Restriction feature

Tariscope contains the Restriction feature.

The restriction feature allows the Tariscope administrator to set the restriction to the specific type of calls for a subscriber, group of subscribers, route or gateway. Any restriction can be set in the money or time duration. The restriction is set to the month, week or day. The specified type of calls is defined by a call category. There are examples of categories that you can set:

• only local calls, 
• only domestic long distance calls, 
• only international calls, 
• calls to specific telephone numbers, 
• and others.

A call category that should be restricted is defined by the Tariscope administrator. When a subscriber has spent the money (time) that had been set to a specific call type, Tariscope executes a script. The script changes settings of subscriber's port that restricts the subscriber access to the telephone network.

Note. The following features were additionally implemented for 3CX Phone System and Asterisk: 

• a termination of current call when the call cost is above a given value of money or duration;
• a restriction for a subscriber to make calls, based on the state of its account (for the Tariscope Provider edition);
• a prohibition of making calls to subscribers, who are absent in the Tariscope database. 

Purpose of use

The main purpose of using the restriction feature is saving money of your company.

If you wish to limit phone costs of your enterprise, Tariscope allows to do this. Tariscope provides the ability to monthly (weekly or daily) plan your expenditure on phone calls and actually manage these costs. You only need to distribute money on telephone calls between  subscribers or groups of subscribers. Tariscope will control costs of each subscriber or subscriber group.

Setting of restrictions for specific routes or gateways allows to manage costs on the telephone calls which are made via these routes or gateways. When is it necessary? For example, when you use GSM gateways, which link PBX with mobile phones of subscribers included in corporate package and when this package has a limit on the maximum total duration of calls after which the discount on the rate is not valid. When Tariscope is used without the restriction feature in this situation, an administrator of PBX must somehow calculate how many the discount time was expended by each GSM gateway. And when the limit is spent for a gateway, the administrator must switch off it and calls will be made through other GSM gateways, where the limit has not been spent to the end of the limit period. But how often the administrator must calculate the expended time or money if he has no special tools? Not to mention that it's not that simple. What should it do if an administrator is ill, on vacation or business trip? All these issues disappear when you use Tariscope with the restriction feature.

Options of the restriction feature

There are following options of the restriction feature:

• Only for subscribers. Limits can be set only for specific subscribers. You can not set the limits for groups of subscribers, routes or gateways.
• Only for groups of subscribers . Limits can be set only for groups of subscribers. You can not set the limits for specific subscribers, routes or gateways.
• Only for routes (gateways). Limits can be set only for routes or gateways. You can not set the limits for subscribers or groups of subscribers.
• Only for subscribers and groups of subscribers. Limits can be set only specific subscribers or groups of subscribers. You can not set the limits on the routes or gateways.
• For all. You can set limits for any subscribers, groups of subscribers, routes or gateways.

Supported PBXs or telephone exchanges

The restriction feature is supported for all PBXs and telephone exchanges that Tariscope supports. Tariscope can work with some these PBXs in the automatic mode while with other PBXs it woks in the semi-automatic mode. The automatic mode means that all actions on the tracking of costs on the calls and changes of PBX port parameters are executed by Tariscope. The semi-automatic mode means that actions on the tracking of costs on the telephone traffic are executed by Tariscope, while changes of PBX port parameters must be performed by the PBX administrator. In the last case Tariscope sends a notification by e-mail to the administrator about the exhaustion of the limit.

The automatic mode is supported for the following PBXs:

• CS1000, Meridian 1 (Avaya-Nortel);
• Aura, S8800/S8700/8500/8300, Definity (Avaya);
• HiPath 4000 (Siemens);
• 3CX Phone System (3CX);
• Panasonic KX-TDA;
• Asterisk;
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) by Cisco Systems.

If your PBX is absent in this list and you wish to use Tariscope with the restriction feature, please contact SoftPI.

What kind of information is need for an update of Tariscope and how many it cost?

To use Tariscope with the restriction feature in the automatic mode, your PBX must support the ability be managed by external programs (third party programs). By way of these external programs can be terminal programs, Telnet and others. Or other way PBX should have API that provides the required features. To update the restriction feature for your PBX we need information about the commands that manage the PBX to the desired goal and the interface interaction. 
The update will be done free of charge.

Order of the restriction feature

Feature is not included in the base license and it is supplied as an additional option. Please, specify which option of the restriction feature is necessary. The list of options is listed above.

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.