What is TIM Talk?
TIM Talk is a unique call recording proposition combining an award-winning call logging platform with a cutting-edge hardware device - the Magic Box – that passively intercepts your phone lines, monitoring and recording all calls to and from your organisation.
It does not matter whether you have analogue lines, Basic Rate or Primary Rate (E1) lines. The real beauty of this solution is the complete integration between our TIM call logger’s and the recorder. Unlike many other call recorders, you can easily retrieve and listen to any call in seconds from any web-browser with no requirement for additional client software at the client PC. In fact any authorised user can retrieve a single call or series of calls in seconds for immediate playback.
The call logger collects the SMDR data from your telephone system(s) while the magic box sits between your incoming lines and telephone system to automatically record them. We then marry both up and tag the recording on to each call as just another call property.
Our TIM Plus interface is positioned in the SME space (allowing you to log up to 5 sites on a single license), while TIM Enterprise is positioned to cater for large enterprise (allowing an unlimited number of sites to be logged).
The ‘Magic Box’ is the call recording module that can be added to either of these products to allow you to also record all calls in and out of these sites.
By integrating the Magic Box technology directly into our TIM Plus and TIM Enterprise call logging
products, the end result - TIM Talk - is an unprecedented ability to listen to the actual audio of
any phone call in any standard call logging report! Using the standard web browser interface of the call logger, limited by web logins, users can only access information and recordings related to their own part
of the business.
So now, with appropriate access, wherever a user sees an individual call anywhere throughout the entire call logging system, they can click on the speech bubble icon alongside the call... and listen to it!
The TIM Talk solution also enables single-click searching on any combination of the usual call
details such as date & time, dialled number, caller ID, but in addition - and uniquely, compared to most other call recording systems - you can search for calls made or received by individual users!
Searching for a call is a simple affair. When you find it just click to play, add a note to the call, and even find other calls that are associated with it.
Why is TIM Talk different?
Stereo recording
After finding the recording of an alleged dispute, if all you can hear is two irate people shouting over the top each other, then you need stereo recording! It stores each side of the call separately so you can silence one side at a time - effectively allowing each side to say their piece without interruption!
Easy retrieval of calls by user
As any serious user of call recording will testify, the ability to find calls using the individual user as a search term, rather than being limited by just the usual details of a call - such as dialed number and the approximate time it happened - is one of the most powerful features a call recording system can offer.
Passive and Active recording
Our magic boxes offer passive as well as active recording, giving the peace of mind of a high-impedance wire tap that won’t interrupt your phone lines in the event of a hardware failure.
Track the call in its entirety
If a call under scrutiny is transferred on to someone else, it’s easy to follow it... simply click on the 'View related recordings' link to continue to listen to the next part.
View a call audit
Authorised users have the ability to view who’s already listened to a call, and when.
Add notes
As well as listening to calls, TIM Talk allows you to add quick notes to it, either to summarise the call or to remind yourself of a certain part of it. Now, after adding a note, whenever you see the call, it’ll stand out from the rest, having a small yellow posted note icon next to it.
Flexible access
Don’t restrict access to the recording to a favoured few. Allow everyone access to their own calls. We often find that what we said differs vastly from what we think we said – allow users to train themselves by hearing their own calls! And allow their managers to retrieve these calls from any location via a standard web-browser. With no limits to the amount of users that can access calls and simple restrictions to limit access to specific areas – TIM Talk is the ideal training tool!
Secure access
Access is restricted by username and password and can be further restricted to specific IP addresses. This means that although access is easy for authorised users, it becomes impossible for those without authorisation.
Encryption
You may just want to record the calls for training purposes but all calls are encrypted as standard so you can relax knowing that they can be used in a court of law if necessary.
FSA Requirements
You may be obliged to record calls. Make it worth your while by installing a call recorder you can actually use. One that provides much more than another tick on a list of pre-requisites that you are obliged to meet!
Cost effective
Traditionally Call recording has been prohibitively expensive, a nice to have feature but very expensive and difficult to cost justify. TIM Talk is competitively priced to remove the cost barriers often associated with call recording.
Usability
TIM Talk treats the Call recording as just another property of the call. The interface on our TIM Plus and TIM Enterprise call logging software is particularly easy to use – using a standard web browser, any call can be found in seconds – now you simply have to click on the speech lozenge alongside it to listen to it as well. Any Call Recording is just a click away via a standard web browser! (assuming authorised login).
In-built alerts - Alerts can be set to advise when particular calls are made. A
Why record calls?
Every time someone in your organisation answers the phone or makes a call, they represent your company.
Imagine you’re able to log and record every bit of your company’s interaction with your customers.
It’s not just for cases of litigation, but ensures that your high standards of service can be monitored, that information is presented accurately, and so that you can gain vital intelligence about how your customers are treated when they interact with your company’s people.
