard for customers to find a particularly call on a trunk side call recording system: which trunk did the call come in on for example? We took the initiative and supplied free call management reporting with every call recording solution. This means that customers can run a telephony report and play back the associated recording from the speaker icon in the report. We regularly replace other call recording solutions, where customers have spent days trying to find calls due to poor search features. The low end voice recording products frustrate customers, who have to wade through piles of archive DVDs: we deliver proper archiving and offer very high levels of storage to our clients.

We have added an innovative new call recording product to our portfolio for 2009 – CommsOffice Voice, a recording and reporting solution with a keen price tag for the SME user but as still fully featured as call recorders that are double the price and with a winning interface. To provide best value to customers, all of our voice recording solutions have an ‘all in’ price which includes a high spec server PC, all required hardware and unlimited client licences for search and playback at no extra cost. We win business because other suppliers start with a basic quote but then items like agent grading and scoring are extras, call management reporting would always be an extra, a PC server is extra, more than five client licences is extra and so on. Suddenly, the rival basic quote does not look that cheap.
We also add value in that our entire range is modular: purchase CommsOffice reporting and add our new PA Operator Console or add CTI Screen Pop as a module – all applications in our range work from one database and customers really appreciate that they only have to learn how to use one interface, common to all of the products that we supply. This saves on training time. The interface is MS Outlook™ in style, which makes our software familiar and easy to use – it is rare to visit a customer site and meet someone unfamiliar with Microsoft™ applications so this is a big selling point for Commsoft RMS resellers. We are effectively a ‘one stop shop’ for communications management software solutions – one supplier, one invoice. Our products are available from all of the major distributors, so resellers can purchase the telephone system and the suite of applications for their customer from one place, on their terms.

All kinds of departments in a business benefit from implementation of Commsoft RMS products: from the receptionist who loves the new Personal Assistant Operator Console software which provides single and multi-site operator call handling from any networked PC. Our Operator Console provides an alternative to traditional PBX consoles. Our feature-rich screen based display increases operator productivity, visibility and call-handling capabilities. The Commsoft RMS Operator Console is scalable with the ability to monitor calls and extensions on either single or multiple sites. This software allows operators and users to efficiently manage calls rather than simply answer them. Importantly, we offer ‘Presence’ so that the operator can see and monitor the visual status of extensions including the telephone system ‘Absent Message” status. The Operator Console runs with or without CommsOffice, so once installed, additional functionality can be purchased and is enabled online by application of a licence upgrade.

Another key department to benefit from the implementation of a Commsoft RMS applications is the Customer Service department. In challenging times, customer retention is of vital importance. Your customer’s expect the best service and what better demonstration, than having a customer service agent greet you personally and recall notes or details of your last conversation? The new Personal Assistant CTI screen pop module from Commsoft RMS delivers that functionality.  Our PA CTI application works with all CommsOffice products: the CTI client provides basic call control; dial, answer, transfer plus Screen Pop, ACD in/out of group and wrap-up, MS Outlook™ & MS Office™ integration and custom database or CRM software integration is available upon request.

The entire business benefits from CommsOffice reporting: managers can examine staff productivity, call volumes, abandoned calls which equate to lost business, outbound call activity versus targets and of course, we were innovators in the provision of true live call statistics and we bought wallboards and agent features into the small to medium contact centre for a fraction of the cost of traditional wallboard technology, which was prohibitively expensive for the SME in the past.

The ultimate product for any business to implement however is call recording. What better way to see who said what, when and how? A relevant question to ask any customer service manager is ‘How much do you have to give away in goods each month to keep customers happy?’. Any business that takes orders over the phone is subject to disputes over orders and unless they have call recording in place, they have to give away goods for the sake of ‘good customer service’ whilst taking the hit which few retail business can afford in the present climate. Other key return on investment arguments for call recording include compliance with industry regulations, for example meeting the UK FSA’s ‘Treating Customers Fairly’ targets by March 2009 or a recent example for one customer: a three site client in the medical sector who stands to receive a £70,000 fine if they cannot produce all parts of all call recordings made to their patient help lines, including the recording of any internal transfers to nursing advisors.

It is always good practice to record all calls into and out of a business, for customer service, training purposes, dispute resolution or simply to protect the business and staff from abuse but what if the MD does not wish his or her calls to be recorded? We have the technology to exclude an extension from being recorded, even on a trunk side solution which has won us many sales at Commsoft RMS as competitors cannot provide this feature. Another important Commsoft RMS differentiator is the fact that our CommsOffice software reports through Auto Attendant where competitor’s products do not, many inferior products merely show that a call was handled by the Auto Attendant but they cannot show where a call went after the AA picked up and the details thereafter – which are important to customers. Add to that the fact that all of our products, including the entry level software can be run across multiple sites and you have a winning range of solutions that deliver all that your customer requires.

All Commsoft RMS applications are our own, designed, developed and produced in house with UK based support. We are the innovators at Commsoft RMS beacuse we are in touch with customer needs – this is because we have worked in the commercial world for many years: we approach new product development from a purely ‘real word’ perspective. We look to develop applications that we would want to use as managers in business rather than foist products designed by techies for techies onto bemused customers. Our interface can be understood and used by everyone in a business, from the receptionist to an IT Manager or an FD.

Plus, we are clear in our communications: it is no good blinding everyone with science. Our philosophy is ‘keep it real world and simple’ and give customers the management information that they need to run their business. These days, telephone systems are all of a high standard and their feature sets are similar but applications are the deciding factor and the differentiator. You may have a mild preference regarding handsets but as long as the phone system does the job, the actual brand may not be top of your priority list: in most cases, it is the applications that make the telephone system a more useful and productive business tool.

We understand that customers will make their decision based upon the best set of features for the money overall. It should really be, ‘Dear customer, tick the box if you do not want business analysis management information’. We firmly believe that anyone that is offered this kind of functionality and this level of information for business analysis would take it. After all, salaries and staff costs are usually the biggest cost in any business followed by communication costs. With Commsoft RMS products, you can analyze both of these costs and make intelligent decisions about your best performing staff, address training needs of those that are not performing as strongly and you can ensure that your communication spends are kept under control.