WebCDR Frequently Asked Questions:
| Q: |
What is WebCDR? |
| A: |
WebCDR is a hosted billing service for wholesale telecom carriers. It provides a full-featured billing system over the Web that includes dozens of traffic reports, screens, queries, and invoice generation. Since it's hosted you avoid the significant ongoing expense of maintaining an in-house billing system's servers, software, and most notably, supporting staff. |
| Q: |
Who needs WebCDR? |
| A: |
Carriers who operate their own TDM switch, softswitch, or VoIP gateways and do business with other carriers need WebCDR. This type of telecom billing is alternately called termination billing, wholesale billing, inter-carrier billing, carrier-to-carrier billing, and simply carrier billing. WebCDR is not intended for end-user subscriber billing. |
| Q: |
Does it support our switch? |
| A: |
WebCDR supports hundreds of CDR formats from traditional TDM switches, soft switches, VoIP Gateways, and SIP-based switches. If your equipment isn't already supported we can probably build an interface for it in 1-2 days. |
| Q: |
How much does it cost? |
| A: |
WebCDR fees are based on billable minutes submitted for processing in a month. Fees start at 1/20th cent per minute (1M mins = $500) and drop quickly as volumes increase, falling to 1/100th cent per minute above 50M (50-million mins = $5000). |
| Q: |
Are we billed for incomplete calls? |
| A: |
No. Since our fees are based on billable minutes and incomplete calls have zero billable duration, there are no extra fees from incomplete calls. |
| Q: |
Is there a set up fee? |
| A: |
Yes, it's $500. |
| Q: |
How long does it take to set up? |
| A: |
We pride ourselves on rapid implementation and we activate most new accounts the same day they are ordered. |
| Q: |
How much do you charge for each customer we add? |
| A: |
There are no such fees in WebCDR; add as many customers and vendors as you need. Generate as many PDF-based carrier invoices and Vendor Recon invoices as you need. |
| Q: |
How long is the contract term? |
| A: |
The contract is month-to-month with no minimum commitment; you may cancel at any time without penalty. Or simply stop submitting CDRs and fees will stop accruing immediately. |
| Q: |
How about tech support? Does that cost extra? |
| A: |
No, Tech Support is free to all within your company who have completed the 4-hour WebCDR training course. |
| Q: |
Are there any hidden fees? |
| A: |
There are no hidden fees in WebCDR. You may, however, decide to subscribe to our optional add-ons such as VoIP Watchdog, RADIUS ASP, WebCDR extended multi-currency support, WebCDR sub-accounts, or extended CDR storage. |
| Q: |
Is WebCDR new? |
| A: |
No, WebCDR was introduced in August 2000 when it was one of the very first hosted billing solutions for the telecom industry. |
| Q: |
What about security? Is our data safe in WebCDR? |
| A: |
Yes. WebCDR automatically encrypts your confidential information in transit from your network to ours using the Secure Sockets Layer protocol (SSL) with an encryption key length of 128-bits. Even before you register or log in to our site, our server checks that you're using an approved browser - one that uses SSL 3.0 or higher.
Once your information reaches us it resides on a server that is heavily guarded both physically and electronically. Our servers sit behind an electronic firewall and are NOT directly connected to the Internet, so your private information is available only to authorized users.
Only authorized employees are permitted to access customer information. Authorized employees have been screened and trained on how to handle information properly and are subject to strict limitations and guidelines in the handling of that information. |
| Q: |
Does Switch Management bill our customers for us? |
| A: |
No, we provide the Web-based tools that you need to rate calls, produce reports, and generate invoices as PDF files. You are responsible for delivering the invoices to your customers and collecting the amount due. In general terms, we develop and maintain the hardware and software infrastructure behind the service; you use the resulting service to run your business. |
| Q: |
How does WebCDR differ from other billing systems? |
| A: |
Asides from being hosted, WebCDR's hallmark is its profit margin reporting. Unlike most billing systems, WebCDR rates each call twice: Once for your selling price; again for your buying cost. This allows the system to calculate the gain or loss on each and every call and then use that data to show you profit by country, by customer, and by vendor. Some carriers maximize cash flow; they lead exciting, albeit short lives. Others maximize volume; they lead busy, albeit short lives. Smart carriers maximize their profit margins, and WebCDR is the best tool for this critical task. |
| Q: |
We suspect we're being over-charged by a supplier. How does your system address that? |
| A: |
WebCDR's Vendor Recon invoice is a supplier-facing PDF-based invoice that drives off your buying cost rates. Run one every time you receive a bill from an underlying carrier to verify that they are charging you correctly. When discrepancies are found (and they will be found), WebCDR can generate a matching CDR file that contains every call in the Vendor Recon invoice to back up your dispute with solid evidence. |
| Q: |
Our company uses USD but we're getting rate sheets in EUR. Does WebCDR support multiple currencies? |
| A: |
Yes. Using an automated exchange rate feed from Oanda.com, WebCDR allows you to base your account in any currency, and optionally, to select a different default currency for each customer and supplier. |
| Q: |
We use all kinds of billing cycles: Many are 7-net-3, but some are 14-net-3, others are 30-net-7, and one is 3-net-2! Can WebCDR support that? |
| A: |
Yes. WebCDR lets you generate beautiful PDF-based invoices at any time for any billing period. Once generated you can print them on your local printer, or save them to your disk for emailing to your customers. We can even put your company's color logo in the upper-left corner. |
| Q: |
Our current billing system takes all day to generate invoices. How long does WebCDR take? |
| A: |
WebCDR's invoices are typically ready in 2-10 seconds, depending on length of billing cycle and traffic volume. If you elect to produce matching CDRs for each PDF invoice, or the billing period prefix summary, it will take longer. |
| Q: |
How does WebCDR handle interstate and intrastate rating? |
| A: |
Both inter- and intrastate rating are supported in WebCDR. Intrastate rates are like interstate rates except they are further defined with one or more ANI prefixes. |
| Q: |
Our carrier's rates are by OCN (operating company number) and LATA (local access and transport area). How does WebCDR support that? |
| A: |
WebCDR requires OCN/LATA rates to be transformed into NPA-NXX based rates, and in all likelihood so do your switch's routing tables. |
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