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New regulations from the Financial Services Authority (FSA) come into practice from March 2009 which means that every United Kingdom businesses that deal with money matters will have to copy all their telephone calls and retain the calls for at least six months.

For those financial institutions that don’t already have a call recording solution in place, this might well mean an expensive outlay for large hardware options.

However, there is a more cost effective way of recording inbound calls – without any additional equipment to clutter up the office:

Organisations can simply attach an online call recording solution to a non-geographic telephone number.

0845, 03 numbers etc work alongside existing landlines and mobile numbers simply coupling themselves to existing numbers and allowing you to direct them as you see fit.

Using non area specific numbers for call recording is becoming increasingly popular because of the following:

1. It’s controlled completely online or using the phone and negates the need for physical equipment (hardware).

2. Recordings are emailed to a nominated person as an mp3 file – meaning they can stored in a way that is convenient for them.

3. As you are sent the recordings by file it is very simple to forward files to other people within you organisation or via email for training or listening.

4. The call recording can be activated straight away at the touch of a button (e.g. by pressing the hash key).

5. To free up your servers, large quantities of your calls can be stored on external servers.

6. Businesses can meet the new legal requirements of the FSA (from March 2009 using this form of phone call recording can help meet the new legal requirements (from March 2009) of financial organisations (as outlined above).

7. By simply activating the system you can do away with having to frantically jot down notes on an important conversation.

8. Record all inbound calls, a percentage of them or only selected calls – giving companies complete control.

By introducing an 0845 number for example you enable your phone system to be much more flexible allowing people to be much more efficient and ensuring that all of your calls are managed.

Call recording is just the tip of the iceberg.

0845 numbers and non geographic numbers can always have additional features added to their spec:

online call statistics allows your company to see how long a call is and where it has come from, busy periods and missed calls on the 0845 number letting you manage your advertising and helping improve customer service.
This allows them to see: the total amount of calls to all numbers, the location of callers, busy periods and missed calls. This information can assist organisations with their marketing and improving customer service[/spin].

Immediate call divert packages give businesses complete control over their 0845 numbers. Whether they have a one number or multiple
numbers, call divert allows you to reroute calls to
different landline/mobile/call answering service at the touch of a button. This control is essential in the event of landline trouble or in an emergency and for this purpose this service can be
free with a number, if you know where to look.

Non geographic numbers can be a powerful addition to any organisation – giving them greater flexibility/control over their phone systems and helping them meet their legal requirements - without the need for tons of extra office space.