Your staff are vital assets
Staff are often the most valuable resource in any organisation, yet they’re often let loose to say whatever they like to your customers with no checks in place to monitor how effectively they are communicating your business’s messages.
Moreover, your best staff can be passed over simply because their abilities are not recognised. But by periodically spot-checking how your people interact with your customers on the phone, you’ll be in possession of a business intelligence tool that’ll not only alert you to the need for additional training for some staff, but also allow you to recognise and retain those staff members that are going unnoticed!
Would you like to be able to log and record all of this interaction with your customers? It’s not just for cases of litigation, but ensures that your high standards of service can be monitored, that information is presented accurately, and so that you can gain vital intelligence about how your customers are treated when they interact with your company’s people.
Don’t become detached
The higher up in the organisation you are, the less day-to-day interaction you will have with the people at the coal face, so it’s essential that you can monitor those staff who provide the voice of your company. TIM Talk allows you to drill up and down the hierarchy of your organisation, listening to any call at any time from any member of staff.
Because of the advanced interface, several different levels of user access are allowed e.g. department managers can be restricted to listening only to calls made by members of their own teams.
All of this results in well trained, focused staff, happier customers and real accountability for anything said on behalf of your organisation!
Business benefits
Lead by example
Instead of telling staff how you want calls handled, play an example of a call that was handled well. Additionally, allow staff to listen to their own calls so they can hear for themselves when they are failing to deliver clear, concise information.
Resolve disputes simply and easily
Retrieve the recording to prove what was actually said or not said!
Clarify misunderstandings
Play back a call to clarify any misunderstanding that may have arisen or to simply retrieve the phone number/order details/post code you scribbled down wrong the first time you took the call!
Guard against abuse
Protect your staff from abusive or threatening behaviour by informing all callers that calls will be recorded.
Create a knowledge base
By storing and allowing employees access to important or informative calls, new employees will find this particularly useful.
Make training easy and fun
Pick the good calls and show people how easy it is to do the job well. Perform 'mock' calls and show them what you mean by a bad call.
Raise standards
When staff know their calls are being recorded, they are unlikely to provide a sloppy or offhand service, this means happier clients.
Understand your business
It’s impossible when running a business to be aware of what is said and done at every level in your organisation. By recording calls, you can perform simple spot checks at any time to hear for yourself exactly what your customers are experiencing on a daily basis.
Check first
If an odd call appears on your call logging report, e.g. a long overseas call, you can listen to it and check its legitimate before taking your employee to task over why it was made.
TIM Talk - The practical bits…
The form factor of a Magic Box is the same as a standard drive so it’s easy to incorporate into existing hardware, or with the 19” rack mounting kit available separately. Three Magic Box units fit into 1U of rack space.
Calls are compressed using a 15000bps stereo codec, at a high compression rate.
Expansion is easy since each unit is self contained. It’s therefore the perfect solution at sites where completely separate recorders are required for security reasons.
USB connections are mounted both front and rear to facilitate ease of connection when installed into
a PC chassis. More importantly the forward facing telephony connectors ensure changes are effected with no disruption to other wiring in the vicinity of TIM Talk.
Connection
The hardware device is connected to the host server by way of a high-speed USB2.0 cable from the rear of the unit.
Limitations
By default, the system is supplied with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express, therefore the call database has an upper limit of approximately 5.5 million call recordings.
The server should not use any other USB devices, since these may interfere with the smooth running
of the call recording bus.
As with all of our solutions, you have the option of purchasing the PC hardware or supplying your own.
Minimum PC Spec
Windows XP Professional SP2
NTFS file system
Dedicated, internal USB hub and controller.
Minimum 2GB RAM
Minimum 500GB of free hard disk space
Minimum Pentium 4 3.2GHz CPU or higher, Core2 duo
PS2 mouse
PS2 keyboard
One com port
PC must be dedicated for call recording
Storage Requirements
Capacity is limited by the amount of hard disk storage available. The following is a rough guide to the amount of storage you may need:-
Storage Required
250GB Hard disk space = 44,000 channel hours recording
500GB Hard disk space = 88,000 channel hours recording
700GB Hard disk space = 132,000 channel hours recording
Power Requirements
Each TIM Talk interface can be powered via an internal power supply of a PC. A standard PC power socket is available at the rear of the unit. A separate external power supply is available.
Inputs
Standard analogue line, basic rate and ISDN inputs are available. For ease of connection all inputs are via front panel RJ45 sockets.
Limitations
As the system is supplied with SQL Server 2005 express edition, the call data base will record approximately 5.5 million calls
No other internal or external USB devices, as USB is used for transfer of calls between the TIM Talk interface and PC Hard disk drive.
Magic box dimensions
146mm wide, 227mm deep, 42mm high.(1U height unit)
These dimensions are the same as a CD/DVD drive unit; TIM Talk interfaces are designed to use these
drive bays.
