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Did you know...?
In continuing with our series of ‘Did You Know...’ articles from last year, we revisit the theme with a new selection of articles, prepared by Murray Barker, project manager, Nice Systems, covering a variety of aspects of recording solutions. This month we begin with the thought that specifying user needs alongside technical requirements delivers a better audio recording system.
There is an old saying, “if you don’t ask you don’t get”. This has never been more prolific than when it comes to buying new systems and tendering for solutions, specifically in the IT sector. As a regular recipient of invitations-to-tender from forces across the UK, specifically for audio recording solutions, there is a troubling trend of valuable information being omitted. Whilst the technical specification provided is comprehensive, the user requirement is all too often absent. Yet without communicating the operational and functional needs of the system, you are guaranteed that different suppliers will interpret the document in different ways, resulting in a perhaps technically competent but far to often a user-unfriendly system, that may take months to ‘change control’ into a system that was originally desired.
Without a doubt the first and most important criterion for both parties is a simple clear user requirement, stating what the organisation requires from the system at an operational level, how do they intend to use the system, by who and for what purposes. How do the users intend to find and cross-reference data, how should the data be presented. This should cover off the basic concepts of the system as a user would see it, this creates a defacto requirement for delivery by the vendors, reduces interpretational errors and gives you a tangible way of measuring and signing off the project.
What is the primary function of the audio recording system? What, how and where do you want to record?
Audio recording has purposely been referred to as the phrase ‘voice recording’ can be misleading. Being specific about exactly what you expect to hear from the replayed recording. Many vendors who are not used to supplying evidential based solutions, may deliver a system that only records the spoken words of a communication, eliminating background noises, such as keystokes from the call taker, leaving you with a ‘voice recording’ but what about the background noises, what is heard instead on the recording? This is of course useful when running performance management programmes, but not what is needed for an evidence disclosure solution, where any additional insight can play a vital role in the incident investigation process.
It is also worth remembering that audio recording is in high demand from many other sectors, in particular the commercial call/contact centre market. Their requirements are very different, usually only requiring the voice element of the interaction to be captured, any extraneous background noise needs to be eliminated. Some call centre specific suppliers will assume the same is required, unless you specify otherwise.
Locating and retrieval of audio recordings. How fast do you expect the system to respond and how much manual intervention do you expect to carry out the process?
Detailing that you expect to find a call or sequence of recordings based on collar number, incident number, Radio ID or OCU (operational control unit), gives the supplier key information about what level of integration will be required with your other systems. Detailing that you expect results to appear within 30 seconds for any investigation for up to seven years old, will also tell the supplier about your proposed storage, retrieval and infrastructure requirements.
Audio recording or interaction recording? What other elements of the call management process impact on the quality of the evidence and outcome of the investigation?
In addition to audio recording it is also possible to capture information presented to the dispatcher via their screen during a call, this may include CCTV footage, text and messages giving updates on incidents, as well as technologies including mapping, AVLS and APLS.
By capturing the exact chain of events during the interaction it is possible to better understand the incident, the timing, information flow and the ultimate decision-making process that led to the outcome. Investigation, complaints, performance management and disciplinary review can be greatly enhanced when all elements of the incident can be reconstructed. It is important to state that even though techniques such as screen capture may not form part of your immediate plans, it should still be incorporated into your requirement, if it is in your mid-to-long term development strategy. Doing this early on will assist you in understanding suppliers capabilities, how flexible and scalable their solutions are to support your growth and will prevent you from that dreaded scenario of having to re-invest because your requirement is beyond the current system capabilities.
Intended usage for the audio recordings. Who and what will be used to analyse the disclosed evidence from the system and how many?
A critical element of the usability of the system, and a few words can help the supplier understand the most appropriate technologies to utilise in the solution. Specifying that the sole use of the disclosures are for human analysis via manual audio technologies such as CD, DVD, audio cassette (or other electronic media) will allow suppliers to specify high-quality audio compression technologies, delivering excellent audio quality and huge benefits for the cost of the storage infrastructure, often reducing the initial cost and cost of ownership.
Specifying that recordings are needed for additional analysis by electronic techniques, would ensure the suppliers deliver a recording system with the relevant levels of audio content for this task. With trade offs in initial and lifetime costs, this should always be considered carefully and specified as appropriate.
Combine this with the technical criterion from IT and you should find it easier and faster to get what you need.
