So where I work we have a Vodavi phone system. It's somewhat difficult to even know what the thing is called. It definitely has the Vodavi TalkPath Voicemail (8 port) and 2 Vodavi 5000 Expansion Cabinets (5002-001). We have 30 button Vodavi phones at each person's station.

Basically what I'm looking for is the ability to get usage reporting either by software, or by hardware/software add-on. We were researching a phone system upgrade, but that project has been somewhat aimless and the latest iteration was based upon a Vertical system and the call-flow wasn't as good as what we have with our current system, including some compromises we will not make.

Basically I'm hoping there's some out there with experience setting up reporting on older Vodavi systems who can give me a little guidance to know what to even look for.

The basic reports we need are: # of inbound calls, #of outbound calls, time spent on each... all by extension. # of abandoned calls by extension would be nice, but it's not a must.

If we can't get this for our system, I'm going to be running a project to get an all-new phone system and we're likely going to go voip softphone (I don't fully support that path, but the owner has said we will not invest in new desk top phones)

You have either a Starplus Triad-S or an infinite Mach 1. On the bottom of the main cabinet (the bottom one) there is an option slot that provides two RS232 ports. If it is there, then you'll just need to connect a serial cable from the port that is set up do dump call record data. You'll then need to connect this cable to a local PC's serial port. If you're not looking to sort data, you can use any generic terminal program (for example HyperTerminal) to capture and store this data. The phone system will need to be programmed to deliver this data and the baud rate, etc. will need to be set to match the PC's serial port settings.

The phone system can be configured to output only outgoing calls, incoming or both, but the data is sent immediately upon the end of the call in chronological order.

If you need more detailed reporting, you'll need to invest in a call accounting program and load it onto the PC. Those are available through many different developers.

So, to answer your question: Yes, this can be done.

Thanks for the response!

Ok, it's incredibly obvious that I don't know enough about phone systems to just make this happen.

So I went to the server room and sure enough there are two RS232 ports on the bottom of our bottom cabinet. I connected the serial cable that we usually use to connect to the VM system (VMAdmin) to the cabinet and moved it to a different COM port, but I don't know how I would program the phone system to deliver the data. I figured out that I can "connect" using 2400 Baud via hyperterminal to show that it is connected(it actually autodiscovered) but I don't know how to actually communicate.

How do I go about configuring the phone system do output this data?

Also, to add a bit more information, I'm pretty sure we have an infinite, we have a station guide that indicates as such.

Well, that's great news. You are very close to your goal. Unfortunately, that level of support is something that is outside the policy of this forum. A local technician can get SMDR set up for you for the cost of a service call. Alternatively, you can probably find the programming/installation manual for your Mach 1 system. There also may be a member here who will provide this support for you over the phone for a nominal charge.

I would certainly be willing to pay for phone support.

Unfortunately the only local company I am aware of that used to support Vodavi is now only interested in moving us to the Vertical.

That company is giving you good advice. Your phone system is probably 15+/- years old. I would not advise a customer to spend money on a call accounting system for it.

The vertical system cannot offer us the same call flow (or they aren't able to program it to do so) so it's not an option for us.

We were willing to spend for a new system, but it would have to meet our call flow and a list of must-wants. The ACD group distribution flow is not nearly as robust with the new system as the UCD distribution is with our decade+ old system.

That depends on which Vertical system the dealer is talking about...the SBX is not as robust but the Summit is a much better system all around than the Triad-S 5000 for sure. It has built in ACD call reporting where the 5000 can only spit out raw data that will not make any sense without a call accounting package to interpret it.

The ACD software in the Summit 80 is standard and these are the on demand reports

Description
ACD reports can be requested by the Supervisor and can be programmed for periodic output over the SMDR port or selected TCP/IP port. The system will provide reports for the ACD Group and Agent statistics as follows:
ACD Group Statistics Report
Group Number
Time stamp
Total calls
Number of unanswered calls
Average queue time
Longest queue time
Total number of calls placed in queue
Number of times calls experience all agents busy
Total time all agents were busy
Average ring time before answer
Group Number
Agent Number
Number of ACD calls served
Number of unanswered ACD Calls
Average ring time before answer
Average ACD call service time after answer

You also have

Traffic Analysis
Description
The iPECS monitors, stores and periodically or upon request outputs various traffic statistics covering system resources. The output from the system can be used to:
Monitor and evaluate system performance
Observe usage trends and recommend possible corrective actions,
Determine possible trunk problems, i.e. blocking level too high, and/or
Recommend system upgrades.
Attendants enable Periodic Reporting. Once enabled, the system continues to monitor and output the requested report until Periodic Report is disabled. On-demand reports selected by the System Attendant are output only upon request. The Traffic Report is sent to the defined system RS-232 or TCP port.
System resources covered by Traffic Reports are:
Attendant Traffic Report
Call Summary Report
Hourly Call Report
H/W Unit Usage Summary Report
CO Summary Report
Hourly CO Report
Summary Traffic Reports cover one of five Analysis periods selected at time of print:
1. Today’s peak activity hour (within 24 hours)
2. Yesterday’s peak activity hour (24 hours prior to Today’s activity)
3. Last hour activity
4. Today’s total activity
5. Yesterday’s total activity

Oh I'm sure the reporting is better on the new system, the issue was only in the call flow.

I have a call flow diagram of how our current system works, and we've been told that the new system is not capable of matching it.

The deal-breaker was that if a call comes into an ACD group and is assigned to someone that is logged into the group and not busy, the call will continue to ring to that extension until answered. With our current system we set a time limit, and if the rep on our end doesn't pick up, the call is re-routed to the next available rep in the UCD group and the non-answering rep is made unavailable.

Also things like informing the customer of their position in the que, our current system does that, the Vertical does not.

The new Summit does the following along with many other ACD options the 5000 will not do (and I know it better than most people)

An Agent who does not answer a call offered from an ACD group within the ACD No-Answer timer is placed in a “No response” unavailable status, called ACD DND. In this state, the Agent is Off-duty and will not receive ACD calls from the group. If the Auto DND Reason code is “0”, after the ACD DND Wrap timer expires, the Agent returns to available status. Otherwise the Agent must return to the On-duty status manually.

also the Vertical System does the following:
The administrator can establish CIQ (Calls-In-Queue) thresholds for each ACD Group so that an assigned System announcement plays over a defined Page zone, if the number of calls in queue equals or exceeds a CIQ threshold. The message, which is recorded by an Attendant, plays immediately or after a defined delay. The message repeats at assigned intervals until the number of Calls in Queue falls below the threshold. The system allows different treatment and announcements for up to three different Calls-In-Queue thresholds.

In other words the Summit has the features you need.

So basically the problem is that our local Vertical vendor isn't well versed in the system they're trying to sell us?

Anyone on here familiar with it and local to Western-Ohio?

Yes, in a nustshell.

Dashsee, if you'll give us your actual city, we can put you in touch with someone local who can handle this for you.

I'm in Brookville, OH.

2 year old topic dug up strictly for advertising, locking.