Patent ID: 6249571
Filing Date: 2001-06-19
Classification: H04M

Abstract:
An article of manufacture comprising:a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for managing at least one telephone system having a PBX switch and database and at least one adjunct system and database, the computer readable program code comprising:computer readable program code means for creating and managing a master database for maintaining a copy of information contained in each PBX and adjunct system database;computer readable program code means for collecting Station Message Detail Records (SMDR) data from the PBX switch and converting the data to Call Detail Record (CDR) data based on the information in the master database, comprising the steps of:(a) checking if the format of the SMDR data is correct;(b) checking if the PBX switch is a listed switch;(c) checking for a valid billing range, switch record, facility and cost definition;(d) checking the number of digits of the SMDR data and if the number of digits is not equal to a predetermined number of digits, converting the number of digits to the predetermined number of digits;(e) checking whether to store the SMDR data based on information resulting from checking at least one of steps (a) to (g);(f) costing stored SMDR data for creating CDR data;(g) checking for a user name for the stored SMDR data; and(h) creating a CDR data file matching the CDR data to the user name;computer readable program code means for generating a plurality of call accounting reports based on the CDR data and the information in the master database;computer readable program code means for generating a plurality of call accounting queries based on the CDR data and the information in the database;computer readable program code means for providing a single user interface for entering data into the master database and the at least one PBX and adjunct system databases, and for requesting the call accounting reports and queries;computer readable program code means for processing communications between the master database, and the at least one PBX and adjunct system databases through the single user interface; andcomputer readable program code means for synchronizing the entry of the same data into each of the master database and the at least one PBX and adjunct system databases through the single user interface.