Tariscope includes a flexible call rating system that takes into account:
- a rate plan assigned to a customer (subscriber),
- currency,
- type of day,
- time of day,
- various types of rounding,
- free seconds
- and much more.
Tariscope allows you to specify any number of rate plans that combine a set of rates. In addition to rates, rate plans may include some services that should be charged to all customers.
Rates are created for a particular telecom service privider, with which a telephone system is connected, and associated with certain telephone codes. In the Tariscope system, there are no restrictions on the number of rate plans, telecom service providers and rates.
Rate history
The Tariscope system keeps the history of each rate, that allows you to rate calls up to a certain date at a specific cost, after this date another cost will be used, and so on. Thus, if it is necessary to recalculate calls for any period, it will be used the cost that operated in this period.
Currency
Rates can be set in any currency. The only thing to remember is that the cost of the call will always be converted into the main currency in the system at the current exchange rate.
Billing period
A rate can be set per minute or per second. At the same time, Tariscope allows you to set some rates with per second accuracy, and other rates with a per minute accuracy.
Free seconds
A rate can include N-th number of free seconds of call, the cost for which is not charged.
Rounding
Different types of call cost rounding are supported.
The call cost depending on call duration
The Tariscope administrator has the option to assign a different call cost for rates depending on call duration. You can also assign different costs depending on the total amount of minutes spoken by subscriber. For example, up to 600 minutes of calls are charged at a price of USD 0.00, from 600 to 1000 minutes, the price is USD 1.00, and over 1000 minutes, the price is USD 0.80.
Cost for connection
If necessary, a call cost can include the cost for connection.
Call charges using different names
The call cost for which various rates are specified in the system can be recorded to the subscriber's account with the same name that the rate has or you can use a specific name for several types of rates. For example, there are different rates for Western, Eastern, Northern and Southern Europe. If there is no need to keep a record of calls in the subscriber's account for each of these directions, you can use a common name, with which the call cost will be chargeed to the subscriber's account. For example, for the above example, the name can be 'Europe'. The choice of a specific name for each rate, with which the call cost will be charged to subscriber accounts, or use of some generalized name, is primarily determined by the requirements for detailing information in subscriber accounts.
Dependence of rate price on day type and day time
Each rate can contain a different cost on dependence of type of day (working, holiday, weekend) and time of day. You can create any number of time periods with a specific cost.
Charges for each subscriber's extension
If a subscriber has several extensions (phone numbers), Tariscope can charge a call cost, telecommunications services to the subscriber's account for each extension separately, or in general to the subscriber.
Rating incoming and outgoing calls
Tariscope allows you to charge not only outgoing calls as most call accounting and billing systems do, but also, if necessary, it can charge incoming calls. This feature can be useful to some users, for example, those who use paid phone numbers.
Any number of telecom service providers with their own rates
A telephone system communicates with other telephone systems or gateways. To correctly rate the calls, routes (trunk groups) or gateways in Tariscope are linked with telecom providers whom calls are directed. In Tariscope, you can create any number of communication providers with specific rates and link them to the appropriate routes (gateways).
Alternative rating
Tariscope allows you to calculate a call cost at two different rates that belong to different telecom service providers. This allows the provider to simulate the application of a new rate or the provider can apply a second rate as a rate of the provider partner, with which it is necessary to perform mutual settlements.
Comparison of Tariscope editions
There are two Tariscope editions: Tariscope Enterprise and Tariscope Provider.
The Tariscope Enterprise edition is a call accounting software. It is recommended for companies which wish to control expenses on telephone calls of employees.
The Tariscope Provider edition is a telecom billing solution for telecommunications service providers.
The main difference between the Tariscope Enterprise and Tariscope Provider editions is that Tariscope Provider provides the maintenance of customer accounts taking into account both charging for telecom services (not only for calls as it does Tariscope Enterprise) and accounting payments from customers.
