If online access will be allowed for report manipulation and perusal, circuits in the group, are indications of problems in the switch then how many terminals should be provided? Will the terminals be hardware or trunk circuit. directly connected, remotely located, or interface by LAN or WAN? Again, can a PC handle these requirements, or will a mini or 36.4.1 Service bureau mainframe be required? All these requirements should be put in the procurement specifi- Service bureaux process call detail information into a finished cations. The vendor should be required to demonstrate performance product for return to the customer. The call detail information is against the specifications as one criteria for acceptance of the typically provided to the service bureau on magnetic media, either system. tape or diskette, on a weekly or monthly basis. A more direct and timely interface may be available by daily polling from the service bureau to call buffer units at the user's switches to receive the System interfaces information. The finished product is dependent upon the service bureau. Printed reports are almost standard. Magnetic media con- Call management systems currently on the market almost univer- taining reports to be printed or modified by the user for additional sally expect to connect to the switch by a V.24 port. The port is an information before printing is another alternative. RS-232-C physical interface. The call management system can be The advantages of service bureaux are that they provide the co-located with the switch or remoted using modems. The older processing hardware, supporting staff, and can offer reports cus- method of connecting to the trunk circuits may still be an available tomisation services. Since the staff is dedicated and familiar with alternative to the V.24 port, but offers less information and flexi- the product, new reports can be developed very quickly. The service bility to automatically handle trunk configuration changes. bureau is also not affected by real time call traffic rates, 