The Magic Box
Occupying a 5¼” drive bay (about the size of a standard CD-ROM drive) on your PC, one box will monitor up to 30 digital ISDN lines into your company.
Up to four boxes can be mounted inside a standard mini tower PC allowing up to 120 ISDN circuit capacity.
For higher capacities, the boxes can be bolted horizontally and mounted in a standard server rack or networked PCs can be interconnected for very large scale call recording.
How easy is it to use?
Using any standard web browser, authorised users can access any call and its associated recording – assuming they have the appropriate access rights!
Gone are the days of having to run an entire report just to locate a single phone call. A simple login to the front screen of TIM TALK and you can quickly locate the call(s) you want in seconds.
The TIM Talk solution also enables single-click searching on any combination of the usual call
details such as date & time, dialled number, caller ID, but in addition - and uniquely, compared to most other call recording systems - you can search for calls made or received by individual users!
TIM Talk – The interface
Although TIM Plus and TIM Enterprise are designed to suit two very different markets, both provide a simple ‘Quick call search’ facility so you can retrieve calls quickly and easily.
As soon as a call is finished, it appears in the live call view. Any call with a ‘note’ or ‘associated call’ is clearly tagged.
You can even choose the fields you want displayed in the call view by simply ticking the fields required as shown below:
How to listen to a call
To hear the associated recording(s), you simply need to click on the speech lozenge alongside each call.
By clicking the audio icon next to any call, you'll get to play the recording or add notes about it - all without ever leaving your web browser
How to add a note to a call
Simply click on the ‘Notes’ tab when listening to the call or click on the icon to add a note.
How to view related calls
You will never have to laboriously search through reams of calls again to find calls associated to the one you’ve just listened to, you simply click on the 
alongside the call in question and any associated calls will be listed.
Features to look for in a call recording solution
Simple intuitive user interface
There is no point in having a recording if you cannot access it simply, easily and quickly. Any company claiming to offer access via a web-browser should be able to allow you to view an on-line demo so that you can decide for yourself how ‘simple & easy’ the interface really is!
You decide who can access recordings
Obviously you do not want ‘just anyone’ to be able to access your recordings so you will be given the facility to control access by username and password.
However you do not want to install a system and then discover that you are restricted to allowing a few users access. You should be able to add a new web-use and allocate a username and password at any time, with no additional licensing fee and without the need to install additional client software at the users PC.
You decide what users can access
While it’s nice to be able to allow access to lots of different users, it’s also important to be able to restrict what they can get access to. In the real world, you do not want any user with access listening to their managers or MD’s calls!
No concurrency limits
With a native web- browser, you are not restricted ‘specific’ numbers of concurrent users. This means that during busy periods, you do not have to worry about users being unable to access the system.
Access from anywhere
In the same way that you may want to access your internet banking from any PC at any time, you may also want to access your call logger and recorder. This is often an issue if you are restricted to a few machines that have been ‘loaded’ with client software. Using secure https technology combined with a secure username and password – you will be able to securely access from any PC with a web-browser without having to worry about client software and access codes.
Native web-server
If you are being told that you can access recordings via a web browser, you may want to investigate further as there are several ‘meanings’ of access via a web-browser. At a minimum, the solution should be cross-browser compatible. Ideally it will also be native so that your IT team does not have to install IIS or client software which can cause an installation and management headache.
Summary:
Unlimited web-logins so no need to worry about additional licensing as you expand
Unlimited concurrent users so no problems with several people trying to access at the same time
No need to install IIS or client software at desktop thereby making for easy deployment and a very happy IT department!
Access from any standard web-browser e.g. Internet Explorer, mozilla, firefox, safari
Secure restricted access to authorised users only
Free customisable display boards and wallboards included as standard
What features do you need to look for in your proposed call recording solution?
Easy retrieval of calls – The actual recording of the call is often the easy bit! Any serious user of call recording will readily admit that one of the most important features of any call recorder is the ease with which it allows you to search for and find calls and the provision easy links of any related calls.
Stereo recording – The call may be recorded. It may not have been tampered with. All is perfect until you listen to it and discover two irate callers shouting over each other. When using stereo-recording, both parts of the call can be separated and listened to separately, to allow you to understand what was actually said.
Passive and Active recording – we offer passive as well as active recording for those customers who refuse to have anything that interacts with their lines onsite - knowing it could cut calls on all lines if there was catastrophic failure.
Track the call in its entirety – If the call is transferred on to someone else, click on the ‘View Related Recordings’ link to continue to listen to the calls as it progresses.
View Call Audit – Click on the call audit to see who has listened to the call.
Add a note – You listen to a call and want to add a quick note. This may be to summarise something in the call to allow you to find it easily later on or you may simply want to mark certain calls so they are easily identifiable without having to listen play part of the recording.
Note: The information on these pages is not to be used in lieu of professional legal advice. If you have any doubts as to whether, where and when you need to record telephone conversations, please contact the FSA
direct or your legal advisors.