Other differences of the editions are enumerated in the table below.
| Feature | Tariscope Enterprise | Tariscope Provider |
| Licensing | Depends on number of subscribers | Depends on number of extensions and IP addresses* |
| Personal accounts of customers | - | + |
| Accounting of services | - | + |
| Payment document creation | - | + |
| Accounting of payments | - | + |
| Rates based on volume of services provided | - | + |
| System administration | + | + |
| Supported PBXs (telephone exchanges) | + | + |
| Subscriber (customer) management | + | + |
| Call accounting | + | + |
| Alternative rating | + | + |
| Powerful filtering | + | + |
| Reporting | + | + |
| Data comparison | + | + |
| Restriction feature | + | + |
| Personal area | + | + |
| Call traffic measurement | + | + |
| Interaction with hotel systems | + | + |
*IP addresses is taken into account if Tariscope Provider is used to collect IP data traffic.
You can find information about features of Tariscope Enterprise on the page.
You can find information about features of Tariscope Provider on the page.
Traffic measurement
According to Recommendation E.503 the telephone traffic analysis based on CDR can be applied to the following applications:
- Telephone system dimensioning, planning and administration;
- Telephone network dimensioning, planning and administration;
- Telephone system performance monitoring;
- Telephone network performance monitoring;
- Support to maintenance;
- Network management;
- Tariff and marketing studies.
The main problem, which usually solved by analysis of telephone traffic, is an estimate of traffic intensity in telephone communication channels.
Majority of PBX owners use traffic analysis to detect the necessity to extend bandwidth of trunks or to decrease number of trunks if they are underloaded. In the first case there is a possibility of loss of incoming calls, and as a result, the possible loss of profits. In the second case, if the trunks are not used, enterprise resources are used ineffectively.
Traffic measurement can be used to detect a fraud. For this task you must collect statistics by traffic for one-two years per month, per day (working day, weekend, holiday), per specific day period, etc. And if you detect the unusual traffic for a specific day period this requires to analyse origins of traffic increase for identification of fraud.
Tariscope allows to build a chart of telephone traffic intensity for any time period, simultaneously display a few charts to compare them and much more.
Tariscope user can get the traffic intensity of trunks, gateways and subscriber lines.
You can find information about other features of Tariscope Enterprise on the page.
You can find information about other features of Tariscope Provider on the page.
Tariscope structure
Tariscope is a suite of interrelated desktop and Web applications, services and servers for the Microsoft Windows. Tariscope can be installed on the following systems: Micosoft Windows Server 2012 R2, 2012 or 2008 R2 or Microsoft Windows 10, 8.1, 8 or 7.
A general structure of Tariscope is shown in figure below. The Tariscope Enterprise and Tariscope Provider editions have the same structure.
The core of the Tariscope system consists of: Tariscope Server and Tariscope Database (Tariscope DB).
The Tariscope server manages connections between Tariscope services and applications. The Tariscope server runs as a Windows service and can be located on the same physical server where Microsoft SQL Server is installed or another server that has a connection to this server.
The main application of the system is the Tariscope Web application. This program includes all the settings of the Tariscope system, and also provides analysis of information about completed calls, creation of reports and diagrams, analysis of communication channel load, subscriber accounting, assignment and charging of services to them, subscriber account management (for the Provider edition), task management for the operator's employees (Provider edition), subscriber access to information about their calls, account status, payment after communication, receiving reference information, sending any requests to the Tariscope administrator and much more. Tariscope has no restrictions on the number of users and subscribers working with the system simultaneously.
Tariscope Observer (shown as TS Observer in the figure) operates as a Windows service and collects call information (CDR, SMDR, AMA, etc.) from telephone systems (PBX) and performs its initial processing. A separate Tariscope Observer service is used to work with each telephone system. Tariscope has no restrictions on the number of simultaneously running Tariscope Observer services and the number of telephone systems from which it receives call information. When using the restriction function in the Tariscope system and Tariscope can control the telephone system, Tariscope Observer sends commands to the telephone system to change its parameters according to the settings. Tariscope Observer services must be installed on the Tariscope server where the Web application is running.
The Tariscope Observers service server (shown as the Observers server in the figure) can be installed on a separate server. In this case, the computer must be connected to the Tariscope server and Microsoft SQL server.
