Least Cost Routing (LCR) is a process involving the calculation of the optimal call route based on the quality or price of the call. The aim is to offer a high quality call at an affordable call rate. Using this system, you can import you service provider’s rate sheets and monitor the quality of calls. Thereafter, the system makes use of this information to calculate the optimal route to use for any call you make. On the one hand, the size of the installation will determine the importance of the Least Cost Routing system. The system takes advantage of volume because the prices offered by different service providers for calls typically differ by a fraction of a penny for calls made to the same destination. In the case of relatively small installations, there may be only two call service providers under consideration – one for local calls and the other for overseas calls. Seeing as the volume in this case is low, saving a few fractions of a penny is not a major priority. Consequently, the low volume in this case may not qualify the time, money and effort spent in the configuration and maintenance of an LCR system. On the other hand, in the case of large installations, the fractions of a penny quickly accumulate. In the event that you are dealing with millions of minutes on a daily basis, you can make saving of more than ten percent in termination fees by choosing how to route your calls. This can, in turn, save your company hundreds of thousands of dollars in that month. Therefore, using a software company to put in place a good LCR system can have a considerable effect on your company’s bottom line. One effective way to determine how much savings you are making when you use LCR as a Service is evaluating your report on Minutes per Destination for the previous year. When selecting destinations to monitor, choose the top five and compare the pricing for those destinations from five to ten termination providers. Using this pricing scheme, you can calculate how much saving you would have made if you had a software company implement LCR as a Service. This brief comparative analysis can give you a picture of the effectiveness of the call routing system on your bottom line. Nonetheless, while the major focus of this call routing system may be making savings on calls, it also has a significant impact on the quality of calls you offer your customers. In the event that you are monitoring ACD (“Average Call Duration”) or ASR (“Answer Seizure Rate”), then you may also be interested in routing call on the basis of quality. If you have several service providers providing you with the same rate for a given destination, then this call routing system can be configured to monitor the quality of the route as it does its calculation. Therefore, in addition to getting the best possible rate for your calls, you are also guaranteed great quality for your low cost calls.
Aaron Leon is the author of this article on LCR As A Service. Find more information, about Least Cost Routing here