CDR Reporting - CallSequiter & CallVitesse - you need this and may not even know it!

[dkirk-ads]

I've not seen this major update posted anywhere so here goes. The CallSequiter program has been around for a spell and it slices and dices your CDR information pulled directly out of 3CX. 3CX has a nifty provision to export CDR information in real-time through a direct connection. CallSequiter connects to the server and records every bit of information about all of your calls. I especially like how it shows outside callers traversing my IVR/automated attendant, leading to some necessary changes I was unaware of needing. Need to know the number of simultaneous calls in use, CallSequiter can tell you, which is what I initially needed.

One of the downfalls was that the main CallSequiter program, which I call CS for short, must be running 24x7 in order to capture all of the 3CX server data. Recently the CS program has gained a new partner called CallVitesse, or CV for short. CV is a very tiny program that sits on any PC running 24x7, and its function is to collect the CDR information while the main CS program is not active. When you start CS it now syncs with the CV program, keeping your historical CDR database complete. Think client/server and this allows me to keep the analysis part on my PC and I sync it up with the CV every day, or when I need immediate information; no more leaving my PC turned on 24x7. There is also some new export to Excel functionality that I've not fully explored.

When coworkers ask for call information or management wants details, I can't imagine going without this suite of software. Watching how callers traverse your automated attendant alone is worth the price of admission. Speaking of which, the price is low enough that even I was able to afford it! This is the original posting where I discovered it:

https://www.3cx.com/community/threa...-collection-analysis-reporting-package.63385/

The documentation is amazing in 2019 terms, the quality of which I remember seeing back in the ole' days and it shows pride was taken in their creation. I have no financial ties to the company, just an enthusiastic user wishing I would have discovered this long before I did. Quit guessing your statistics and KNOW them.

 

[metznerm]

You said it all: highly reliable documentation, easy to use application, running stable with that little archiver-service "CallVitesse", delivering exactly the information i was looking for and this programmer-guy is ready with responses faster than i could think of questions.
Thanks so much for this great analysis-tool on CDR entries.

 

[Cjay]

@dkirk-ads , @metznerm : Thank you both for your comments.

As you rightly point out, CallVitesse does act like a man-in-the middle, collecting the CDRs produced by 3CX (irrespective of whether it's a Windows or Debian platform) and buffering until such moment as CallSequitur is fired up & requests them. So as you describe, you no longer need to keep CallSequitur running 24x7 on your desktop PC in order not to miss any CDRs. CallVitesse can instead run on any suitable Windows machine or server that runs 24x7, it's a really lightweight program whose sole function is to receive, buffer and forward 3CX CDRs and as shown in the image attached above, there is an immediate view of the operational status showing connection status to both the 3CX PBX and the CallSequitur.
Due to the fact that it may be quite critical that no CDRs are lost, the network connection to the 3CX machine is actively polled and re-connection attempted within seconds should this link fail.

One consequence of the introduction of CallVitesse is that CallSequitur (the full CDR analysis program) may no longer receive CDRs in near-realtime. This has necessitated a rework of a couple of parts of the program, so now: i) The CDR archive function stores into the appropriate daily or monthly archive (in the CDRstore folder) based on the actual call end time & ii) The treatment of the Daylight Savings Time flag has been reworked so there is absolute accuracy in the setting of this flag based on call start time (necessary when subsequently reviewing past call data where calls may have occurred close to DST changes). Both these changes (as well as further behind the scenes improvements) are in the 4 Oct 2019 build version available here.

BTW It is still perfectly possible to use CallSequitur to connect directly over a network connection to 3CX if so desired (i.e. without using CallVitesse).