The Tariscope tasks ensures automatic execution of tasks according to a set schedule. Such tasks can be: generating reports, creating a backup copy of the Tariscope database, archiving it, receiving current exchange rates, etc.
Tariscope Fraud Detection is a Windows service that monitors the correct use of the user's telephone systems, i.e. detects telephone fraud.
Tariscope Call Monitoring is a Windows service that monitors the timely receipt of call data from Tariscope Observer services.
The report form designer, which is not shown in the figure, is designed to create new report forms or edit existing report forms.
The Hotel System service (not shown in the figure) is a Windows service that can be used to transfer information about calls and their cost of hotel guests to the hotel system.
Tariscope API (not shown in the figure) is an interface for interaction of a third-party application with the Tariscope system, namely, for receiving the results of its work from it.
SureTax integration (not shown in the picture) is an interface for American users of Tariscope Provider. It is designed to receive the amount of taxes on communication services provided to subscribers from the SureTax online application (Wolters Kluwer).
3CX Phone System Integration is an application that works with the 3CX VoIP telephone system as a Windows service. It is intended for users who have a 3CX telephone system and want to have the duration of the conversation for each participant in transfer calls. CDR information that the 3CX system gives only the total duration of such calls without distributing it among the participants.
The Tariscope Start utility is designed for initial settings and starting or stopping the Tariscope Web application.
Tariscope administrators include both users who have the ability to configure Tariscope and work with it, and users who work only with individual functions of the system. Interaction of administrators with the Tariscope system is performed through the Tariscope Web application.
Tariscope subscribers, when entering the Tariscope Internet application, are taken to the Subscriber's Personal Account, where they have the ability to view information about calls, their account status, payment for communication services, send a request to the Tariscope administrator, etc.
You can find information about other features of Tariscope Enterprise on the page.
You can find information about other features of Tariscope Provider on the page.
Flexible configuration
Tariscope provides a flexible configuration for any needs.
After the installation and the initial start, Tariscope automatically starts Initial configuration wizard.
The Tariscope initial configuration wizard provides the basic configuration of the system, facilitating and accelerating this process.
The wizard allows to configure:
- Country and area codes.
- Telecommunications node name (company name).
- VAT percent.
- Main currency.
- Currency profile and a service for automatic update of currency rates.
- Telecommunications equipment type (telephone system type).
- Advanced settings of equipment.
- Long distance dialing and international dialing prefixes.
- The data source through which the data will be collected (a serial port, TCP server/client, FTP server/client, etc.), and its parameters.
- Telecommunications service provider, through which the telephone system is connected to the telephone network (PSTN).
- An access code to PSTN.
- The internal numbering plan.
- Prefixes.
- Parameters of Flow collector, if Tariscope works with a router, access server and etc.
- Import of subscribers' parameters.
- Parameters of the database backup, archiving and optimizing.
Besides the wizard allows to activate your Tariscope license.
After completing the initial configuration, if necessary the Tariscope administrator can change these settings or add the new setting parameters, which were not available in the wizard, at any time.
Tariscope can be configured to work with single telephone system or with a group of telephone systems. Tariscope does not have a limit on number of telephone systems.
You don't need to know the CDR format of your telephone system to configure Tariscope. Tariscope automatically defines a CDR format type for most of the telephone systems that it supports.
The configuration of rates allows to set a rate parameters for most of the rates that telecommunications service providers offer.
If multi currency rates are used, Tariscope provides automated receiving the currency rates from the specified web-site.
Tariscope contains more than 140 report forms and allows to edit these forms or create own forms. The Tariscope Report Designer allows to use any field of the Tariscope database.
The Tariscope administrator can create the Tariscope users that have different rights to use Tariscope.
Tariscope allows you to automate most of the tasks of the administrator or user:
- generate reports,
- receive currency rates,
- sending messages to subscribers or / and the administrator,
- create the database backup,
- archive the database,
- and much more.
In sum, Tariscope can be configured for any needs.
You can find information about other features of Tariscope Enterprise on the page.
You can find information about other features of Tariscope Provider on the page.
