Tariscope and Active Directory

This article is primarily intended for users of the Tariscope Enterprise software (hereafter referred to as Tariscope).

The Tariscope system is used to process call information. Determining who made a specific phone call, as well as its cost, is performed only if the directory number is linked to a specific subscriber in Tariscope. Therefore, there is a need for the correct setting of subscriber parameters and constant support in the current state of such information. Tariscope allows you to do this in three ways:

• Manually adjust subscriber data.
• Import subscriber data from external files.
• Receive such data from the Active Directory.

If you have an Active Directory in your company, then using it will probably be the most optimal option for maintaining information about subscribers in an up-to-date state.

The basic information required for Tariscope Enterprise is:

• the subscriber's name,
• the unit where he works,
• his directory numbers (DNs),
• the date from which the employee (subscriber) works in the company and from which he owns DNs,
• release date, that is, the date when the DNs phone numbers no longer belong to this subscriber.

To get data into Tariscope from the Active Directory, a profile is created in Tariscope that specifies which Active Directory attributes are linked to Tariscope database fields. The name of the employee, his department and directory numbers are specified in the main attributes of the Active Directory. As a rule, additional attributes are created for the dates of employment and dismissal. If necessary, you can import other attributes into Tariscope, which are required for generating reports on the use of telecommunication systems (PBXs).

In order for Tariscope to work with additional attributes, you need to add their list separated by commas on the System Variables page to the AdditionalADAttributes parameter.  For a detailed description of how to create a Tariscope synchronization profile with Active Directory, see the page.  

Data import from AD can be performed either at the initiative of the Tariscope administrator from the Active Directory or Subscribers pages, or automatically according to the schedule by the Tariscope Tasks when creating the corresponding task.

The last option, i.e. the use of the Tariscope Tasks allows you to completely automate the process of obtaining data from the Active Directory, even if some of this data needs to be refined. An example of updating data can be a change of directory number. For example, directory numbers are stored in AD together with access codes to various PBXs, and access codes are not displayed in CDR data. In this case, in order to correctly identify the subscriber who made the call, the access code must be removed from the imported phone number. To finalize the data, you can use the RDL report, which will be launched after data synchronization with the Active Directory and perform the necessary actions with the Tariscope database data. This report may not display any data, but only perform actions with the database.

Thus, if you are a user of the Tariscope Enterprise software and your company uses the Active Directory, its data can be synchronized with the Tariscope database daily in automatic mode, thereby providing Tariscope with up-to-date subscriber data.