Strategic Solutions Series

This article originally appeared in the Jan./Feb. 2013 issue of CUSTOMER magazine.

If you’re looking for an exceptionally cost-effective call recording solution for a large, multi-location enterprise, a medium-sized call center, a small home office or something in between, stop looking.

VirtualLogger (News - Alert) LLC combines the power of the cloud with plug computing to deliver scalable, full-featured call recording at an unprecedented price point.

Called RecordingMagic, the solution is one part customer premises equipment and one part Software-as-a-Service (SaaS (News - Alert)).

A small Linux server running the VirtualLogger software sits at the customer location to capture and copy audio data (e.g. VoIP packets) and forward them to the cloud. Each unit handles at least 15 simultaneous calls.

For companies using softphone applications on their PCs, there is a software-only option that eliminates even the Linux device. And for analog phones, there’s a unit that enables companies with analog POTS lines to be recorded by the system.

Recording and storage for RecordingMagic occurs within either the VirtualLogger cloud or a customer’s data center. A year of recording service is included with each unit, and recordings are stored online for 12 months and archived for three years.

The result is call recording with no storage to manage, no capacity limit and no worries about losing calls. And advanced features, such as screen capture and speech analytics are available. Everything is professionally managed by a team with seven years of experience working with some of the largest banks, insurance companies and retailers in the county. 

RecordingMagic is also very affordable.

“This is much, much, much less expensive than a standard call recorder,” said VirtualLogger president, Jim Veilleux.

The next least-expensive comparable solution starts at about $6,000, Veilleux says. Meanwhile, the RecordingMagic device sells for less than $200, and the monthly recording service fee is $9.99 per line or $99 per year.

The RecordingMagic device is also more efficient to operate than competing solutions because of its small size and power requirements, adds Veilleux.

“It’s tiny – about the size of a double deck of playing cards,” he said.

The small footprint, low power needs, ease of installation (about 30 minutes for most locations) and silent operation of the RecordingMagic device allows it to be used anywhere. Target (News - Alert) customers include home-based businesses and consultants; small and medium businesses with 1 to 100 telephones; and multi-location businesses including automobile dealerships, franchise operators, insurance agencies and retailers.

Companies with multiple stores or offices can put RecordingMagic devices in each location and combine recordings from all of them into the VirtualLogger cloud, making this a manageable and affordable solution even for large scale enterprises. Veilleux says competing solutions at this scale would cost millions of dollars, because they rely on expensive servers, and that cost is multiplied with each added site.

RecordingMagic, meanwhile, can record a thousand locations for less than $200,000.

"RecordingMagic is a great idea," said Steve Varner, vice president of Professional Receivable Solutions (PRS4U.com), a credit and collections agency in Texas.  "Our business plan is to grow by leveraging home-based agents and RecordingMagic is the perfect solution for letting us expand our monitoring and recording capability as our business grows without overspending or tying up our capital."

"The RecordingMagic concept is a perfect model for our business," said Darryl Ogle, IT manager at Tri-Miss Services, Inc., a metal recycling firm.  "With 11 locations throughout Mississippi, RecordingMagic offers a cost-effective method to record each office's calls and provide centralized access to all the recordings.  We're excited about the service."

RecordingMagic is compliant with PCI (News - Alert), HIPAA and other security standards. It comes with security measures such as AES-256 bit encryption, multi-tenant database structure, and data-driven permission control. It works with most IP phones, protocols and codecs, including those from Avaya, Cisco, Nortel (News - Alert) and Polycom, running SIP, SCCP, Unistim, MGCP, G.711 and G.729.

And it can be connected multiple ways.

The call center recording space is a pretty crowded market, notes Veilleux, but RecordingMagic is a clear standout.

"The RecordingMagic concept is brilliant," said Christopher Sicard, a telecommunications consultant working with Sicard Office Solutions.  "For recording multiple locations and bringing all the data together into a single web interface, there is nothing comparable or nearly as affordable.  It is simple to install, call quality is great, and support is excellent."

How RecordingMagic Measures Up