Ezncool: we too are evaluating some call recording packages. We have one now but it's very basic. The two companies that we have looked at are Voiceprint and NICE. They are both compatible with Avaya systems and have been tested on them. From my understanding, WITNESS has not.
EZ, as far as advantages and disadvantages, it all depends on what your company is looking for. Most call recording packages offer much of the same features. For example, you can record on demand or record all the time. Going further, you can record by agent login (regardless of what phone an agent logs into, it will be recorded) or by station number. You can create reports or used canned reports. You can retrieve recorded calls by date, time, agent login, station number, an estimated time and date, etc. Most come with an agent evaluation form to help you evaluate your csr's phone skills. These evaluations in most cases can be customized or right out of the box. The evaluation forms and recorded calls can be emailed to others. Most packages will do word spotting. Meaning, you can pull up a list of recorded calls based on whether or not a particular word was used in the conversation. Some can do screen captures. A trigger can be set so that when a particular phone/agent gets an acd call, the activity on their screen is also captured and stored. This can help determine if your csr's are playing card games while they are suppose to be servicing a customer or having a problem with your database application or any number of issues. Sometimes a phone call will be in a center of a legal issue. The Voiceprint package will allow you to set up a temporary PIN number that allows an outside caller, say a judge from a courtroom, to call directly into your system and listen to a recorded call. Both NICE and Voiceprint come in a modular fashion. For instance, you can purchase just the recording feature now and add the screen captures or evaluation form piece latter. Some companies require you to use their servers to store the recorded calls and others will let you purchase your own. Most let you set the parameters as far as how long you want to keep this data and then it can be archived.
I hope this helps.
From what I've seen so far, one of the biggest differences in cost is how the recording system actually connects and extracts data from your phone system. Our current system connects right to the jumpers for a specific set of telephones. Hardwired if you will. Some companies will offer you a choice depending on what you want to achieve, a CTI link, station side (hardwired), trunkside, etc. They will need to explain all of this to you.
